At our educational institutions, we use assessments and remediation for better student outcomes.
So, how can you improve your data outcomes?

In this session – we’ll cover how to leverage the data quality life cycle to improve your data.

By grading your data (on consistency, validation, and recency) and remediating the elements that aren’t passing the grade – you can ensure that every data outcome is "better".

Professional schools, nestled within the ecosystem of a larger university, face unique challenges in engaging their alumni base and fundraising for their priorities. Building a robust reporting infrastructure has become a strategic imperative for these institutions, given the intricate dynamics at play. In this presentation, we will delve into the journey of establishing a comprehensive reporting system for Yale Law School , seamlessly integrating giving data, prospect ratings, and gift officer metrics. What sets this initiative apart is its commitment to creating an intuitive reporting portal that empowers not only technical experts but also non-technical staff. We will explore the complexities encountered, the solutions implemented, and the transformative impact achieved, recognizing the distinct challenges and opportunities that arise when aligning the goals of a unit with those of a broader academic institution. Join us as we unveil a blueprint for data-driven decision-making that enables professional schools, as integral units within a larger university, to foster alumni relationships and drive philanthropic success with confidence and in harmony with the broader mission of the institution.

Join us for this two-part interactive session designed to answer the key questions around generating dashboards and automated reports – Who will use them? What challenges can they solve? How do we ensure we are solving the right problems, not just creating pretty pictures? Part one features a panel discussion on data acquisition and cleaning efforts; how to ensure visualizations or automated reports deliver meaningful insights to key stakeholders; how to choose the right visualization for your audience; and challenges that we face when building a visualization. The second part features a Visualization Lightning Round, where panelists provide a live demonstration of a specific demonstration before the buzzer sounds! You will leave with the knowledge to build your own decision tree for optimizing visualizations or automated reports, with specific examples of successful deployment and utilization and lessons learned. This session is platform agnostic, with solutions that can work for varying levels of staffing and resources.

We would not have our jobs if it were not for data. However, collecting data is not even the hard part. Collecting the right data can be elusive, especially when those data are the responsibility of another department. The departments external to the Advancement program may not see the value in the data nor care about its condition. And even if you win those other departments over, there are data standards, maintenance, integrity, and protection details. In this session, we will emphasize the importance of data. More importantly, we will discuss what constitutes essential data and what advancement services can do independently to collect and maintain that data. However, we cannot succeed in capturing critical data alone; therefore, we will focus on fostering an institutional approach to the advancement of data, including the use of a Data Governance structure and establishment of institutional data standards. Finally, we will look at key components of a viable Data Acquisition and Use Policy.

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.

RFM analysis is a great first step to analyzing and grouping your donors. By summarizing their giving history and ranking by Recency, Frequency, and Monetary values, you can cluster donors into smaller comparable groups. This can help with identifying possible future prospects, searching for a target donor audience, and allow for more personal communications to each group.

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."

Join us for this two-part interactive session designed to answer the key questions around generating dashboards and automated reports – Who will use them? What challenges can they solve? How do we ensure we are solving the right problems, not just creating pretty pictures? Part one features a panel discussion on data acquisition and cleaning efforts; how to ensure visualizations or automated reports deliver meaningful insights to key stakeholders; how to choose the right visualization for your audience; and challenges that we face when building a visualization. The second part features a Visualization Lightning Round, where panelists provide a live demonstration of a specific demonstration before the buzzer sounds! You will leave with the knowledge to build your own decision tree for optimizing visualizations or automated reports, with specific examples of successful deployment and utilization and lessons learned. This session is platform agnostic, with solutions that can work for varying levels of staffing and resources.

2024 marks the 50th Anniversary of CASE as an association, which came about from the joining of the American Alumni Council and the American College Public Relations Association. CASE now is the global professional association for those who work in those disciplines and also in fundraising and advancement services – and many other specialties. To mark this anniversary, Cara Giacomini, CASE’s Vice President of Data, Research, and Technology will engage a panel of past and present DRIVE chairs and co-chairs about the future of advancement. At the end of the year, this conversation will inform a collection of insights about our profession and all its disciplines – the ones we know now, and the ones that might emerge!

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.