Discover how Oklahoma State University’s Digital Experience Officers (DXOs) are transforming donor pipeline development through innovative digital outreach. This session will explore strategies for engaging prospects at scale, creative approaches to outreach, and best practices for collaborating with development officers to seamlessly transition engaged donors up the pipeline. Learn from three years of experience, insights, and growth—including how OSU has expanded the DXO role to a senior level. Whether you're looking to launch a similar initiative or enhance your existing efforts, this session will provide actionable takeaways to strengthen your digital engagement strategy.

Feeling overwhelmed by your donor portfolio? Struggling to effectively cultivate and steward all your donors?

Discover the Secret Sauce to successful fundraising with the T36 (Top 36) approach, as shared by leaders from the Sam Houston State University Development team. The T36 provides a transformative strategy for managing donor portfolios across various areas, including Annual Giving, Major Giving, Alumni Relations, Donor Relations, Corporate and Foundation Relations, and Special Events.

Why the T36 Works:
• Effective Portfolio Management: Focus on the most impactful donors with targeted engagement strategies.
• Streamlined Strategies: Apply practical methods to ensure that each donor is effectively cultivated and stewarded.
• Enhanced Collaboration: Foster teamwork to build stronger donor relationships and maximize engagement.

By prioritizing the number of asks, setting clear ask minimums, and promoting collaboration, the T36 creates a sustainable and effective approach to fundraising.

Proven Results:
After a year of implementing the T36 strategy, our Advancement team achieved its second-largest fundraising year, surpassing our annual goal by over $2 Million. We’re on track for even greater growth in the coming years.

Join us on this journey and transform the way you manage your donor portfolio. Discover how the T36 can be scaled to all aspects of Advancement and lead to unparalleled success in your fundraising efforts.

The lights are fading, the party is almost over, the goal has been met…your campaign is coming to a close. Your development officer and leadership teams may be starting to breath deep, but now it’s our time to shine – it’s time for donor relations, stewardship, engagement, events, and communications to take the stage and breathe life into all that has been accomplished through your massive fundraising accomplishment. Join this session to explore to role of these teams in effectively recognizing donors to the campaign at all levels, reporting the impact of funds raised, stewarding new funds, consolidating and converting events as necessary, and more. We will explore key data reports to be pulling, important annual communications to be issuing, and how to develop retention strategy for these important donors. It’s now our job to retain and engage these campaign donors – until the next big party!

Join us for an engaging and interactive session where we dive into the latest trends in stewardship and donor experience strategies for higher education advancement. Discover how modern approaches and cutting-edge AI technologies can transform your donor relations, making them more personalized, efficient, and impactful. Through a mix of real-world examples and hands-on activities you’ll learn how to modernize donor experiences that exceeds expectations. Whether you’re a seasoned advancement professional or new to the field, this session will provide you with practical ideas, tips from AI, and innovative ideas to take your stewardship practices to the next level.

Clubs and Chapter events can vary in format, goal, budget, and audience... to name a few. The team at University of New Mexico will moderate a group conversation around best practices and lessons learned, encouraging audience members share their stories and participate in the dialogue. Let's learn from each other!

As an advocate for and a manager of alumni volunteers in their communities, providing focus and purpose is critical. By aligning volunteer network groups to what matters most, your volunteers will understand the purpose for the work they do and be better equipped to grow as an alumni volunteer leader and a mentor for future generations.
In this session, you will be guided through the one year process for building strategy to align alumni volunteer groups into one cohesive Alumni Network serving to make a difference in their communities. One unified Alumni Network committed to supporting and advancing the university’s excellence makes a profound impact!
Join me for this workshop where I will take you through the journey of building out a strategy to equip alumni volunteers to be mission minded. This session will share insights from working with the board of directors and writing bylaws, to creating a leader guide and implementing strategy for volunteers serving the collective Alumni Network at the University of North Texas.

Engaging your magazine’s audience in the digital age means considering social media storytelling from Day One. But translating a feature story idea from the page to Reels requires outside-the-box thinking—especially when you’re working with limited staff and budget. This session will cover how planning, collaboration and student involvement can result in dynamic storytelling that will organically expand your magazine’s reach, across platforms. We will outline a scalable approach to content planning that resonates with a diverse community of students, alumni, faculty, staff and donors.

Faculty members and academic leaders play a critical role in the success of any advancement operation. Working closely with them and preparing them well can reap significant results; on the other hand, giving them insufficient guidance or inadequate information can ruin a donor relationship and sink a gift proposal, or alienate alumni to your detriment. Come to this engaging and interactive session ready to share stories and learn from each other as well as a veteran of nearly three decades in higher education advancement. You'll find that proper care and feeding of faculty really can be fruitful for your institution!

Join the Oklahoma State University Foundation (OSUF) for a dynamic session designed to simplify and enhance the art of prospect research, trip planning, and donor engagement. OSUF will share essential strategies for building collaborative prospect lists, planning efficient donor visits using mapping tools, and identifying top prospects by integrating data on giving history, wealth, and more. Learn the art of effective outreach and hear inspiring stories about how persistence and going the extra mile can lead to securing transformational gifts. This session will provide practical insights to help elevate your fundraising strategy and optimize donor engagement.

Volunteers are not just casual supporters; they are key collaborators in enhancing alumni engagement and advancing fundraising efforts, especially for reunions. Their active involvement amplifies the voice of your institution and leverages their peer-to-peer influence to inspire classmates, increase reunion attendance, and encourage greater giving. Engaged volunteers help foster stronger connections within alumni communities, contributing to the success of your initiatives. In this session, Christina Woods, Director of Annual Giving, Rice University, and Felicity Meu, Head of Partner Success, GiveCampus, will explore how to activate your most valuable asset—your volunteers. Finally, Christina and Felicity will showcase data that demonstrates how volunteers can significantly improve your alumni engagement and fundraising outcomes and share strategies for maximizing their impact.