A successful annual giving program thrives in a collaborative environment. Departmental silos limit donor participation and dollars raised on an annual basis. Scripps College changed the paradigm of philanthropy at Scripps by creating an interdepartmental committee, The Scripps Fund Committee. Learn how stakeholders were chosen, the role committee members play in the annual giving process, and simple ways to maximize your annual fund’s effectiveness and reduce your cost to raise a dollar.

For most of us, the road to fundraising was accidental. We arrive from completely different careers and wildly unique backgrounds. The path to leadership is just as diverse and, honestly, a little mysterious. Join this panel of Vice Presidents to pull back the curtain on what the top job really takes. If you’re a new leader, get advice on how to think big, focus on your biggest value, and inspire a culture-shift not a culture shock. If you’re an aspiring leader, learn what skills, experiences, and opportunities to seek out that will prepare you for your next step.

The University of Oregon is committed to developing innovative programs that promote inclusivity, leveraging partnerships with community stakeholders, engaging alumni and major gift prospects, and supporting student career readiness. The team responsible for engaging new prospects in the state of Oregon developed a way to meet these needs through an innovative event built off mutually beneficial outcomes and relationships with community leaders. In 2023, the Oregon Engagement Team created a new event that brought together efforts of the UO's Lylle Reynolds-Parker Black Cultural Center, the Black Business Association of Oregon, the UO Alumni Association Black Alumni Network, and the Portland Trail Blazers to engage students, build community, identify and cultivate major gift prospects, address workforce development for our region, and connect students with business leaders. The event was such a success, planning began for a similar event in 2024 that evolved into a networking experience for BIPOC Alumni Network Board leaders, University of Oregon Portland students, and notable Oregon BIPOC business chambers and associations. These strategic engagement events have accelerated the UO’s ability to support students from underrepresented communities, build partnerships with key members of the community, and strengthen relationships with alumni.

This emerging and contemporary higher education philanthropy session is based on Dr. Peter Robertson’s doctoral dissertation consisting of an AERA award-winning qualitative research case study that explored the motivations by allies of the LGBTQ+ community for giving toward LGBTQ+ university causes. Findings revealed heterosexual and cisgender LGBTQ+ allyship affiliations, as well as their motivations for financially supporting LGBTQ+ campus programs and student initiatives. Both topics have not been academically explored, and the findings generated important recommendations for higher education advancement leaders. Today, higher education institutions must strive to connect and engage with its alumnx and all constituents in authentic, honest, and sincere ways, which can increase the likelihood and propensity of private support from this previously overlooked demographic: heterosexual and cisgender LGBTQ+ allies.

Ghostwriting, or writing for someone else, can be a frightful journey. In this session, learn top tips for taking a message (e.g. speech or letter) you’re writing for a dean, board chair, or other campus leader from request to delivery. How do you start? Where can you find information and inspiration? How do you capture someone else’s voice — even when you rarely interact with them? What processes can help create structure and momentum in successfully completing the project? We will also meet a few demons that can stand in our way — Imposter syndrome? Eek! Mean responses? No! — and share ways to slay them. To cap off the session, we will brainstorm ideas for messaging a few different scenarios.

Scholarships That Stand the Test of Time - The Sequel!
Navigating the complexities of donor intent and scholarship criteria is critical to long-term successful administration of scholarships – and easier said than done. Oregon State University Foundation’s Scholarship Task Force, working with colleagues across the Foundation and University over the course of three years, developed and implemented guidelines for working with donors to inspire scholarship gifts that stand the test of time. The Task Force is shifting the culture of scholarship fundraising from one that was almost entirely focused on honoring donor preferences to one that balances donor intent and university/student needs. This session will illustrate the benefits of consistent guidelines for donor conversations, partnering with campus leaders, and use of specific and strategic language in gift agreements. We will share the challenges we faced along the way and the professional satisfaction gained through this work. This session will enhance what we shared at CASE VIII '23, including new lessons learned and strategies employed. Our goal is to help CASE institutions maximize the impact of scholarship fundraising on student success through integrity and transparency with donors.

This session will teach you how to grow and run a successful Give Day program at your own institution through the lens of Western Washington University's FY23 Give Day--one of the largest in District VIII, raising over $1.1 MM from over 3,100 donors--and how an Annual Giving team of just two people leveraged their relationships with peers, colleagues, campus partners, and external constituents to pull it off.

In particular, we'll discuss strategies to:

1. Plan and launch your Give Day successfully
2. Identify, prioritize, and build relationships with campus partners who will help your Give Day be most successful. Western has hundreds of people across campus participate in planning and fundraising on Give Day every year; it's quite unique and we'll tell you how to do it, too!
3. Leverage relationships with third-party vendors to help supplement the skills on your own team
4. Use Give Day to build your talent pool in Advancement, especially among young professionals
5. Use Give Day to build relationships with external stakeholders
6. Elevate your campaign with hero student stories told throughout your print, digital and social channels to reflect your university's values and culture.

We welcome discussion, so bring all your questions!

Inspiring donors and raising philanthropic support for society’s most complex issues — those where tangible outcomes and positive impact may not be realized for years — is a challenge facing nonprofits, including educational institutions, worldwide. From climate change to homelessness to racial inequity to social justice, philanthropy is critical to tackling society’s most complex issues, and institutions that innovate and inspire philanthropic investment are best prepared to achieve substantive, positive change. In this session, we will address real-life challenges encountered when complex social issues are involved and provide creative solutions for addressing them.

Come learn about UC Berkeley's Pipeline Development Program and how we're growing our pipeline with two lead generation strategies; Discovery Journeys and the Bubble Up Initiative. These innovative programs offer a new approach to identifying and qualifying prospects by blending traditional frontline efforts with mass communication outreach strategies. These programs streamline prospect qualification and deliver warm, vetted prospects to Gift Officers. This allows Gift Officers to spend more time building relationships and making the ask, and less time doing cold outreach. This reallocation of resources will empower your advancement department to reach thousands more prospects per year.

Join us for a discussion about how to best integrate private foundations into a comprehensive funding plan. We'll talk about how impactful proposals to private foundations differ from those to other types of funders, how private foundations bridge the divide between individual donors and public agency sponsors, and how Oregon State University supports sponsored research through the Foundation Relations office.