What defines a successful CRM implementation? How do you engage staff efficiently throughout the implementation process and make the most of their subject matter expertise? How will you know if your staff are using the new system as it was designed to transform the way they work? Join this interactive three-hour workshop to learn how project management principles can be applied to your CRM strategy to engage your staff and implement new systems, ensuring the process is more comprehensive, efficient, and capable of delivering measurable outcomes.

Advancement is more reliant on data-driven decision making than ever before, and our need for understanding the data we collect is only increasing. However, our ideas and needs often move faster than our resources. In this hands-on workshop, we will explore how to leverage R, an open-source technology that can provide flexible analysis and accelerate how we understand our constituents. Through this session and its toolkit, you will learn:
Introduction to R and RStudio Importing data from excel spreadsheets and SQL databases Descriptive and inferential analysis for advancement Incorporating machine learning techniques Communicating your findings through visualization
This workshop is ideal for anyone interested in enhancing their analytic and visualization skills. By the end of the session, you will be equipped to uncover insights from your own data, benchmark progress against other institutions’ data, and transform data into actionable insights.

In this high-energy and inspiring keynote, Liz will share practical strategies to help education professionals harness AI to optimize data, enhance storytelling, and drive meaningful engagement. Attendees will walk away with a renewed sense of purpose, understanding how their roles are instrumental in shaping the future of education through technology.

Measuring alumni engagement is here to stay, but how we measure it and what we do with that data varies across our institutions. In some cases, we want to track overall engagement performance, while in others, we want to measure engagement at the individual constituent level. No matter what approach you want to take, you need a roadmap to help you on your journey. Knowing where to begin and who to bring in can have a massive impact on staff buy-in and adoption of these engagement models. For over a decade, the MIT Alumni Association used a three-category model to track alumni engagement. Visually depicted with a Venn Diagram, the circles of Philanthropic, Face-to-face, and Virtual were used to count several engagement activities performed by our alumni. Eventually, a number of factors including, but not limited to, the conclusion of our most recent capital campaign, CASE’s launch of the Alumni Engagement Metrics, growing confusion around what activities were counted and where, and a desire to empower more staff to see their work in the engagement metrics, demonstrated a need to refresh how we track alumni engagement. Similarly, for the last four years, the Kansas State University Foundation has used an engagement level model to measure how constituents move through stages of engagement with the KSUF brand. Our goal was to answer a key question: Are our marketing efforts making a difference in bolstering our pipeline? Over time, the model has matured, accessibility to engagement data has evolved, and internal buy-in and use cases have expanded, leading to deeper integration across the organization. While MIT and K-State may have distinct missions, audiences, and engagement models, both institutions have navigated the complexities of defining, measuring, and applying engagement data in an effort to drive strategic decisions. With two unique examples, this session will take attendees through the process of launching and refining an engagement measurement model—from securing leadership buy-in to updating reports and training staff. If you are thinking about installing an engagement metrics model at your institution, or are looking to update an already existing model, join us to hear how two very different institutions have tackled engagement tracking, how our models have continued to evolve, and what our plans are for the future.

In the fall of 2024, CASE partnered with FundMiner to launch a Roundtable Series aimed at exploring and developing a common framework for fund management practices, guidelines, and standards. These roundtables included 30+ CASE member institutions, addressing four key areas of fund management practice. This session will present the results from each of the four sessions, showcasing one institution in each discussion area: (1) Fund management Oversight, Transparency, and Accountability; (2) Common Standards in Fund Management; (3) Impact and Financial Reporting; and (4) Monitoring, Hygiene and Best Practices in Fund Management.

Actionable data is more than just insightful data. It is timely, insightful data. If you provide insightful data the day after it is needed, it changes from actionable to at best out of date, and at worst useless. When you are part of a small data shop, your form of currency is often not ability but time. We are always asked if we can do something when the real question is, “Do we have time to do something?”

In Vassar’s Advancement Services area, we have 4 people providing data and reporting needs for over 70 individuals across multiple areas. There are myriad requests that seemingly come in all at once, all the time. What is a small shop to do? Well, what Vassar’s Advancement Systems and Reporting team did was to address the request, and then ask ourselves: Who else might make this request? How would they request it? Can we service that request right now as well?

This started our journey on generalizing requests and being proactive to them as opposed to reactive. We started automating this analysis through the use of Stored Procedures, Functions, Custom Fields, and Dashboards to create safe environments for self service. Then our team could focus on more complex actions.

