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.

In the fast-paced world of professional fundraising, the pressure to secure larger and larger gifts is intense....unfortunately, I have bad news...the pressure won't let up! This session unveils nontraditional strategies that moved fundraising at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff from annual yields of $2M to a record breaking year of more than $12million; we're convinced that we can help you move the needle as well. This inspiring and strategy-filled seminar introduces participants to techniques in expanding corporate giving, alumni outreach, and processes in building a non-affiliated donor pipeline. At the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, we grew foundation and corporate giving by more than 200%, expanded alumni giving by 50%, and even increased faculty-staff giving by more than 40%. This hands on learning session is filled with practical tips that will show you how you can create a Personal Fundraising Plan (PFP), grow your non-affiliated donor pipeline, and attract those high capacity donors that always seem to get away. Designed as a best-practice session for new Development Officers, or even the veteran advancement leader looking to reinvigorate their fundraising strategies, this insightful session just might be your secret sauce for success!

Join this panel to hear from various institutions of different types and sizes across UT System on how they meticulously manage donor funds to ensure they are effectively and appropriately utilized while maintaining compliance with donor agreements to protect the institutions reputation and mitigate risks.

You’ll hear from several advancement leaders at different institutions on how they successfully administer their fund management and compliance programs. UT System has developed a system-wide compliance program that is both standardized and flexible at the same time to span across their 14 institutions of various sizes, types, and locations.

This session will be informative for organizations that are and are not part of systems with various fund management topics covered that can be applied to organizations of all types and sizes.

Hindsight is always 20/20, but why do we have to wait on hindsight. This session is designed to help you take your leadership to the next level. As a first-time CMO, Dr. Carrie Phillips faced several struggles when she was elevated into her first CMO role. And like most, she had some successes...and also some failures. In this session, she’ll candidly share managing mistakes she made, offer some lessons she learned the hard way, and provide practical takeaways to support your management journey. Whether you’re a seasoned leader, interested in the CMO role, or leading a team for the first time this session will help you think about your own leadership and ways to continually improve.

Discover Sam Houston State University’s innovative and strategic plan to revamp their Faculty & Staff campaign post pandemic. We will discuss how we recharged our volunteer committee, added new visibility to the campaign, and boosted excitement around participating. This session would benefit someone new to fundraising or individuals looking to recharge an existing program.

Harness the power of passion with effective board management strategies. Keturi DeLong will guide a candid discussion with three experts who have managed powerhouse boards through transitions, campaigns, challenges, and celebrations.