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.

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.

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!

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.