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.

Are our donor funds being utilized? Are there any fund issues we need to address? Should we be worried when we send out our annual donor fund reports? If you’ve ever had these concerns, you’re not alone. In recent years, many nonprofit organizations have been grappling with similar questions, finding little guidance on this vital aspect of any advancement operation. Join us in this session as we look at the University of Nebraska Foundation’s journey to grow its funds management team from the ground up, leveraging donor fund data along the way. It’s time to bring the discussion on funds management challenges out of closed-door conversations and begin an industry dialogue to identify what tools, resources, and standards need to be in place to successfully manage and steward donor funds. Whether you are new to funds management or seasoned in the field, come prepared to share your experiences and glean insights from others in this collaborative space.

We created dashboards allowing a pro-active approach to successfully collecting pledges. By becoming aware of the high risk pledges, Fundraising professionals were are able to focus on the high risk donors, to properly steward and sustain their affinity to the university. Thus, mitigating the risk and increasing the chance that the donor will fulfill their pledge.

Asking and answering whether a donor clicked on a link is just the beginning. To fully leverage the potential of digital impact reporting, Boston University built a reporting strategy based upon the tools and business practices that answer far more textured and powerful questions: What content captured their attention? How long did they review the content? Did they access the report? Did the report spur action or result in new gifts? How do we drive higher engagement (individually and in aggregate)? In this session, you will learn how BU ensured a successful launch using analytics to continuously hone and adapt its reporting strategy, collaboratively built new, data-driven capabilities, the lessons learned along the way, and how they plan to continue to optimize their approach."

All organizations are striving for continuous improvement, and getting feedback from your stakeholders is essential to that goal. One of the best ways to get that feedback is by surveying your constituents - students, families, employees, alumni and/or donors. Learn how to conduct your own survey research, even on a modest (or non-existent!) budget, and collect actionable data to help you improve your organization.

As personalized and curated experiences continue to take over digital and commercial spaces, donor engagement teams must continually innovate to keep up. All-in-one solutions can provide small teams with scalable platforms and comprehensive tools that drive results, but they often come with limitations in product development that don’t meet the needs of individual clients. Over the last year, Georgia State University’s Donor Engagement and Communications team has used data analysis, strategic engagement and personalized outreach to develop an internal donor experience program focused on long-term results: the acquisition and retention of mid-level donors with the aim of carrying them through the “murky middle” and establishing them as our next generation of major donors.