We’ve heard about the enrollment cliff and its likely impact on higher education. For her dissertation, Dr. Carrie Phillips researched how marketing strategies might help mitigate this cliff. This session shares findings from visiting with chief marketing officers about how they’re preparing. The session will begin with a high-level overview of the enrollment cliff followed by a deep dive into how marketing strategies might lessen the impact. You’ll hear about the challenges participants face, strategies they’re exploring and best practices to consider. As you’re looking to navigate change at your institution, this session is a great place to start.

Embarking on a leadership role in advancement can be both exhilarating and challenging. While many of us began our advancement careers as specialists, (making in-person asks for big gifts, mastering back-office processes, creating marketing materials, etc.), sooner or later, we find ourselves managing teams. While we may be experts at “making the ask” or “mapping appeal code structures,” oftentimes new managers can find ourselves at a loss when required to give effective performance reviews or coach up a new team member. This session is tailored for advancement professionals who have recently taken the step from being practitioners to managing teams. You will hear from three of your colleagues who have made this leap and are now successful industry leaders. Madison, Karl, and Adrian will introduce you to the dynamic world of advancement teams, providing essential insights, strategies, and tools to help you become a more successful team manager and leader.

In this dynamic conference presentation, we'll dive into the art and science of branding from both a marketing collateral and personal perspective. As higher education institutions, the data says that branding will help us stand out in a crowded marketplace. We’ll kick off the conversation with practical strategies and creative approaches to create memorable, authentic, and effective marketing collateral that resonates with your target audience.

But branding isn’t limited to our institutions; it extends to you as an individual. During the second half of our discussion, we’ll discuss building a personal brand that leaves a lasting impact. Drawing from real-life success stories, we'll explore how to cultivate your personal brand and how that can help you connect with donors, students, and industry peers. Then, we'll shift our focus inward to understand how your personal brand can empower and motivate your internal team.

Legal concerns in advancement aren't just for planned giving anymore. Whatever you do in advancement – fundraising, alumni relations, communications, or advancement services – knowing how the law affects your work could make the difference between celebrating success and a costly lawsuit. Learn from a "recovering attorney" and advancement veteran about key principles and situations to consider, whether you're planning an event, managing a fundraising campaign, writing a press release, maintaining a database, or organizing a reunion. You'll hear about plenty of real-world examples, so bring your hardest questions and toughest challenges to this lively, engaging, and interactive session – no retainer required!

Alumni and Donor Relations are rarely sitting at the same table, part of the same reporting lines, and often lack a cohesive approach to constituent engagement. Breaking down the barriers between these two teams is critical to moving alumni through attitudes to affinity to engagement to becoming current and future donors. Alumni and Donor Relations are two sides of the same coin. Join us for a candid conversation on how to bridge the gap between these two worlds through leveraging alumni surveying to meet everyone’s needs with special emphasis on events, communications, and special interest areas of our constituents. We will explore how these two teams can partner on annual engagement and interest surveys, event and experience surveys, to gauging overall satisfaction with your institution. We will dive into event strategy development and partnership, collaborative communication schedules, and ensuring all programs are designed to enhance the overall alumni and donor engagement experience. Designed to be both strategic and tactical in nature, this session delivers the partnership, surveying, and engagement deep dive you’ve been needing for your organization.