Say hello to our little friends! Like Tony Montana, we experienced a rapid rise and fall of our dreams (in our case, dashboard development). Unlike Tony, we lived to tell the tale of how we used that experience to move on to an even better environment. We'll focus on our initial use of Google Looker Studio, which is hardly the BI Tool of your dreams, but the price is right (FREE!) and it's proven to be surprisingly versatile for a variety of dashboard needs. In the aftermath of us taking our Looker Studio dashboards behind the barn, we've penned this final love letter to a frustrating yet functional (and FREE!) product in the hopes that a less financially fortunate organization can benefit from our experience. We will give a glimpse of the dashboards we've created for proposal pipelines, portfolio reviews, initiative reports, principal giving profiles, fundraising progress, career center data, integration with Slate CRM, etc. in the hopes that those of you with no shortage of sweat equity can push Looker Studio to the limit. We will also give a glimpse into how the lessons learned from our experience made it easy for us to adapt to Power BI.

This presentation will describe the combined efforts of the Prospect Development and the Advancement Systems teams at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota to adopt a more data-driven and automated approach to prospect pipeline development for major gifts fundraising. It will outline our previous approach to pipeline development work, our motivation for a more efficient and transparent approach, and lessons learned while implementing new processes and systems. Topics covered include the methods used to systematize prospect pipeline elements such as prospect capacity, quality, and interest areas; dashboards created to visualize, filter, and display the pipeline and constituency; how these new systems are being used to prepare and deliver new prospects for fundraisers; and dashboards employed to track pipeline movement. The goal of this session is to provide participants with an example framework for systematizing, visualizing, and driving qualifications in a prospect pipeline using a data-driven approach. We also aim to demonstrate how using these systems and automation can increase efficiency and effectiveness in pipeline development, helping participants identify circumstances where these techniques could be applied to their own work.

In today's competitive fundraising landscape, tools like AI, hyper-targeted segmentation, and multi-channel outreach are powerful but insufficient on their own. To build meaningful, lasting relationships with donors, we must craft an Exceptional Donor Experience that is strategic, intentional, collaborative, and consistently exhibits the powerful partnership of data and creativity. This presentation will focus on using data and the art of donor development to craft strategic and intentional engagement that recognizes donor behavior. These elements, when combined, create an orchestrated journey that fosters loyalty and trust. Enhanced technology and tools will be explored as essential enablers of real-time, personalized communication. Collaboration across university departments—such as advancement services, donor relations, marketing, and the alumni association—will be emphasized as critical to delivering a seamless and cohesive donor experience – especially when bandwidth and resources are in short supply. By being intentional, integrating efforts and sharing resources, institutions can ensure a unified, impactful approach that drives donor retention and growth.

Join us for an engaging session, "From Silos to Synergy: The Reporting Hub Revolution!" as we explore the transformative power of a multidisciplinary and cross-collaborative reporting hub tailored for fundraising and alumni relations. Discover how integrating internal departments with external stakeholders can enhance data sharing, drive strategic decision-making, and elevate fundraising outcomes.

In this session, we'll cover:

Innovative strategies for breaking down silos and fostering collaboration across teams.
Real-world case studies showcasing successful reporting hubs in action.
Best practices for leveraging data to strengthen alumni engagement and drive fundraising initiatives.
Tools and technologies that facilitate seamless communication and reporting.
Don’t miss this opportunity to revolutionize your reporting processes and unlock the full potential of your fundraising efforts! Together, we can create a vibrant community that thrives on collaboration and shared success.

How can we use metrics in a strategic and accessible way to help us reach our goals and communicate effectively with senior leadership and trustees? How can we use visual storytelling to collaborate as a team, understand our performance and take action? This session aims to arm you with simple, yet powerful tools you can use to facilitate conversation with trustees and senior leadership and bolster your fundraising.

Join us for a deep dive into CASE Insights regional and global data on philanthropy and engagement to understand evolving trends in donor behavior, alumni affinity, and advancement resources. Then zoom out to place these trends within a larger context, looking at a variety of data, research, and institutional examples to understand the forces shaping the future of educational institutions and advancement practices—highlight changing perceptions of education, demographic shifts, and generational changes in philanthropy. This session will highlight how to move beyond key metrics to build a data-informed strategy for tracking and responding to regional and global trends.