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. We measured overlaps in the engagement categories, labeled the intersection of the three circles as the Mindshare, and reported on the overall engagement rate. Over the years, what was included in our Venn Diagram evolved as we gained the ability to store additional engagement activities in our database.
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 introduce a new way to track alumni engagement. After several proposed models, Alumni Association leadership adopted a system that closely mirrors CASE’s four-category AEM.
This session will take attendees through the process of launching an engagement measurement model. All steps will be covered, from getting buy-in from leadership to updating visuals and reports to training staff on the changes. If you are thinking about installing an engagement metrics model at your institution, or are looking to update an already existing model, come to this session to learn about our process, how we’re using the model, and what our plans are for its future.

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 describe our previous approach to pipeline development work, our motivation for a more efficient and transparent approach, and lessons learned in the process of implementing these 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; ways that these new systems are being used to prepare and deliver new prospects; and dashboards employed to track pipeline movement.

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.

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.

A recounting of Welcomed Triumphs and Unexpected Follies on the journey to deepen our understanding of the nature of our Fundraiser Portfolios and our Visibility into the Future.

This will be a deep dive into using Python to automate tasks and improve workflows where we will walk through the evolution of a reporting task as we apply different levels of automation to it.

We will start with a hands on lesson on partitioning a file into multiple files using Python. Building on this, we will present some of the next steps that you could take to improve that task using APIs and prepare it for sharing among an organization. Finally, we will discuss how you can build small workflows for immediate needs and then iterate on them to create a full process with Python that saves labor hours and improves accuracy on a variety of reporting tasks.

Data is an institution’s most valuable asset, but only if it’s accessible and actionable. In this session, we’ll explore how to implement data hygiene best practices during a CRM transition, ensuring that only relevant, usable information makes the cut. Learn how to leave behind data that no longer serves your institution, transform valuable data to fit the future-state data model, and maintain long-term data integrity to support smart, data-driven decisions.

The presenter will share three specific examples of how he identified a problem with fundraiser behavior, developed and implemented a solution, and succeeded in changing fundraising behavior. As an individual major gifts fundraiser, the leader of a lead annual gift officer team, and the Interim Vice President of Advancement, each example addresses how reporting and assessment tools were incorrectly configured to encourage exactly the wrong behaviors. By partnering with advancement services team members to develop more effective management tools and aligning reports and metrics to the true definition of success, the presenter effectively reshaped fundraising behavior and improved bottomline outcomes.

Are you ready to transform how Carnegie Mellon University handles data?

Join us for an insightful session conducted by CMU Analytics team, where we’ll share best practices and experiences in integrating Snowflake, Salesforce, and Tableau. These powerful tools work together to create a data system that enhances everything from data management to decision-making.

We’ll dive into examples relevant to CMU, showing how these platforms can streamline workflows, improve data accuracy, and provide deep insights through interactive dashboards. Imagine having all your data sources consolidated, processed efficiently, and visualized in a way that makes complex information easy to understand and act upon.

This session is perfect for seasoned professionals, leaders, data analysts, and anyone working with data in advancement teams at universities, looking to stay ahead in today’s data-driven world.

Everyone wants to make “data informed decisions” especially during periods of strategic planning and solicitation plan development. Yet, we often underutilize vital data-informed positions such as Prospect Development, which traditionally is viewed as a resource primarily for leadership and major giving. But what would it look like if we took prospect development and applied advancement data analytics to serve as a resource for all University Advancement? Come learn from Texas State University how their restructuring took prospect development, data analytics, and business processes and turned it into a strategic arm serving the entire advancement organization. Learn about holistic pipeline development when leveraging both prospect development and analytics together to advise and inform strategy development for alumni relations, annual giving, AND major giving.