Two years ago, Syracuse University launched its Development Associate program — a team of frontline fundraisers focused on securing leadership gifts and delivering a customized, one-on-one experience to hundreds of prospects with potential. Find out how this team taps into social insights and donors’ digital footprint to personalize outreach, connect with people to renew or increase gifts, and then refer qualified prospects to major gift officers. After connecting with hundreds of Orange alumni and parents, these DOs doubled giving from their prospect pool and made dozens of major gift referrals.

At the University at Buffalo, we had to change the culture to accomplish our BOLD goal. With new leadership joining the team after the public launch of the "Boldly Buffalo" campaign, we needed to quickly realign our efforts to maximize outcomes. Alumni engagement needed strategies that supported development. Gift officers needed to focus on developing relationships. Staff needed to see how their work fit into the donor continuum. The outcome was a year of focused efforts and BOLD outcomes for our students, our faculty, and our world.

Gifts of real estate can be complicated...and risky. In fact, 80% of real estate gifts are rejected by charitable organizations for those very reasons. With the average gift of real property being valued at more than  $400,000, this translates to a lot of missed opportunity for nonprofits who need that support. Review several unique and creative ways to navigate the complications, and manage and isolate the risks of real estate gifts.

Common issues at any institution include too many projects in need of private support, and not enough qualified prospects. Learn how to merge your big ideas with specific strategies for your best prospects. Refresh your experience in turning long lists of names into prioritized and qualified candidates ready for gift discussions. Discuss the critical importance of well-defined and consistent prospect strategy sessions, and leave with templates and ideas that can be implemented immediately.

As university fundraisers, we work with highly diverse donor populations that are both multicultural and global, and philanthropy may be interpreted in varying ways. Donor values are driven by life experiences that shape their individual and unique perspective. To understand the impact of those experiences and how they impact giving and engagement, we need to examine our own assumptions, inherent biases, and apply best practices in order to uncover donor motivation. Discuss strategies to discover donor perspectives illustrated with actual donor situations.

The compressed timing of parent major gifts requires a nuanced approach that balances clarity of purpose and personal engagement. This session provides a blueprint for opening the door with parents, for test capacity and inclination, and for guiding parent giving toward a major gift conversation.

Every institution's philanthropic pyramid begins with a solid foundation. Learn how and when the most successful shops build their philanthropic pipelines. Starting with campus philanthropy and young alumni engagement, discuss strategies to build a culture of giving across every donor cycle stage. Discover how to maximize fundraising productivity and ensure sustainability across the giving pyramid. 

Review the essential aspects of successful solicitations—using videos from today’s media. Learn six non-negotiables: 1) know your prospects; 2) acknowledge, appreciate, and move beyond objections; 3) make the most compelling case; 4) distinguish your solicitation; 5) explain that you cannot succeed without the prospective donor; and 6) share names of other key philanthropic investors. Strategies for these steps can be seen in key, emotional moments from popular movies and television shows; coaching with a twist! Sharing these examples and walking through best practices—and where they're lacking—in each clip.

In the midst of a campaign, staff transition, and a new database, the US Naval Academy Foundation went out to change the way we used metrics in major gifts fundraising. This presentation covers the transition to a metrics-based major gifts staff that focuses on helping gift officers achieve better results through valuable metrics that go beyond dollars raised. Discuss what metrics we developed, learn how we built a tracking system, and find out how we are implementing change within the major gifts team.

Are you looking to reimagine your donor proposals? Is your proposal creation process ready for a reboot with the most important content experts engaged in the process? Do your proposals evoke an emotional reaction that compels donors to commit? These questions and more were answered for the University at Buffalo with a deep assessment and reinvention of its proposal creation process, which produced winning proposals donors love. Come learn how UB has taken donor proposals to a new level of communication.