What are the building blocks of engaging content creation? They're not what you might expect. This session explores how to create environments that set the stage for bold ideas and big results. We’ll focus on actionable strategies within your control, whether you’re leading a team or creating content yourself. Leave energized and ready to transform your content strategy with practical techniques that maximize your existing resources.

How can volunteerism fuel lifelong connections and lead to transformational giving? In this interactive session, we’ll explore data-driven strategies to enhance volunteer engagement and recognition, connecting these efforts to philanthropy. Whether you're running a small program or managing a large alumni network, you’ll discover adaptable tools and tactics to build meaningful volunteer experiences that inspire deeper relationships and drive financial support. You will learn how to leverage data to identify engagement gaps and opportunities, create personalized recognition strategies that resonate with volunteers, and connect volunteerism to the donor pipeline, transforming alumni involvement into impactful giving. Through case studies, discussions, and actionable exercises, you’ll leave equipped to build a volunteer program that not only engages but also fosters a culture of giving. Ready to transform volunteerism into philanthropy? This session is for you.

Affinity Groups. This tried-and-true engagement strategy has yielded big results at many institutions. But they can run the spectrum in both investment and results. Do you create a mini alumni association, or do you simply try to harness the momentum formed by organic groups? We will look at pro's and con's for each method, when each would be appropriate, the opportunity for a blended approach, and best practices for these powerful programs.

Discover how to transform unassigned prospects into engaged donors through strategic relationship management. This session will showcase how to keep potential donors "warm" by ensuring ongoing communication, even without immediate assignment to a relationship manager. Additionally, we'll explore the rapid growth of Illinois Tech’s regional events program, driven by targeted outreach using geographic mapping tools, which has significantly increased alumni participation nationwide.
We'll also touch on how integrating key engagement forms into their platform has streamlined volunteer management and improved data capture, enabling more effective alumni engagement.

As the national trend of declining donor counts continues, many institutions are ramping up engagement and acquisition efforts to attract new prospective donors. But increased data collection like this can often lead to differing schools of thought between the engagement professionals who seek to grow the donor pipeline and IT/data partners who aim to protect data integrity. What are the right pieces of data to collect? How can data quality be protected? At what point does data collection hinder a positive customer experience? Is there such a thing as too much data? This session will show how Ohio State Advancement has taken a collaborative approach to working through these questions and more by bringing the two business areas together to develop solutions.
Key topics will include:
• How to align teams, practices, and goals.
• How to determine the right data points to ensure quality data while collecting engagement data to build and strengthen the fundraising pipeline.
• How to select the right data collection tools for varying types of engagement opportunities.
• How to tell the story of how engagement and acquisition data impacts the long-term health of an organization.

How do you engage alumni all around the world and keep volunteers connected despite the distance ? How can they support the University's global strategy? In this session you can share best practices from your institutions and learn how the Notre Dame Alumni Association has expanded their volunteer base to 60+ countries. We will talk about international volunteer recruitment and stewardship and how it supports strategic global initiatives.