This session goes behind the scenes to see how one institution created an alumni recognition program that goes far beyond just recognition and created an intentional pathway for alumni involvement, strategic engagement and philanthropic support. Participants will hear from Advancement staff as well as a recent alumni honoree and a Dean to learn how the positive results of cross campus collaboration pay big dividends down the road.

In May 2019, the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference involuntarily removed the University of St. Thomas from the conference, citing "lack of competitive parity" based on St. Thomas' athletic success. This created a need to find a new athletics home. The St. Thomas Board of Trustees made the bold decision to seek unprecedented reclassification directly to D-I, and in July of 2020, St. Thomas received long-awaited news from the NCAA that it had been approved. This move made St. Thomas Minnesota’s first private D-I collegiate athletics program as well as the first university approved to transition directly to D-I from D-III in the modern history of the NCAA.

The transition has required significant fundraising and advancement support to fuel its success. In this session you’ll hear about the key strategies employed to raise historic philanthropy – more than $130M to date on a goal of more than $250M. In addition, you’ll hear about how the university has made the case to donors in the context of the university’s larger trajectory.

In today’s Higher Education Advancement world, there are challenges everywhere. Sometimes the challenges are easy to see and navigate and sometimes they blindside you and leave your world upside down. Christy Cates and Keely Ashman will talk about the CASE Zero Tolerance Policy, talk about situations that can arise in advancement that can put you in uncomfortable or dangerous situations and how to best navigate them. Sexual harassment, sexual assault, reporting options and mental health will be top priority in this session and will hopefully help give the audience some tools and tips to help arm them as they work in their advancement world.

Join us for an enlightening discussion where you'll gain valuable strategies and ideas on a range of key topics:

1) Piloting Career Development Teams: Discover innovative approaches to pilot career development teams at both Development Associate and Assistant Director levels.

2) Building an Inclusive Team: Learn how to source, recruit, and hire a diverse and inclusive team that brings fresh perspectives to the table.

3) Retention Strategies: Explore effective methods for retaining talent by providing hands-on training and immersive experiences that keep your team motivated and engaged.

4) Career Growth Conversations: Gain the skills to confidently navigate discussions about career growth within your institution, fostering an environment of professional development.

The events of 2020 offered a time for unprecedented reflection and action to move the needle on becoming a just, equitable, and inclusive society. Amid, and perhaps sparked by the global crises, the University of Cincinnati Foundation assessed its workplace practices and culture through an equity and inclusion lens. This deep self-reflection led to a journey to examine who we were and what was the aspirational goal of who we wanted to become. Since those initial discussions, this has been a journey of learning who were and were not; focusing on what it means to create incremental change of a true reflection of who we aspire to be as a whole organization serving all of humanity. This journey has allowed us to look holistically at how we will best embrace the UC community. In this session, we will discuss the comprehensive “inside-out” approach we designed and delivered to deepen equity and inclusion within the Foundation and with our alumni engagement strategy, constituent base, donor and friends pipeline, and all potential stakeholders willing to join us as we embrace the power of philanthropy. We will share our best and next practices and our challenges.

How do you measure programmatic success? How do you communicate that success with your supervisor, boards, and colleagues? And then how do you use those measurements to make strategic decisions? We will review KPIs for various areas of engagement, including events, volunteer management, board participation, and more, and identify ways you can leverage these metrics to improve the strategic direction of your programmatic mix.

Personal outreach to donors is labor intensive and can drain resources if gift officers are not engaging the right prospects. Morningside University combined behavioral characteristics and wealth screening to uncover prospects with both the passion and capacity to give. Overlaying AI with the process provided a higher level of precision and the ability to update the data through machine learning . The private university was able to quickly put the data into action to pinpoint priority major gift prospects, personalize cultivation and outreach, streamline portfolios, and forecast donor potential and overall ROI for their advancement program.

There’s no shortage of projects, priorities, and stories to share. How do you make the most of your limited resources and focus on what matters most to your institution? In this presentation, Mike Barzacchini will share a planning process and tools to help organize your marketing, communication, and other advancement efforts to move your institution’s strategic priorities forward. The session will also include tools to help you share your story with internal stakeholders to gain buy-in and support.

Half of alumni say their college didn’t prepare them for their career. Institutions struggle to provide career support to alumni at scale, because we’re naturally focused on supporting graduating students. Are we really there for alumni, long after graduation, as they navigate their careers? Are we making a promise that we don’t deliver on? Providing lifetime career support not only meets our mission, research shows that it can almost triple the giving rate for alumni who take advantage of it. Learn how the University of Nebraska embraced this lifetime education mission, and key steps you can take to start providing alumni the support they crave quickly and within your resources. Plus, learn key metrics and hundreds of alumni who used the services their alma mater offered to advance their careers.

Are you challenged with a daunting project and don't know where to begin? Have you put your ideas on a shelf where they have collected dust for 10+ years? Are you looking for ways to transform the work that you do? This session will present a case study of how the University of Nebraska Foundation reimagined its entire funds management process, moving from piles of paper to fully digital and automated fund creation and management. If you want to transform your work by tackling messy and complicated projects, this session can help generate ideas on how to do that.