Join us for the “New to the Profession” pre-conference workshop where you will join the inaugural cohort of new advancement professionals. Over this 8-hour professional development session, you will learn and grow both as an individual and as part of the exciting world of education advancement. Begin with a 4-hour CliftonStrengths personalized course where you will focus on how your strengths can be leveraged in your daily work. In the next session, you will hear from seasoned advancement professionals in a panel discussion, participate in guided roundtable discussions, learn about the vast resources available from CASE, and begin your journey in this New-to-the-Profession Cohort. In addition to this professional development, cohort members will be paired with a mentor and will work together throughout the coming year. It’s a 12-month journey that all begins at the District VI conference! In the end, we hope you will feel a sense of belonging and will truly grow in this amazing profession.

New to the Profession pre-conference programming continues with roundtable discussions and conversations about how to get the most out of your CASE conference experience, networking opportunities, and resources provided by CASE

Join CASE as they share the exciting new services of the CASE OIC: Opportunities and Inclusion Center. Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) expert and CASE global trainer Jessica Elmore will engage participants in conversation about the needs of organizations and professionals in the field of advancement.

It can be the best of times and it can be the worst of times regarding faculty support funds for institutions. With state-provided resources becoming more limited each year, private philanthropy is tasked with providing the margin of excellence for institutions and their stellar faculty. In this presentation, you will hear of success in raising faculty support funds while also learning of tools to take home and utilize for your own faculty support initiative.

How do we go beyond the endowment report to engage our donors throughout the year, but keep our workload in check? Join us in discussing opportunities a few Case VI institutions took to connect with their donors throughout the year on their funds, impact, and legacy.

There are many factors in fundraising. Some of these factors are environmental and out of your control: the economy, politics, changes in leadership, and pandemics. One crucial component is entirely within your control: how you build and manage your teams to set them up for success. The human talent component of fundraising is vital to a successful development office. In this session, we'll take a data-centric look at high-performing teams and the impact consistency, clarity, accountability, and solidarity can have on an organization's fundraising. We'll share actionable strategies to train and retain top officers and curate a culture of excellence.

Lisa Yu ‘89 was accepted on a scholarship to the University of Wyoming. She savored countless campus mementos, photographs, and newsletters, launched a successful career and always dreamed of giving back to the place that gave her so much. But for 20 years, she fell through the cracks. Until a Donor Experience Officer from UW reached out. In this session, we'll dissect the Donor Experience program at UW, including program structure, goals, and strategies. We’ll talk about a day in the life of a Donor Experience Officer. And we’ll discuss the life-changing power of human connection and good storytelling.

By formalizing and standardizing its cross-campus issues management process, Colorado State University was able to move from reacting to issues and crisis to anticipating and preparing for them. The process determined standardized steps needed to address issues, specify who needed to be included, defining each step in its process and roles and defining roles and responsibilities of each team member. Working through a core committee of key stakeholders, the university has identified a calendar of likely issues for the year and has drafted preliminary statements. Response times have improved nearly 50 percent with 100 percent accuracy.

Communication expectations continue to shift among our graduates – meeting those expectations can lead to higher engagement. In this session, we'll share results of our national survey of over 2,000 alumni on areas of interest, expectations, and opportunities to build engagement and support. We'll then share examples of how Colorado School of Mines connects with alumni through segmented, targeted communications to further deepen their relationship with the institution. Participants will leave this session with concrete ideas to inform communication strategies and next steps to broaden and deepen overall alumni engagement.

This session will prepare you to streamline your annual planning process to make it more inclusive, strategically focused, results oriented, and easy to maintain. Annual planning is an opportunity to connect with and learn from colleagues at all levels within the Advancement organization, and focus the entire team on the most important objectives for the coming year. The session will be an interactive opportunity to learn strategies to make the most of your annual planning process, focus on what matters, simplify progress tracking, and celebrate successful outcomes.