Universities across the country deploy regional development teams to engage and cultivate alums who are far from campus. While cultivation opportunities have become more accessible virtually, remote alumni still crave in-person engagement with campus leadership for an impactful experience. The UC Berkeley East Coast Major Gifts team developed a program to efficiently and effectively bring campus leadership, from Deans and Vice Chancellors to the University Chancellor, across the country specifically for development work and donor meetings. This system, tailored over years of iteration, has resulted in historic fundraising revenue from the region, contributing over $373M to the recently completed Light the Way Campaign. Brown University deployed a similar strategy on the West Coast, including a bespoke events program focused on campaign priorities and key donors. In this session, we will outline the strategy and implementation plan to collaborate with campus fundraisers, build a sustainable regional donor pipeline, and use qualitative and quantitative data-informed strategies to bring campus leaders to regions in which their time will be used effectively to drive forward major gift conversations.

Each and every message we send and receive over the course of the day is coded by the
sender and decoded by the receiver. This leaves room for misinterpretation and confusion
if we aren’t careful. Using Schramm’s Communication Model, this interaction session will
demonstrate the power and impact of coding and decoding of messages and attendees will
leave with a new perspective on the intentionality we should consider with every
communication we send (or receive).

In today's evolving philanthropic landscape, digital engagement officers are proving to be indispensable in enhancing fundraising strategies and cultivating robust donor pipelines. This session explores how digital tools—such as video, texting, email, virtual meetings, and even traditional phone calls—can transform donor interactions and drive substantial results.

Gain insights from a successful program that developed a digital engagement strategy from the ground up, now generating over $1M annually. Learn actionable tips for streamlining your digital outreach efforts, discover valuable resources, and receive practical samples to implement in your own organization. Benefit from the experiences of seasoned development officers who have navigated this digital frontier, and leave equipped with the knowledge to elevate your donor engagement and fundraising success.

Advancement Services professionals are the unsung heroes behind the scenes, supporting the greater collective while often neglecting their own well-being. At Harvey Mudd College, we've recognized that investing in our own team is paramount to effectively serving our constituents, including Major Gift Officers (MGOs) and other members of the development team. Join us as we share our journey towards self-care and efficiency through the implementation of task management and ticketing systems, and the transformative impact it has had on our daily operations.

In 2023, Harvey Mudd College took a proactive step by adopting Teamwork and Teamwork Desk products for task management and ticketing. This strategic decision has revolutionized our workflow, fostering seamless collaboration, eliminating silos, and ensuring that deadlines are consistently met. We've transitioned from a reactive approach to a proactive one, enabling us to better support our colleagues and stakeholders.

As we reflect on our progress in 2024, we've gleaned invaluable insights and lessons learned. Our utilization of built-in automations has optimized our efficiency, freeing up valuable time for strategic initiatives. Leveraging Tags has allowed us to generate accurate metrics, providing tangible evidence of our contributions to leadership and advocating for continued investment in our success.

Key Takeaways:
1. Investing in Self-Care is Essential: Prioritizing the well-being of Advancement Services professionals is not only beneficial for individual team members but also crucial for the overall effectiveness of the team in serving constituents.
2. Strategic Implementation of Technology Yields Results: The adoption of task management and ticketing systems can revolutionize workflow, fostering collaboration, eliminating silos, and ensuring timely delivery of projects and tasks.
3. Data-Driven Advocacy: Utilizing metrics and automation not only enhances efficiency but also provides concrete evidence of the value that Advancement Services brings to the organization, facilitating informed decision-making and continued investment in success.

The strategies and principles discussed in this session are not limited to the advancement services sector or specific software platforms. They can be adapted and applied across various industries and task management programs, empowering teams to enhance productivity and well-being irrespective of their organizational context.

By embracing self-care and leveraging technology strategically, Advancement Services professionals can empower themselves to better serve their constituents and drive organizational success. Join us as we explore practical strategies for enhancing efficiency, fostering collaboration, and advocating for the recognition and support that Advancement Services deserves.

Career programs and initiatives are expected from an alumni association. Not only are you asked to serve students with alumni volunteers, but you are asked to create meaningful opportunities for alumni and their career development processes. In this session we will explore the three C's framework to guide your team to develop a strategic and impactful suite of programs. Content, Connections, and Commendations are the three C's that any team can frame their programming strategy on any budget or staff size. This session will explore the three areas and share some realistic examples that participants can think about implementing on their campuses. The presenters will share sample programs and resources to help your team implement initiatives that will work for your school. Whether you are just getting started or you have a robust alumni career team, this program will give you sample events and programs that can meet your alumni's needs.

This session is designed to equip fundraising leaders with the tools and strategies to elevate their entire advancement team’s awareness of planned giving, even among staff who don't specialize in it. Attendees will learn how to train their teams to recognize planned giving opportunities, identify key donor signals, and seamlessly introduce these conversations into routine donor interactions. By the end of the session, leaders will be prepared to empower their staff with practical knowledge that strengthens donor relationships and ultimately increases planned gift commitments.

Engaging donors around planned giving opportunities is a powerful fundraising approach. As Professor Russell James, expert in Planned Giving strategies, puts it: cash is not king. Gift officers are often aware of planned giving vehicles but are challenged to find organic ways to guide donors to understand these opportunities. Planned giving vehicles can also seem technical and intimidating to many development officers. Planned giving training often focuses on the mechanisms themselves, which can generate curiosity but leave unanswered questions about how to turn theoretical knowledge into gift closures. This session follows a different approach. Through story-telling and case-studies, this session builds from the relationships and conversations development officers have with their donors to show the path forward to planned giving strategies and partnership approaches that close gifts.

The #1 way to ensure your institution's success & your future success as a fundraiser is ambitious, consistent discovery now. But discovery is one of the hardest parts of fundraising! When you're getting in the door with amazing new potential donors, discovery can feel like an adventure. When you're slogging through names in your database and getting zero responses, discovery can feel overwhelming and oppressive. Join this session for tactical discovery tips from sending better emails to cold calling to turning the conversation to money in that first visit.

With competing communications priorities and a limited news team, Cal State Fullerton’s Office of Strategic Communications and Brand Management created a user-generated website for the campus community to share news, announcements and accomplishments. Learn how we launched the site, set guidelines for content submission, promoted its widespread use and grew submissions by 20% from year one to two. Additionally, our user-generated content site has become a tool for fundraisers to increase the volume of donor stories and capture information for prospect research; a tool for talent management teams to recognize faculty and staff achievements at all levels; and a tool for expanding internal news and promoting inclusive coverage by empowering campus partners to share their information.

We will provide tips and lessons learned on how to maintain daily operation of the site (managed by professional writers!), discuss practical and ethical considerations for non-writers sharing content, share the campus feedback we have received, and give you a preview of our next steps as we get ready to launch version 2.0.