The act of visiting donors and prospects face to face has never been more important. This interactive session will frame why face to face work still matters for all development professionals and will provide tip and ideas for those at all levels of experience.

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.

Do you approach problems differently? Do you wish more collaboration was happening? Have you ever felt like you’re not a "traditional" fundraiser?
In an ever-evolving philanthropic landscape, the traditional norms of fundraising are giving way to a vibrant tapestry of diverse backgrounds, approaches, and personalities which requires more diverse fundraising professionals.
This presentation aims to celebrate and harness the power of these differences, showcasing how they contribute to the success of philanthropic endeavors. From overcoming Imposter Syndrome to embracing DEI as a guiding principle to bringing your best self to work to being a catalyst for collaboration; our presentation will help you feel empowered because you are YOU!
By highlighting these distinct perspectives, we can create a more inclusive and effective future for philanthropic engagement.
In a world where philanthropy's impact is shaped by the convergence of diverse experiences, personalities, and ideas: this presentation serves as encouragement to challenge the status quo. Through embracing collaboration, championing diversity, and being YOU; we can redefine what it means to be a fundraiser and usher in a new era of meaningful and sustainable change.

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.

Celebrating major gifts with a press release is common practice for universities. Using the press release to secure earned media coverage and support donor stewardship can be rewarding and also can pose challenges for the institution and the donor. Learn what works, what doesn't, and how and when to involve comms teams to help make the most of the gift announcement.

Increasingly colleges and universities are relying on transformative gifts to advance large-scale institutional priorities. We will explore the best practices needed to move from big ideas to big impact. Three senior advancement professionals from UC San Francisco, University of Washington, and Oregon State University will share lessons of working closely with academic and administrative partners and donors to re-envision what institutions of higher education can achieve. Our speakers will share their insights as to what has worked, challenges to be aware of and how to create ecosystems of cultural and operational readiness.

Legacy gifts generally are the largest and most personal gifts individuals will make during their lifetimes so why do some fundraisers fear or avoid having these conversations with their donors? Legacy gifts are too complex, it’s uncomfortable to discuss death, a person’s estate is private…we’ve heard it all before. But the key to having a successful legacy gift program is to reframe your perspective on what legacy giving is and how you approach the conversation with the donor…you’re just planting the seed and providing helpful information!

In this session, we’ll discuss how you can incorporate legacy giving into your current fundraising strategy, identify good legacy giving prospects, and talk about legacy giving with every donor – whether they’re 25 or 105!