Speakers
Meet the Speakers
Ann Kaplan
Ann Kaplan is senior director of the Voluntary Support of Education (VSE) survey at the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. In this role, she oversees the national online survey which includes survey administration, working with respondents of the survey, cleaning and analyzing the data, data validation, and more. Ann has been the director of the VSE since 2002 when it was administered by the Council for Aid to Education. She also helped develop Data Miner, the longitudinal and comparative metrics on-line reporting solution that is available to CASE members.
Jenny Cooke Smith
Jenny Cooke Smith is the Senior Director of CASE Insights Solutions at the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, CASE and specialises in analysing advancement trends, interpreting comparison benchmarks, and helping people understand the "stories behind the data". Prior to joining CASE, Smith spent 15 years in a variety of positions within Blackbaud’s Target Analytics, most recently leading donorCentrics™ benchmarking cohorts, providing opportunities for institutions and organisations globally to review and discuss direct marketing and annual giving trends. She joined CASE in 2019 to help members find value through using data and is most proud that through projects like CASE’s Alumni Engagement Metrics, institutions can begin to answer questions such as ‘we know engagement leads to giving, but how do we show it?’. Smith is currently co-teaching a course on CASE’s Global Reporting Standards and researching the latest trends on alumni engagement globally, enjoying opportunities to present again in-person, and working individually with CASE member institutions to develop strategies using CASE data and benchmarks.
Nick Campisi
How is an engagement rate calculated? How do attendees engage with your institution? What are the measurable outcomes? These are examples of a few key questions you should be able to answer as event planning professionals. Five years ago, CASE launched a global framework for measuring engagement, resulting in quantitative measures that effectively demonstrate the value of strategically engaging alumni. In this session we will discuss how to measure, benchmark, and make decisions using a common framework for alumni engagement. We will celebrate the benefits as well as share tips for getting started, taking action on the results, and how to avoid analysis paralysis in the process! Most importantly, we will discuss how these metrics can lead to strategies that drive meaningful engagement, not just the biggest number.