Why is it that the alumni that have the most affinity for your institution are often the hardest to reach? Let’s discuss tactics for engaging new graduates, capturing valid contact data, and leveraging the excitement of graduation into alumni engagement

Whilst major donor and regular giving fundraisers are running events or meeting their prospects, trust fundraisers are seen as just working quietly writing applications (and hoping for success). But what can we learn from other fundraising disciplines to enhance our work? With COVID-19 transforming the trust fundraising landscape, building strong and mutually beneficial relationships with your funders is more important than ever.

This session will share advice on how to provide more personal and bespoke cultivation for trusts and foundations, using methods more typically associated with individual major donor fundraising to help break down the barriers of the difficult current landscape. It will also provide an opportunity for you to share your top tips and best practice on how to engage with trusts.

82% of UK universities said their current way of managing awards wasn’t meeting the needs of their organisation when we surveyed them before COVID-19. Siloed data, a lack of ownership internally and issues giving students access to awards are all common challenges.  Join this session as we share best practice advice on expanding student access to awards and removing the internal blockers that make awards difficult to administer

Collaboration is essential for improving the quality of research and teaching, generating meaningful societal impact, attracting funding and raising our profile.

We intensified our participation in regional ecosystems, expanded our activities and strengthened our network in a new project Leiden Law Park. This project is now the start of a whole new campus at Leiden University. In this campus we ensure that our education innovates and makes it more attractive (students), makes science accessible and relevant (society and relations), and innovations sustainable and in faster process.

In this presentation, we will focus on a roadmap to a strategic business model and offer you a canvas with which you can get to work with your alumni, scientists, students and society.

Online fatigue? Not here! At TUoS like everyone we quickly repurposed our in person volunteering activities online during the pandemic. Although challenging, this led to great results for student engagement and enabled us to reach new alumni volunteers from across the globe.

As well as repurposing existing activities we’ve developed new initiatives, including a large scale virtual networking programme engaging 100s of students and alumni volunteers. We’re excited to be moving back to face to face events, but see our virtual events as here to stay. What does this new hybrid approach look like? In this interactive session we’ll share our experiences and learnings, open up discussion and explore how we can all innovate to deliver the best of both worlds for students and alumni.

Events as a percentage of the community are sparsely attended. Class reunions generate 15-20% attendance and are incredibly costly. Participation doesn't need to be limited to boots on the ground. In person is expensive and the Covid-19 pandemic has taught us to become more innovative with the ways in which we engage. This session will be discussing the digital supplement to the in person gathering and the key learnings from the past two and half years.

More often than not we push our focus just to our numbers, and we forget that the value of higher education is the power to share inspiring stories. Now what would happen if we balanced our fundraising with some storyraising efforts? Imagine all you can achieve, if your stories would circle back and impact your goals.

Most brands out there are focused on showcasing their values, their communities, and now more than ever we should let our brand's soul to speak for itself. In this session we'll allow your mind to shift; a twist of perspective will be my gift. Go on, take the opportunity to put your community up front and center and see what happens. Will you dare to? That is the question.

Supporting your academics to build a social media profile not only enhances their research and international network but is also an important aspect for recruitment and rankings. In this co-presentation Dr Hilary Young (448 Studio) and Dr Sean Morrissey (University of Strathclyde) will discuss successful techniques and strategies that they have implemented to support and encourage academic social media communities that thrive.

Hear from LSHTM's award winning Alumni Relations team about the innovative Pentacel Project.

Supporting student wellbeing and increasing belonging and community was a priority at LSHTM when COVID-19 hit. Demand for counselling services had grown. COVID-19 exacerbated student anxiety and stress. LSHTM developed a pilot intervention whereby incoming students were placed in five-person informal support groups called 'Pentacells’. Each Pentacell had an alumni facilitator to support and steer discussions.

The project aimed to:

• Increase student wellbeing.
• Improve institutional engagement, satisfaction, and retention.
• Foster a sense of belonging.
• Be adaptable so other institutions can replicate it.

Pentacell significantly improved participants' student experience. Our volunteers' life experience and diversity helped students settle in more quickly, improving student resilience, wellbeing, satisfaction, and institutional affinity.
 

In this interactive workshop Rachel and Margaret will take you from blank page to inspiring and impactful case for support.

Your case is the foundation of your fundraising programme but how often do we rehash the same phrases or copy and paste from old funding bids or direct mail.

Well no more!

Come with a project you’re working on, an open mind and a willingness to ask, ‘why would anyone give to us?’