The US and global economies are going through extraordinary change. Kristina will explain what happened in the past several years that has brought us to this point, and what we are likely to see in the coming year.

How do our schools center other voices when the focus of our work is on the top of the pyramid, and that skews white? Devon Wilson-Hill (Shady Hill) and Zachary Sheets (Community Music Center of Boston) have held significant tenures at their organizations through a time where the public at large is recommitted to a modern civil rights movement. Progressively White spaces often get in trouble for getting in their own way of progress yet these two century old institutions have been eager and actively working at shifting the conversation. CMCB with a Black director has shifted Board Governance and Composition of leadership while continuing to raise money and increase their individual donor portfolio. Shady Hill School values racially and socially economically diverse presence on the board and has rewritten the Board bylaws to be explicit while launching major gift initiatives. When the question is: how does organization framing center people of color when the majority of your audience skews white? What explanatory commas do you have to make, versus (rightly or wrongly) choose to make." Come learn what these two institutions are choosing to make to be bold, leaders and changemakers.

Making sure you are truly ready for a Comprehensive Campaign is vital to the ultimate success of the endeavor. As a development professional what do I need to know before embarking on a 5-7 year campaign? Hear from three seasoned professionals who combined have more than 90 years of fundraising experience both as in house development heads and as consultants. This session will cover, Campaign Success Factors, Assessing the Right Time for a Campaign, Identifying Campaign priorities, Defining the prospect pool, Bridging the Strategic Plan to Campaign implementation, Identifying Campaign Leadership, Role of the Board of Trustees and Governance Committee, Goal Setting, Pros and Cons of Conducting a Feasibility Study, Selecting a consulting partner and RFP process.

Powerful things are possible when Advancement Offices and student programming come together. At the Pennington School, this partnership through the Horizon Experience, has provided us the opportunity to navigate the opportunities and challenges of mentorship, to build engagement through alumni and parent participation in on-campus programming, and to co-create experiences that help our seniors reflect on the importance of their high school experience and transition into becoming supportive alumni.

Working with alumni and parents presents both challenges and opportunities. While it can be very fruitful, it also requires careful planning and coordination to be beneficial for students, alumni, and parents. The key is setting the right expectations. During this session, we will discuss how each engagement opportunity can be presented so that it is a good fit for all parties. Conversations about hosting a student is critical because we don’t always have a match for each volunteer. Volunteers coming to campus who are business professionals leading a discussion can have work emergencies arise disrupting plans and backup programming is necessary. Fortunately, the use of zoom can assist in these situations, as well as provide an opportunity to engage alumni who are dynamic but not local and their involvement adds value.

This session will follow the evolution of giving a PreK-12 day school located just outside of Boston, MA. Learn what went into taking this school from very little in terms of a culture of philanthropy to having a branded annual fund and yearlong appeal planner. You will hear messaging and timing strategies, view design samples for a planned year of appeals, and see a data snapshot of the outcomes. Leave with ideas and inspiration for curating a culture of giving at your school.

Lean into equity while raising more money from more people. Sound impossible? Join us and learn how Thacher School ditched its auction in 2020 and never looked back. It raised 2x the revenue from 5x the constituents, engaging parents, alumni, parents of alumni, grandparents, and friends. Even in a post-pandemic world, this innovative model has continued to work for Thacher. During this session, regardless of the technology used, you will receive the strategies and confidence to rethink traditional fundraising events, and ensure institutional sustainability. This is your chance to strengthen philanthropy while building community.

This session will help guide offices that have prioritized overall database health and have formalized campaigns, funds, and appeals. As data and strategy become more important in guiding our work, comprehensive and consistent gift batching will enable you to produce queries and reports to better inform your work. Identifying current data needs while anticipating future needs, gift batching is critical in producing information that identifies strategies and advances your efforts. Learn how to identify your important data points and let your data work for you!

Regardless of school size and number of team members, creating a gift batching process and procedure will enhance all areas of your advancement efforts. This session is geared for all professional levels who work in their institutions advancement database and will primarily focus on Raiser's Edge.

Working in a small(er) school community has major pluses and challenges. Best practices from larger shops cannot often simply be “shrunk down to size” to work for smaller shops, and the foundation of processes and resources may not have your shop starting from the same place as “peer” institutions. In this session, Phil Consuegra and Jenn Devine will use their experiences in Higher Ed and in larger independent school advancement offices to outline the benefits and challenges they faced when they took over the leadership of younger development programs. Attendees will leave the session with a deeper ability to understand the skills needed to create an advancement-centered strategic plan specific to their institution, how to prioritize needs vs. wants, how to utilize institutional partners, and how to analyze the ROIs on their various initiatives.

