The secret to effective and supported change is... there is no secret! It's a plan. It's a set of steps to unfold what used to be the way, and fold into what will be next. Believe it or not, regardless of the kind of change your team is undertaking, the path to get there is similar. In this session, we will walk through the playbook together, how it started, anecdotes about where it was tested with bumps and applied with success, and how you can use it as a framework the next time your team undergoes a change. From re-orgs to system change, fast growth to leadership change, this playbook will lay out strategies for messaging, communication, engagement, enablement, and support. It will outline different reactions and how to deal with them, different scenarios and how to approach them, and ways to keep leadership involved. Join Kate Nimety, President of Management Consulting at Zuri Group, for a workshop that will provide you with a toolkit for the next change that's around your corner!

Managing your data for the benefit of your organization is not a destination but a journey. It’s a journey that ultimately matters to your organization’s bottom line and success in making data informed decisions within today’s competitive fundraising environment.

In this interactive workshop, we’ll cover basic data governance concepts and models. These concepts and models will be leveraged to develop a roadmap for tackling some of the challenges that you and your fellow attendees are facing in starting up or maturing your data governance program.

CASE collects institutional-level data on philanthropy from around the world. Institutions which submit CASE surveys have access to this data, which they can leverage to identify and benchmark against similar institutions. In this session, we demonstrate how to use R to access SQL databases, create visualizations, and conduct regression analysis on philanthropy data. Upon completion, participants will be able to use data for storytelling and strategic thinking.

Amid rapid growth in data complexity and technology advancement, many organizations still struggle to manage, understand, and measurably improve their legacy and evolving data ecosystems. In this hands-on data lab, you will learn how to build flexible data enrichment models, reusable tools and repeatable processes to 1) establish a constituent data integrity index/baseline 2) explore, visualize and measure constituent data integrity 3) identify and prioritize opportunities to improve your overall data quality in systematic and sustainable ways towards insights, equity and efficiency.

"Join us for an interactive and guided panel discussion on automating the collection of marketing data, processing this data (ingest, deduplication, matching), and analyzing the data collected (visualize, report, insight delivery). In this session, plan to have open, casual dialogue with the panelists and your DRIVE peers on innovative strategies that streamline the automation of marketing communications such as event data, survey feedback, web analytics, social media, or email interactions. Whether you are just starting with your first survey, or you are looking to find solutions to better marketing automation, you will walk away from this session with useful perspectives on automation and practical applications of data collection."

What are the latest trends in philanthropy and what does this mean for colleges and universities? What attitudes do donors to higher education bring to their philanthropy? How is your institution approaching the continued decline in mass giving? How are transformative gifts defined and secured? This session will draw on data from surveys conducted by Bank of America, Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and engage participants in a discussion about the donors who have had a transformative impact on their institutions. Participants will learn about 1) recent trends in giving and alumni engagement to higher education among U.S. households, 2) how affluent households approach their philanthropy to higher education and other causes, and 3) how transformative gifts are defined and secured.

Personalization matters, and in today's world of AI-driven technology, truly personalizing the donor experience is possible for any size organization. Join this session to see how new technology can help you change your outreach from "send everything to everyone" to producing a truly tailored experience for each donor. Hear key metrics from millions of communications about the power of personalization and how it can more than triple open rates. And hear how St. John's University transformed engagement with new technology that allows for personalization at scale. It's time to do donor engagement smarter, and if you're ready to ignite the passion of individual supporters using new tactics, this session is for you.

Defining the right KPIs is an evolving process. The tools and visuals used to report on them can also evolve over time. At McGill, we’ve been reporting on prospect pipeline indicators for over 15 years. During that time, we’ve moved from collating printouts in a 3-inch binder to a one-click dashboard. Discover how we refined the process over time, what considerations were taken at each step of the evolution and how we adapted to changing needs and to our growing expertise.

Sometimes, we’re asked questions that feel like they’re in a different language. At times, we really are speaking two different languages and translation is a challenge. But all languages have some things in common and with a little work, you can often find creative solutions to communicate with one another. Have you been asked to articulate and support your request for expanded staffing? What about being asked to predict cash receipts for University budgets during times of economic uncertainty? The finance office or Dean wants to see one thing, but your fundraising database isn’t exactly aligned. This session will present several ways existing data can be used to help development leadership clarify the need for additional staff resources, articulate the impact gift officers have on total fundraising results, and demonstrate ways in which past and projected staffing and cash receipts can predict cash flow in a language both sides understand. No shouting, pointing, or 'cave speak' required.

Most Prospect Management models rely on the gift cycle to categorize prospects. But is this the most accurate way to describe a prospect's philanthropic engagement with the institution? Does a prospect being cultivated for their first major gift really fall in the same category as a seasoned donor being cultivated for their 10th? The Prospect Development Team at Temple University decided to reframe the way they code and report on prospects based on simple measurements on the donors' records. This enabled the team to engage with the fundraisers they partner with to uncover new opportunities and allowed fundraisers to approach their portfolios in a more strategic way.