How does your organization decide what prospects are in major gift portfolio and with what major gift officers? We will discuss criteria used at Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences for major gift assignment including ratings, region and class year, among others. When should major gift officers be disqualifying prospects? How can your organization set up a process to get leads for strong prospects from colleagues and volunteers into major gift officer portfolio in a timely manner? How do we use an upcoming reunion milestone to evaluate major gift officer coverage? In this interactive session, we will share some of Harvard’s processes and strategies for organizing portfolios for frontline fundraisers and encourage those in the audience to contribute their ideas.

Building a culture of philanthropy involves engaging stakeholders in the stories of our students and alumni. A successful major gift strategy is aligning a donor's interest with our shared mission. This session will share three case studies of fundraising success in New Hampshire that collectively have enhanced the culture of giving across our colleges statewide. The primary objective is to engage attendees in an active conversation, an exchange of ideas about how we collectively define success in today's fundraising climate.

Collaborating with colleagues on gifts means a seamless experience for your donor, and can lead to large, combined gifts. Whether it is a major and planned giving officer working together, central and unit fundraising, or working with academic and institutional leadership, building these relationships can greatly impact your goals. Hear from a panel of Brown and UConn peers about building these relationships and leveraging them to benefit the donor and their institution.

Join members of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences Major Gifts Team (with a little help from Bono and U2) for an interactive conversation about elevating your fundraising game through individualized and creative goals. Members of the team will discuss how the introduction of qualitative goals built by each gift officer led to aspirational thinking beyond fundraising. We’ll lead you through a similar exercise – it’s not as easy as you think but lots of fun – and create space for discussion about why this was important for our team, how empowerment led to better fundraising, and how it can impact anyone no matter the career level. We’ll share any materials we used and detail some of our activities that supported this theme. We invite your best thinking and discussion as you prepare for an interactive conversation.

The traditional campaign case for support is a comprehensive document that takes significant time and resources to produce. In contrast, the mini case for support is a flexible tool that engages just the right people at your institution, highlights fundraising priorities, provides positioning language for front line fundraisers, and comes together relatively quickly. In this session, discover the "anatomy" of a mini case for support and how to conduct the interviews; which people at your institution will benefit; and how this process can jump-start or re-energize progress toward your fundraising objectives. You'll also have a chance to begin drafting your own mini case in real time.

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 higher ed fundraiser Jessica Gagnon at Boston College how she's leveraging that data to drive decisions at key stages of the philanthropic lifecycle, and how she got everybody—including advancement services—to back her team's biggest bets.

The past three years have been exceptionally challenging for the philanthropic sector. Market conditions have fluctuated drastically, and social conditions change every day. On March 13, 2020, at the very start of real social and economic uncertainty, the University of Southern Maine (USM) voted in their first Zoom meeting ever to proceed with a $46 million comprehensive campaign. In June 2023, USM closed their campaign over goal ($50 million raised) and two years ahead of schedule. In this session, we will explore how this public regional comprehensive university kept focused and resilient amidst turbulent market conditions, an unpredictable philanthropic environment, presidential and Cabinet-level transitions, and a challenging capital approval process. We will pose several scenarios to the audience for group discussion and hear from USM how they tackled these challenges and turned them into opportunities.

In music the most basic chords are based in a triad, three notes that become something better, something magical, when played together. Likewise, in our work in higher education advancement and philanthropy there are three basic experiences that are the building blocks for success. Research has shown that these three experiences are equally meaningful for individuals at any stage of involvement from student, to involved volunteer, to major donor. In this session you will learn more about this magical triad and how you can build upon it to create success throughout the engagement pipeline.

Promoting the message that annual fund dollars will close the gap between the actual cost of education and tuition is becoming less and less of a compelling argument to potential donors. Today’s sophisticated donors want to know that their gift, regardless of its size, will have a measurable impact on the school. Shifting your message to encourage donors to make their annual gift in support of programs or academic departments that they are most passionate about is critical to motivating your stay-the-course donors to give more and attracting new supporters. By doing so, your school will be better prepared to increase the giving participation rate by: (1) developing more customized solicitations that speak to potential donors’ passions; and (2) creating more personalized stewardship reports to show the impact of their specific gifts on the school. Perhaps more importantly, the school will also uncover the areas / projects that resonate most with donors, which will help it to be more strategic in its outreach both for the annual fund and for major gift engagements.