Change is inevitable, and sometimes it’s imperative. It can be instigated intentionally, or it can be generated organically by an outside force. At Lehman College, a top Hispanic serving institution, the catalyst for change was an extraordinary gift from Mackenzie Scott. This gift, unexpected and thrilling, introduced the opportunity for the Institutional Advancement department to reassess how it interacts with leadership and campus stakeholders and build new habits and practices to improve internal and external communication, which in turn increased fundraising. While a Mackenzie Scott gift is unique, the strategies Lehman implemented in its wake can be applied across institutions. This session will offer perspectives from advancement and foundation executives on how they modeled effective change management and encouraged leaders, volunteers, and employees to embrace new ways of operating. *CPE Credit: Attendees can earn up to 1 CPE for this session.

Join us to discuss the potential for data, automation, integration and AI in your foundation environment, and how you can empower and elevate those on your team using these tools. Where do you start and how can you use these tools in your leadership role in the next 5 years? We will discuss some examples of how automation, integration and AI are currently being used in our day to day and think future forward to possibilities where these tools allow us all to work smarter, not harder! Come prepared to share your ideas and experiences with automation, integration and AI or any other data driven projects you have been involved with! *CPE Credit: Attendees can earn up to 1 CPE for this session.

"Change" is a common topic in our business. We make predictions, we adjust to our university's changes in leadership, in strategic plans, and priorities. We can fall victim to diverting our focus as foundation leaders to all the activities that are "fundraising adjacent" and commit our energy, our resources and our teams to activities that drift from some of the basic tenants in our business that are timeless. The fact that meaningful, values aligned, authentic fundraising has been and will remain a critical component to the impact of higher education is a fact we need to strategically consider daily. This session will feature a discussion and Q&A about what will change in our space, what will not and how we navigate our foundations to best serve the perpetual mission.