In this lightning-fast session, we'll condense decades of on-staff and client alumni magazine and print communications experience into 60 ideas that you can use TODAY to make your print publications more read, more loved, and more valuable.

From optimizing your print publications for the coffee table to techniques that can 8x the effectiveness of your headlines, to “engagement engineering” to make stories as feedback-friendly as possible, participants will come away with concrete ideas that they can implement immediately and make a real difference for their publications and communications.

One of the first thing Development Professionals learn about is the Donor Cycle. But what if the current model is lacking a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness of donor relations? In this session we will consider donor relations as a journey - where development professionals stop trying to pigeonhole their prospects into a strictly defined part of the cycle or type of philanthropy and instead view prospect management as a constant evolution that encompasses all facets of moves management simultaneously. What if Discovery was a part of every stage of your relationship? What if every meeting was an opportunity for a solicitation and what if cultivation and stewardship were the same initiative? Let's take a deep dive and reimagine what your community park looks like!

As advancement functions and fundraising campaigns become increasingly sophisticated and focused on leadership gifts, intentionally and regularly engaging volunteers and new community members can fall by the wayside. Volunteer engagement can be difficult to measure, and independent schools often struggle to find reliable, concrete ways to evaluate and leverage connectedness. Yet, volunteers have proven over and over again to be invaluable resources, providing their time, talent, ideas, and social ties to help advance a school’s mission and vision, in and out of campaign environments. Importantly, not only does strong volunteer engagement yield more philanthropic support, but they also allow schools to invite more voices in—particularly those from communities served—and work towards a more inclusive philanthropy. A unique opportunity exists to involve our larger school communities more meaningfully in our work by investing in relationships early, moving from transactional requests to transformational collaborations, and bringing more perspectives into decisions around how we effect change.

Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas’ Ad Majorem campaign went public in 2023 with over $100 million raised – and is not done yet. Meaningfully engaging volunteers and the broader community in Jesuit’s largest, most ambitious campaign was and is no small undertaking. Hear directly from Jesuit’s Vice President of Advancement and Executive Director of the Jesuit Dallas Foundation on how the team engaged across constituencies – Board, Campaign Committee, students, alumni, faculty, parents – to develop a comprehensive case for support and phased campaign plan that created a posture for Jesuit to continually innovate and invite new voices in.

Through a conversation between CCS Fundraising and Jesuit Dallas, this session will explore the importance of high-level volunteer engagement, the lifecycle of cultivating volunteers into lead donors and organizational champions, and how to return to your school with new ways to engage volunteers in philanthropy as part of your overall fundraising plan – while applying inclusive principles to volunteerism in meaningful ways. Presenters will feature candid learnings and case studies from CCS’s experience and Jesuit’s extraordinary success in cultivating new voices throughout a multi-year campaign – to bring the community into the school. Attendees can expect to leave this session with the tools and knowledge to adapt their own volunteer engagement strategies to the uniquely evolving independent school landscape.

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.

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.

Major donors at many colleges criticized their schools’ response to the Israel-Hamas war and publicly threatened to withhold charitable gifts. At independent schools, the pushback tended to be more focused on community letters. How can the advancement office navigate global events and extreme polarization to achieve goals? In this session, we’ll look at research findings from psychology, neurology, and political science to better understand why our society feels intractably divided. We’ll dive into tabletop exercises to work through challenging scenarios that independent school advancement offices face, and we’ll examine ways advancement can help to bring the school community closer together.

Join us for a dynamic session that delves into the realities of inclusive strategic planning for independent schools. Our presentation promises to ignite inspiration and share practical insights as we explore how to engage a diverse spectrum of stakeholders, including community members, parents, students, board members, and peer institutions. Discover proven methodologies and innovative approaches that foster a shared sense of purpose, harness collective wisdom, and cultivate a strategic roadmap that drives change and achieves results. Don't miss this opportunity to learn from seasoned experts and gain tools to engage your community and build consensus among stakeholders to create a united vision for the future for your school. When we plan together, we thrive together.

Healthcare and education employ different financial models and yet the increasing costs in both sectors have led to intense pressure on fundraising staff. The pace can be harrowing, and the pressure intense. This interactive session will explore what we in education can learn from our counterparts in healthcare fundraising.

In general, hospital fundraisers operate in a world of need and speed. There is typically a shorter cultivation period as compared to the time we take building a relationship with alumni or parents. Development professionals may connect with patient prospects the day they are admitted for medical care or shortly thereafter. We will demonstrate how shortening the cultivation period with certain constituents can be just as successful in a school setting.

Urgent fundraising is also necessary as hospitals experience fluctuating revenue from their payers, from insurance companies to government contracts, and so many aging hospitals are in desperate need of renovation and replacement. What can we learn from the way hospitals managers and fundraisers respond to these pressures? We will look at short cuts and disruptive techniques some healthcare fundraisers have applied, from mini feasibility studies and mini campaigns, to the creative use of volunteers, the elimination of volunteer groups and heavier reliance on professional fundraisers.

Finally, participants will explore the transferable benefits of grateful patient programs and related family fundraising strategies. These programs provide a pathway that connects clinicians and hospital executives to fundraising. We will explore how your own school's life transforming student stories can provide a foundation to engage Heads of Schools and leadership in philanthropy training that feels authentic to all.

We face a lot of challenges as we compete for the attention of our constituents. How is it possible to cut through the noise to not only capture constituents’ attention, but engage them in a way that causes them to take action? This session will explore how easy it can be to elevate your school’s engagement with a few simple steps to amplify your message. We'll share how our team uses personal outreach, events, print materials, digital communication, and social media to create epic experiences.