Leadership giving to the Annual Fund constitutes the majority of unrestricted philanthropic dollars raised at most independent schools. The trend across charitable giving generally is that more dollars are coming from fewer and fewer donors. This makes the role of leadership donors more important than ever. So how best to develop relationships that will yield leadership level gifts in the 10-month school year? We will talk about both high-level strategy and the small step breakdown of how to grow relationships, secure gifts, and make your donors feel valued and engaged in the life of your school.

Many schools believe that consultants are just for big capital campaigns. While they can be important contributors in those high-stakes moments, a small shop can get big value by properly engaging with a consultant. Having a trusted thought partner is especially helpful to the one-person shops. Consider the variety of projects a consultant might help you with – from coordinating messaging and outreach efforts for new parents to an annual giving and major gifts refresh to board education. Hear how one school’s Director of Development and Director of Enrollment and Communication made the best use of that relationship, creating a better and more rewarding experience for everyone.

Creating and sustaining a culture of philanthropy within independent schools is essential for financial stability and fostering a strong sense of community and shared purpose. This session aims to explore strategies, best practices, and real-world examples of how independent schools can use AI to cultivate a culture of philanthropy that engages all stakeholders and contributes to the school's long-term success.

It has been said that the strategic planning and implementation of enrolling and retaining a student and family must never intersect or overlap with the strategic goals, objectives, and implementation of a school's philanthropic endeavors. Perhaps this is, in fact, a missed moment for more tremendous success. Join AISAP Executive Director Janice Crampton, Scott Bohan, Chief Advancement Officer - St. Paul's School, NH, and Matt Proto, Vice President and Chief Institutional Advancement Officer at Colby College Waterville, Maine, for a facilitated discussion with ideas, notions, and takeaways that will demonstrate best practice and next practice strategies that will assist you, your offices and in the end your school to be intentional in achieving your overall institutional goals and all the while seek greater alignment and messaging not only in process but in understanding the larger goals that need to be achieved by your school.

Philanthropy can play a crucial role in advancing a school’s ambition. However, in a small shop, we face challenges of limited bandwidth in both human and financial resources. In this session, we will examine tactics to convince your faculty to become advancement advocates and lead to a cultural change to become a truly philanthropic institution. We will discuss key issues we all face and hear examples of leadership and faculty that have played a key role in securing major gifts, including our CFO who has become integral to the major gift fundraising programme.
In this session, we will examine strategies and tactics to clarify a compelling narrative, develop the audience, empower leadership, and establish the internal infrastructure necessary for success.

The Head of School and Director of Advancement's relationship requires a unified front that addresses areas far beyond fundraising alone. Join The Altamont School's Head of School Cecil Stodghill and Director of Advancement Stephanie Brooks, CFRE, as they share key data, hints, anecdotes, and strategic steps to enhance your school's advancement efforts. From board relations to capital campaign strategizing, these presenters will offer tried and true practices that have created success for both of them over the years.

To fully flex your fundraising muscle, you need buy-in from both the annual giving and advancement services sides of the house. How do you achieve the alignment necessary to drive meaningful results? The devil is in the data.
GiveCampus analyzed aggregate data from 4,532 campaigns and 4,973 giving forms to identify what’s moving the proverbial needle in fundraising and what’s not. Find out from fellow K-12 fundraisers how they’re leveraging that data to drive decisions at key stages of the philanthropic lifecycle, and how they got everybody—including advancement services—to back their biggest bets.

Join Ann Snyder to take a fresh look at participation rates, their impact on predictive goal setting, and whether they truly tell us anything about our fundraising or engagement programs. Think critically about what other measures might be useful indicators of strong fundraising potential and retrain your board and stakeholders to ask different questions about the philanthropic culture at your school.

Get an in-depth view into how the French American International School and International High School of San Francisco transformed their culture of giving. You will learn how the Head of School, Leadership Team and Board of Trustees sequenced this transformation into the Strategic Plan and put the plan into actionable steps. This change in culture led to innovative everyday actions of the advancement team and their work, resulting in record-breaking fundraising and double annual giving in less than 5 years.

Educating new families about the importance of philanthropy at independent schools is more important than ever. At Seven Hills, we introduced New Family Philanthropy Meetings to share information about how philanthropy benefits every student, introduce our top giving priorities, invite families to participate in giving and volunteering, and identify possible parent leaders. A partnership with the Board of Trustees Development Committee and the Development Team, these meetings have become an important part of the school’s giving strategy, helping build personal connections, promote a culture of philanthropy, and have resulted in a significant increase in new family giving to the school each year.