Great video does not have to come with a hefty price tag or an experienced on-staff producer. There are many things that anyone with a smartphone and a few low-cost tools can accomplish to build your message and form a meaningful connection with your audience. In this fun and informative session, you will learn a variety of no-cost to low-cost tips that can improve the quality of your in-house video productions, as well as some general tips that can also get more bang for the buck when working with pros.

Let’s face it: measuring engagement is harder than counting gifts, and finding time and resources to get started can be even harder! In this session, we’ll make the case for why it’s worth the investment and how your school can apply CASE’s alumni engagement framework, which measures alumni interaction philanthropically, volunteerism, experientially, and through interactive communication - to meet desired outcomes. The session will draw on data from the CASE Insights on Alumni Engagement survey and engage participants in a discussion about how to get started and take action on results.

Learning Objectives:
1. Understand how CASE measures engagement across four modes and the minimum needed to get started
2. Identify key outcomes of engagement and consider which are top priorities for your school
3. Gain knowledge to create your own strategic data roadmap to refine data collection based on your goals

We are all on the same bus together, so rather than focus on who’s driving, let’s cut through traffic and get on the highway toward long-term financial sustainability so that your school’s mission can thrive in perpetuity. This multi-perspective panel of professionals with decades of combined success in higher ed and independent school business and advancement will illuminate how to tune up your revenue engine and reach further mile markers on the road to fiscal health. Work together effectively by sharing a mentality of stewardship as well as a commitment to transparency and making the business model work for you through the use of intelligent forecasting and metrics. Strong leaders in business and advancement who value partnership are better equipped to make the most of inevitable bumps – and glide through roadblocks – as they steer their school to its fullest potential. Join us to discuss how to lead your institution to its next destination faster, ultimately ensuring that the journey extends for generations to come.

Unlock the secrets of reviving lapsed donor engagement! Discover how a tailored drip campaign, sent directly from a work email, can astonishingly achieve over 70% open rates. Dive into this transformative approach, bypassing expensive mass email systems, and watch your click-throughs soar!

For the past two-plus years at Brooklyn Friends School, "Arti-Facts"—a short story about an aspect of our school's history—has anchored our digital, weekly newsletter. Each week "Arti-Facts" looks back at a moment in time from BFS' history and is written in a very light-hearted, but informational way. This has caught on very well with our entire community. The main goal is to be able to share key moments in our school's history—which dates back to 1867—and put a spin on the story that applies, and relates, to today's families. These subject of these stories range from former students, colleagues, moments in time, the buildings our school occupies, etc. It is a great way to share history of the school with our current families and alums in a very approachable way. This session will demonstrate how pieces of your school's history are still relevant today and how the past often ties together with the present. How you can define their school's current mission, using past events and moments, without that event or moment defining who the school is. In other words, the event, person, or moment is critical to the story being told, but not necessarily to the outcome and the end result of the message you are trying to get across. This session is intended to be interactive—to help all school's tell their great stories—past and present.

Hear how Oakwood has utilized a dual fund approach to annual fundraising. While maintaining our traditional Annual Fund campaign, we have also built a philanthropic culture around supporting our annual gala, The Special Event. We will share useful tips on how this singular event has driven significant revenue growth and doubled our endowment in 10 years.

In the realm of philanthropy and fundraising, the concept of annual giving often brings to mind individual contributions. However, the success of an annual giving program is increasingly reliant on the collaborative efforts of various stakeholders. This session explores the idea of annual giving as a team sport, where the synergy between donors, volunteers, staff, and the broader community drives a shared mission forward and makes game-winning shots. By examining Westminster’s annual fund program and strategies, this session will shed light on the importance of fostering a collective mindset engaging all participants in the journey of philanthropy, and share tactics for how to develop an integrated fundraising and marketing strategy to increase donor acquisition and meet campaign goals.

Harvard professor Howard Gardner wrote, “Stories are the single most powerful tool in a leader’s toolkit.” Advancement professionals and Heads of School are tasked with presenting complex advancement data to support mission-driven, data-informed change. Leaders can utilize data storytelling to clarify priorities, create shared understanding, and build a culture of leveraging philanthropy to fuel institutional progress. Effectively pairing data storytelling and data visualization allows for strategic agility and addressing tough questions from the leadership team and board of trustees. Dive into the art of taking the “numb” out of the numbers.

Presentation High School was ready to let go of the complicated, old-school fundraising practices their community had relied on for decades. Their advancement team needed a simple yet elegant way to increase their fundraising capacity without all the clutter that comes with traditional models. Responsive Fundraising’s Three Lanes approach was exactly what they were looking for: a framework that could bend and flex as they matured their fundraising effort. In this session, Presentation’s President, Holly Elkins, and Chief Advancement Officer, Danna Davis, along with Responsive Founder, Jason Lewis, will share how the Three Lanes have afforded Presentation’s team clarity of purpose and clear performance indicators with an intuitive, relationship-centered approach to increasing fundraising capacity.

The Three Lanes approach is not a rigid prescriptive plan; rather, it is a below-the-surface understanding of how effective fundraising really works. In addition to providing a framework for planning and evaluating the program’s overall performance, the Three Lanes approach addresses common roadblocks that organizations encounter in their efforts to create a place where fundraising can thrive. All participants in this session will leave with an understanding of this approach, ideas for implementing it with an existing team, and metrics you can start tracking immediately.

In an increasingly diverse and interconnected world, fostering inclusivity is not just a virtue but a strategic imperative for advancement organizations. This presentation will explore the critical role of Cultural Competency in achieving inclusivity and how it significantly enhances how schools approach the work of advancement. Cultural Competency or Cultural Intelligence (CQ) is the ability to understand and adapt to different cultural perspectives, enabling schools to foster inclusivity, connect with a broader audience, and build stronger relationships with their constituencies. In this insightful presentation, you will gain a clear understanding of how Cultural Competency can transform your advancement organization into a more inclusive and effective entity. You'll gain valuable insights into enhancing engagement, ultimately leading to increased support and success for your school. Join us in this transformative journey toward a more culturally intelligent and inclusive future.