The University of California Merced graduated its inaugural class of undergraduates in 2009. As the newest campus within the UC system, the average age of UC Merced alumni is only 28 years old. By establishing a special “Alumni Scholarship Endowment” giving program, the university has been able to transition its young alumni from supporters and advocates to major gift donors. This giving program also includes a special “signing ceremony” event that not only deepens their commitment to their alma mater, but promotes giving and demonstrates impact to their colleagues, family, and friends. Join this session to learn more about generational giving, how UC Merced engages its young alumni population, and secures transformative gifts.

Many institutions have models that measure audience engagement. Similar to a Swiss army knife, it is often the case that only one to two “blades” get regularly used. Are there more creative ways to use these models to their full potential?

The University of Calgary strategically embeds depth measures — engagement points that go beyond a passive click or mention — from our Engagement Scoring Model into planning market segmentation, the construction of prospect pipelines, and projecting future and at-risk engagement trajectories. UCalgary’s model is iterative and we are constantly improving it to accurately capture the changing landscape of opportunities and initiatives available for alumni, donors, and community members to engage with the university.

Join UCalgary to learn how we utilize every one of the tools in our Swiss army knife and pave the road to the bold goal of tripling engagement by 2030 as part of the institutional Ahead of Tomorrow strategy.

Private universities have been raising millions of dollars from parents every year for decades, yet many public universities have yet to tap into this oft-forgotten constituency. Parents can be a lucrative source of philanthropic support if approached in a thoughtful, cohesive and consistent way. In this presentation Michelle Glenn, Senior Executive Director of Advancement, Campus Colleges and Schools, University of Utah, will cover the internal obstacles one may need to overcome before starting a parent giving program, the differences between cultivating parents vs alumni, and the key components of a successful parent giving program.

The biggest word in fundraising today is "pipeline." We need to meet immediate revenue goals, but we’re also focused on how we’re accelerating the path to major, planned, and transformational mega-gifts. The structure of traditional advancement doesn’t often support this multi-level focus, but the shops that have a embraced sustainable pipeline strategy are winning both now and for tomorrow. Join this conversation about how annual, leadership and major giving have changed. We’ll share direct examples of success, along with benchmarking data from hundreds of institutions. Answer key questions like: How do you start or accelerate a leadership program, crucial to revenue and pipeline efforts? How can we best support our gift officers with actionable data? And where does all this new tech come in? Join a conversation about how we can tackle these challenges by overcoming key internal hurdles, creating a better donor experience and charting a path to meet our short- and long-term goals.

More than 40% of Boise State graduates have graduated in the last ten years, making the near-majority of our alumni either Millennials or Gen Z. And yet, this demographic is most often the least engaged when it comes to philanthropy towards higher education. By flipping the script and taking a strategic cause-based approach to giving day, Boise State more effectively aligned itself, and higher education in general, with the societal causes that resonate most with these demographics. This approach resulted in a record-breaking giving day with $566,388 gifted, a 74% increase in digital impressions, and a 59% increase in alumni giving with the greatest giving amongst alumni, in both dollars and numbers, coming from our Broncos Of the Last Decade. Join Boise State professionals as they provide a step-by-step guide and take-away toolkit to instituting a cause-based giving day.

Ready, Set, Go - Pomona College’s Technology Transformation

Get ready to hear all about the working plan that will transform and ascend Pomona College’s Advancement Operations into the future. Shalonda Martin and Rodger Devine join Caroline Chang and Karen Latora in an open discussion about their plan and pathway to their new CRM Digital Transformation Project.

Learn all about what it took to get to that Go Moment. The moment they began this journey. The team will talk about:

Budget
Communications
Staffing
System Selection
Implementation

Hear the real scoop, to help you in your planning and journey towards your own Technology Transformation.

For too long, college and university alumni and donor engagement strategies have relied on the programs of old - reunions, committees, gift societies, boards, and events - that are open to everyone but not always welcoming to all. In the digital age of virtual activities and social media - and as my 101 grandma from Georgia would have said - "ain't nobody got time for that!" Join us as we take engagement apart piece by piece through a series of exercises that will reveal new directions for your alumni and donor initiatives centered around the identities they create with their alma mater. Our core questions will include:
(1) What are the unwritten promises on a college diploma?,
(2) How do we address our constituents' library of needs?, and
(3) What do we want alumni and donors to be saying about the value of engagement with us?
Set your expectations high for a challenging workshop and discussion. To participate, you will need:
*A blank piece of 8.5"x11" paper
*A pen
*Six notecards
*An openness for first-draft thinking and
*sharing not-yet-fully-formed thoughts with you peers.