The Meadows School more than doubled its diversity virtually overnight. The rapid and successful change at The Meadows was due to a new and innovative approach to financial aid. This workshop will provide school leaders with strategies for establishing long-term relationships with large donors interested in supporting diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, thereby expanding diversity in the student body, and as a result fundamentally changing the lives of all community members.

"Let's add that as a constituent code!" "We need to create a new fund!" All too often, in an honest attempt to capture relevant information, we create an overstuffed, disorganized database packed with an unwieldy number of constituent codes, a plethora of confusing categories, underutilized volunteer tabs, and tables within attributes with duplicate information. Does this sound like a closet you might have at home, the one you can barely close the door to or find anything in?

Think about your data in terms of having a perfect white t-shirt and keeping that one, instead of keeping the off-white shirt, the shirt that is a bit too-small, too large, has the wrong neck - sometimes we keep all, and mistakenly wear the wrong one. When we do this with data, reporting and analysis are skewed and inaccurate.

We will share our journey of assessing constituent codes, attributes, and attribute tables, as well as examining campaigns funds and appeals through a Marie Kondo lens. We will explain how a strong partnership between advancement services teams and frontline fundraisers can make the difference when it comes to a mutual understanding of the whys behind moving, removing and keeping information everyone thinks are relevant and valuable. Allows us to refocus your lens and help you to see how clean data adds value and impact while reducing frustration and time-stealers.

Thoughtful organization will bring you joy!

Alumni Relations is tricky at best in how well an institution is doing in engagement. We all want to believe that our Alumni Relations program is good but how do we know? How do we know if we are making an impact and how do we compare to other schools just like us? This session will look at data and ways in which we engage with our alumni - fundraising, alumni leadership, general meetings.

The key to recruiting right-fit families and inspiring donors and prospects starts with words--and not just any words. The language you use to describe who you are as an institution (your verbal identity or brand messaging) has to be authentic, clear, consistent and, above all, articulated from a position of strength. All too often, schools feel the need to position themselves against peers and competitors based on their own perceived deficits. But focusing on your school’s unique strengths will not only distinguish you in the marketplace, but will also inspire, instill confidence, and resonate with people on a human level. This session will provide a framework and tactics for creating messaging that will revolutionize how you think about and approach your work as a marketer or fundraiser, and why being “message positive” is not only good for your institution, but empowering for you and the entire school community.

In the fall of 2020, many media stories speculated that the COVID-19 pandemic would provide an enrollment windfall for private schools in detriment of public schools. Official numbers confirmed enrollment declines in public schools last year, but analyses of NAIS enrollment data also showed that the total number of independent school students in 2020-2021 was slightly lower than pre-COVID times. As schools continue to adjust to a second year of the pandemic, what enrollment changes are impacting independent schools and their competitors? This session will explore K-12 enrollment trends and how the pandemic has shifted the educational landscape at large. It will also provide some recommendations for independent schools on how to attract and retain families.

Felicity Meu, Director of Partner Success at GiveCampus, and Jill Kelly, Director of Advancement at the Francis Parker School, will be presenting about the power of leveraging peer-to-peer fundraising strategies for parents. When it comes to engaging parents, it pays off to have the right theme, marketing approach, and technology to make it easy and joyful for parents to participate. Parent involvement doesn't just increase participation numbers for the fiscal year—it also builds a contagious culture of philanthropy around the school, encouraging alumni, staff, and other constituents to get involved for years to come.

Parents Engagement and Parents' Association practices have a long-standing history of catering to mostly white constituents. Practices and policies even without malice, go unchecked and perpetuate exclusivity. In the call for racial justice within independent school communities, this workshop explores ways in which advancement professionals can be more intentional, working to center justice and belonging, in both words and actions. This workshop offers the opportunity to explore identity development and anti-bias frameworks, learning practical strategies that invite more inclusivity and justice to advancement, PA, alumni relations, and other advancement related entities. Performative measures are not enough, this workshop will bring more awareness, accountability, and action to developing practices that move beyond performative gesturing, but as a gateway to meaningful and sustainable change.

If you could take two advancement veterans out for a drink and ask them to share their best advice, what would they say? Skip the learning curve and learn the hard lessons the easy way in this fun, interactive session. You’ll hear examples that have worked really well (and those that haven’t) and go back to your office with insights to help you become more effective and confident in your work. Covering everything from donor relations to strategic planning, this session will offer something for everyone, and participants will leave with ideas and practices to implement for success in their own shop.

The pandemic taught many of us to be nimble and resourceful -- especially when it comes to fundraising. Zoom and other technology platforms that were new in 2020 are tools we likely will continue to use as a way to cultivate, meet with donors, and raise money. Find out how the small Advancement Office at the Tower Hill School in Wilmington, Delaware, leveraged such tools with its volunteers and former and current faculty to lead the school's most successful day of giving that was fun, creative, and didn't (really) ask for money! Learn how to tailor Tower Hill's marketing and communications strategies to meet your institutional goals.

Never has strong data been more important to our success. Join us during this session for an important announcement and learn about the future of advancement benchmarking, its impact on your school, and the ways we plan to work collaboratively to answer key questions facing our industry over time. With this exciting next step, we guarantee you’ll have more data-driven tools at your disposal than ever before. Don’t miss this session featuring special guest speakers you know and love!