Amidst the many challenges that independent schools face during crises, maintaining strong and positive relationships becomes paramount. Navigating the Storm: Effectively Managing External Relations During Crises is an engaging and informative session that delves into the art of managing external relations during turbulent times in educational institutions. The session will focus on both communications with constituents and necessary relationship building. In times of crisis, schools are not only responsible for the well-being and education of their students but also need to adopt a pastoral mindset about effectively handling their many relationships with constituents. This seminar aims to equip school administrators, leaders, and communication professionals with the knowledge and strategies required to steer through crises while preserving a school's reputation and fostering meaningful relationships with parents/guardians, faculty/staff, students, alumni, neighbors, media, and other key stakeholders.

The past three years have tested the resilience of our schools and the generosity of our communities. Despite all the outside factors and challenges, one fundraising tool has stood the test of time: the capital campaign. But as the philanthropic landscape evolves, capital campaign strategies must evolve too. In this session, advancement leaders from across the country will weigh in on their tried-and-true campaign strategies and share innovations and future-looking tactics they are deploying. From AI to creative volunteer leadership structures, to reaching a new generation of donors, this conversation will touch on factors that are impacting capital campaigns at independent schools and how advancement leaders are navigating this evolving era.

Motivating donors and volunteers around a single mission is key to the success of any annual fund. In this session, we'll discuss how to build a culture of deep, purposeful participation within the annual fund's volunteer base and its donors. Learn how to deepen constituent investment by getting beyond the "fluff" and focusing on purpose.

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!

An endowment campaign is an opportunity to amplify an institution's values and formalize, in permanence, a school's commitment to fostering inclusivity and belonging. By investing in endowment, donors are invited to establish legacy by bridging access for students of varied socioeconomic backgrounds and ensuring that all students can access the full school experience equitably and inclusively. How is this possible? With a strong vision and in partnership with key stakeholders. Learn how this vision is being realized at The Winsor School through strong advancement partnerships with the Head of School, Board of Trustees, Director of Admissions and Financial Aid, Director of Community and Inclusion, and more.

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.

In a world where connection is key, alumni engagement takes center stage. Join Punahou School and Almabase for a compelling session that dives into the transformative impact of next-gen alumni platforms. Discover how these innovative platforms are the catalysts behind elevating alumni interactions to new heights. We will delve into the strategies that have reshaped alumni relationships, bolstering mentorship, networking, and community involvement.

Join four experienced Directors of Development to learn how their school developed a specific process to evaluate and select campaign counsel. Each school leader took a different approach. What qualities were they looking for in a partner? What kinds of questions did they ask to determine the best match? What factors did they weigh heavily in their final consideration? Facilitated by Chris Pryor of LeadTeam Partners, you’ll walk away from this interactive session with numerous ideas to help you develop your school’s next campaign counsel search process.

As advancement grows more sophisticated, there is a deeper collection of accepted best practices. At the same time, there are instances when our organizations either intentionally or unknowingly disregard these codified best practices. This session examines real-life examples of times when schools have carried forward with major gift work that has not been supported by conventional wisdom of the industry. This session examines when unusually executed projects have struggled and when have they succeeded.