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. 

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.
 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.