An effective partnership between a major gifts team and the research team is essential to successful prospect management. At Phillips Exeter, we have implemented a frequent review of major gift portfolios that includes both the major gift officers and members of the research team. Data is used to identify opportunities within the portfolio and to help prioritize major gift officer activity. Determining who should be removed from a portfolio is often as important as discovering and adding new prospects. A strong collaboration between can and should ensure a strong and healthy pipeline of donors.

There is so much change around us, let's be BOLD! Let's put the tried and true traditional ways of doing things to the side and explore new models that capitalize on where we are today and all that lies ahead. This session is for anyone who wants to be the best at inspiring philanthropists to give their best and transform their school.

The strategic planning process we have been using for the past 25 years needs a reset. The session is designed to provide participants with a new path to progress. Tim Fish will provide context and introduce the tools needed to develop an effective strategy for a new era. He will share insights on practical ways for heads of school, their boards and leadership teams to approach problem framing and to engage in strategic design that supports long-term differentiation.

COVID forced many schools to put their traditional campaigns on hold, shifting their focus and resources to emergency funds and operating costs to make it through the school year. In 2021, we slowly saw school’s confidence in major capital and comprehensive campaigns increase, and now many schools find themselves in some phase of a campaign. While the long-term effect of the pandemic on philanthropy is still developing, the crisis to date has illustrated the generosity of Americans in trying times and the adaptability of education and donors alike. As we look ahead, the reality is there has never been a better time than now to secure the funding your school needs to ensure institutional sustainability.

Whether you are about to embark on a $10,000,000 or $100,000,000 campaign, is your school ready? Launching a campaign can be daunting, but with careful planning, clear communication, execution, and the right donor engagement strategy, it is possible! Join Advancement leaders, Tara Arras, Sidwell Friends School Assistant Head of School for Advancement, and Jennifer Devon, CCS Fundraising Vice President, in a discussion about campaign fundamentals and strategies for success today, even amid the challenges of a global pandemic.

The Development Team at University Prep utilizes an engaged and motivated group of parent volunteers, Class Agents, in order to run a successful annual fund. Through comprehensive campaign materials and thorough communication, our volunteers drive participation and raise awareness about the important role the annual fund plays in our community. This session will share ways to engage volunteers, how to set them up for success, and the impact they have on results.

Reconciliation in Australia is a process which officially began in 1991 and focussed on the improvement of race relations between the Aboriginal and Torres Strat Islander peoples of Australia and the rest of the population. Reconciliation requires the Australian community to recognise and respect the First Peoples of its land, to acknowledge past injustices and the ongoing inequalities experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples since colonisation, and to commit to working towards a more equal and respectful future. For the past 20 years the Scotch College, Melbourne (an Independent Boys School) Indigenous Scholarship program has offered all Scotch boys the opportunity to experience and understand Australia's Indigenous culture, as part of a contemporary Australian education. The program has three components: 1. Our commitment to offer Indigenous boys full academic and boarding scholarships; 2. the Indigenous Partnership program, which teaches Scotch boys about Indigenous culture through projects with local communities; and 3. Our longstanding partnership with Tiwi College, a school built on friendship and respect. This session will provide an overview of these unique programs. It will also provide an overview of the capital campaign to raise the $8m required to endow the Scotch College Indigenous Scholarship program in perpetuity.

Every school marketer needs and wants those both inside and outside of the institution to clearly understand who it is, what its unique strengths are, and why it is different from its peers and competitors. This common understanding–which begins with authentic and consistent brand messaging–is the foundation for successfully attracting right-fit families, raising money, and securing the reputation and future of the institution. But as important and foundational as messaging is, your school’s brand is only as strong as your ability to share it effectively through a creative platform.

A creative platform is what turns your brand messaging into marketing. It’s the essential element that will allow you and your staff to move from reactive to proactive in your day-to-day operations. It’s the missing piece of the puzzle that frees your time and energy so that you can effectively communicate in all of the ways necessary to promote your brand in the marketplace.

Join us to learn how a creative platform will take your brand messaging to market and make it work for you instead of you working for it.

Over the last five years, Collegiate School in New York City has made institutional decisions that have been challenging for its alumni community to accept: in 2018, it left its home of 125 years, where alumni "grew up," for a gleaming new building a mile away; and, this past year, it redesigned its long-serving mascot. Add to these the limitations on in-person events imposed by the pandemic, some unwanted publicity, and the way that all independent schools have been caught in the middle of the culture wars, and the result is disruption to the usual means of alumni engagement. In this session, we will discuss we were able to maintain and expand our engagement with alumni through creative programming and by taking advantage of the unique strengths of Collegiate's alumni community.

The head of school is one of, if not the most important fundraiser in your organization. It is incumbent upon the director of advancement to manage-up and set the Head up for success in fundraising, and this can only happen when there is an effective partnership between these two key roles. Gain insights and identify critical ways for building this relationship and learn ways to optimize, empower, encourage and support each other to advance your institution.