Learn from the award winning “Only in Nebraska” campaign what to do and not to do to make your next campaign a success. With a university system that has four unique campus brands, we still wanted everyone to share a single, unified message. In this session we will share how we started with a systemwide visioning day with top campus influencers and then developed campaign priorities for each campus and individual unit. Next, we used that information to build a comprehensive communications plan to publicly launch the campaign while considering all possible audiences from students to faculty and campus leaders to trustees and major donors to alumni of all four campuses.

As we share our “Top Five Lessons Learned from a Campaign Launch,” we will explain how we partnered closely with our campus partners to ensure that everyone felt they could see themselves in this campaign. We will also discuss how adding an engagement goal to our normal fundraising goal has rallied everyone around the campaign. Publicly launching a campaign is so much more than a cool logo and a catchy tagline – let us share with you how we approached it, Only in Nebraska.

Time is valuable, and that is what makes volunteering such an impactful component of alumni engagement. Creating volunteer opportunities for alumni to connect with students, the university, and each other is the ultimate win-win proposition. Over the past year, the Colorado School of Mines (Mines) has grown participation in its volunteer program by more than 70%. This growth in volunteerism can be attributed to increased access to opportunities, establishing expectations, tracking participation, and consistent stewardship. Mines is a mid-sized university with around 8,000 students and 40,000 alumni. The Mines Foundation and Alumni Engagement shop align with the university in both size and budget. To optimize for our size and staff bandwidth, we have developed techniques that increase our impact while maintaining a small to mid-sized team. Developing a robust volunteer offering has improved our collaboration with university partners and elevated the Mines signature student experience. Volunteerism has cultivated stronger alumni connections with the university and advanced individuals through the donor continuum.

As higher education institutions face increasingly complex fundraising landscapes, the role of campaign leaders has evolved significantly. Today’s campaign leaders must balance strategic vision, data-driven decision-making, and collaborative leadership to drive successful fundraising efforts. This session will explore how the role of campaign leaders is changing and what skills and strategies are essential for success in modern fundraising campaigns.

In this session, we will examine the following key areas:

• The shift from traditional to strategic campaign leadership
• The importance of data and analytics in campaign planning and execution
• Building and leading cross-functional teams
• Engaging stakeholders and fostering a culture of philanthropy
Key Areas of Focus:

• Strategic Leadership
o Evolution from traditional management to strategic campaign leadership
o Developing a clear and compelling campaign vision

• Data and Analytics
o Utilizing data to inform campaign strategies and measure success
o Leveraging predictive analytics for donor identification and engagement

• Cross-Functional Team Leadership
o Building and managing diverse teams, including development officers, communications staff, and volunteers
o Promoting collaboration and accountability within the team
• Constituent Engagement
o Engaging key constituents, including alumni, donors, and community leaders
o Creating a culture of philanthropy within the institution