This session will cover how to recruit board members to a fundraising board including what you should look for in a new board member, being clear on roles and responsibilities, having a fundraising talk with new board members, including new board members on asks and donor visits. If you are a small shop these board members will help you identify and engage new major donors. Alex Perez has over 20 years of experience in philanthropy and development and has recently gone through the process of rebuilding his board for a small Foundation in the Central Valley.

Imagine if the Avengers were a homogenous group without any supernatural ability, background, gender or racial diversity. In an increasingly global society, having diverse and inclusive teams is necessary to maximize development offices. Research has shown that fostering DEI helps to improve organizational outcomes and revenue for businesses. W.P. Carey recently underwent a culture shift and crafted strategic hiring practices to increase their DEI levels. This presentation will explore how they identified their challenge areas, implemented a diversity scorecard system to complement hiring practices, sought talent beyond higher education, and created a culture of inclusion to support newly acquired talent.

Does your Homecoming need a little refresh? Join UC Davis Alumni and Affiliate Relations as we examine Aggie Spirit Week, an in-person and virtual experience that combined Homecoming, Parent and Family Weekend, Golden Society and a wealth of campus research and initiatives. We’ll discuss how we established the event during COVID and the ways we reimagined antiquated and hybrid approaches when engaging campus partners, alumni, community members, and others in the Aggie community this year. We’ll weave in ways to include diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging into the process along with launching marketing, communications and registration on a shoestring budget.

Editorial style guides are an excellent resource for the campus community to stay on brand. But let’s take it one notch further and discuss– inclusive language. While we may be editing for style and grammar, we might not always focus on whether our language is inclusive. Learn the importance of incorporating inclusive language– such as positive/asset-based language– in your content and leave empowered to create an Inclusive Language Guide of your own for your institution! We will share our journey of creating an Inclusive Language Guide for our institution, from identifying categories to lessons learned.

Hear how providing multiple gateways for Alumni to deepen their engagement with the University of San Francisco has proven to tap into resources and expertise, while increasing collaborative partnerships and improved networking opportunities . Gain tips and strategies for building unique programs and experiences that draw upon the knowledge, strengths, and expertise of staff, campus partners and alumni.
 

Making connections for new families can be challenging. The Seven Hills School has a partnership between the Admissions and Development Departments to build connections with new families and help them navigate their first year. We work together to build relationships with families with a new family mentor program that includes social events, new family orientations, communications calendar, and philanthropy meetings to share information about giving and volunteering. The program honors our commitment to DEI initiatives so that all new families feel included right from the start. The goal is to surround new families with a welcoming support network through their first year and beyond. 

Embracing your donors' philanthropic interests and motivations will personalize your appeal, amplify your message, and broaden your base of support. If we simplify our message to just one elevator pitch, one testimonial, and one voice, we can't successfully inspire passion across a myriad of influencers and investors. In this session, we'll apply key industry data, emotional intelligence, and cultural insight as we create an actionable plan to increase interest, involvement, and investment in your organization.

Fundraisers in higher education remain in short supply, and the demand for more remains high. To address the gap between supply and demand, industry leaders point to training as a way to grow their own talent. While that strategy makes good sense, how can we know it will work? This presentation will address measures we can take to ensure that the knowledge and skills our fundraisers (or other advancement professionals) acquire through training are applied to the job, and that the investment we make in training pays off.

We’re all doing more with less at our universities and organizations, all while trying to create more content that resonates with our audiences. Maybe your budget for freelance writers has been cut, or there have been staff cuts. Or maybe you’re just out of ideas and looking to tell more stories on all of your platforms, whether it’s your magazine or your social media channels. Time to form some partnerships and collaborate on the best content plan you can build. Here’s how.

The California State University launched a successful systemwide regional and global alumni engagement program that was halted in 2020 (for obvious reasons!). As we sought to fill the void, we wondered "will anyone come to a virtual event?" The answer was YES. Alumni found these events were an exciting way to connect with us and each other. Attendees shared personal stories, contributed to word clouds, and connected in the chat. Several alumni volunteer leaders emerged to start and lead new and ongoing local networks. Join us for an interactive conversation on where we go from here.

As campuses communities become increasingly diverse, many alumni associations are seeking ways to amplify the values of diversity, equity and inclusion. What data is needed to inform intentional practices with diverse alumni? Some of the initial barriers in approaching this work are related to access to "diversity" data, and subsequently issues pertaining to data quality, management (constituent management software included) and analytics. This session aim to offer a candid but facilitated space to find solutions to data barriers when approaching DEI efforts for alumni engagement.

From an international school perspective, fundraising in the international constituency poses many challenges: from educating the community about the importance of philanthropy in the independence school model to securing volunteer engagement. Yet, despite higher families and staff turnover in an international school, it is possible to build awareness and acceptance of the value of giving and volunteering through communication and recognition.

In a time of constant change and never-ending bad news what happens when you block your team's calendar and force them to bake a cake blindfolded? Or build a Zoom-based Rube Goldberg device? What happens when you tell them there is no way to fail and the goal is to play? As it turns out: some serious creative goodness. Learn how Creative Fridays have transformed creativity, teamwork, professional development and team culture in ASU Enterprise Partners’ Communications and Marketing department. You’ll learn what you need as a manager to bring creative thinking and play to your team without sacrificing productivity.

The pandemic has caused us to think outside the box and engage our communities in innovative ways. Learn how the University of San Francisco pivoted to virtual, grew their annual audience from 20,000 to 500,000 in 2 years, and produced a CASE Gold Award-winning virtual event. We look forward to sharing our learning experiences and why virtual and hybrid events are here to stay.

Has diversity become a buzz word in higher education, or does it mean something? What about social justice — are we committed to it? Through a critical discourse study, Dr. Esra Hashem analyzed the marketing materials of five California State University campuses — their brand style guides, student recruitment websites and fundraising websites. The study aimed to uncover how universities manifest diversity and social justice discourses in their key marketing efforts. The findings from this research help higher ed marketing professionals begin to change the diversity narrative and advocate for social justice.

There's no doubt that alumni want career programming, but organizations can't fully scale their services to serve every alumni. The UCLA Alumni Association implemented a new network of career coaches who provide coaching and create valuable programming for their alumni audience at no cost to the organization. This session will share best practices from vetting procedures to topics that you can bring to alumni. Whether you have a large or small staff, engaging career experts can bring valuable content and assistance without overburdening your team. The presenters will also share assessment and marketing examples to help you get started.

Development is about people. Schools are about relationships. At the Grauer School, we don’t fundraise, we friend-raise. Join The Grauer School Development Office and Dr. Grauer, Founder and Head of School, for a discussion on how to utilize their small school approach with your donors in a bigger setting. Their parents, your future donors, are primed to give at the university level – see what it means to personally connect while reaching your fundraising goals.