While the definition of a “major” gift varies according to institution size, mission, and community, the quest to identify and rank the best prospects is as old as Advancement itself. We have all faced the challenge of building a top donor model when only a tiny fraction of donors make gifts at or above their threshold for a substantial gift. In this session, we’ll talk about how we overcame the challenges of small sample sizes, incomplete and sparse data, and administrative data that imperfectly captures business practice to develop an approach to major gift prospect prioritization. We’ll describe how our methods have evolved over the years to the solutions that underlie our current reporting tools. Arriving at actionable insights is only half the battle. Our largest challenge has been marketing the math to fundraising professionals that go by gut. We will close out with a demonstration of a Tableau tool that brings this research to life. We hope this presentation serves as Part 1 of our story, and intend on pitching deployment and lessons learned at CASE DRIVE 2026.

Are you ready to take your data strategy to the next level? Join the CMU Analytics team to learn how to leverage Snowflake, Salesforce, and Tableau to achieve better outcomes. Discover best practices and real-world examples of how these platforms can streamline workflows, improve data accuracy, and provide deep insights through interactive dashboards. This session is ideal for professionals in advancement teams at universities who want to stay ahead in today's data-driven world. Attendees are encouraged to bring their laptops to follow along.

Dive into the strategies, tools, and workflows needed to create and sustain impactful alumni employment dashboards at your organization. Drawing on their experience with projects across multiple institutions, the speakers will share actionable insights on cleaning and classifying data to support the objectives of multiple functional groups, aligning outputs with institutional priorities, scaling initiatives, , and fostering sustainable workflows. Designed for advancement teams of all sizes and technical expertise, this session offers a roadmap to harnessing employment data for strategic decision-making and deeper alumni engagement.

In fundraising, it is often difficult to calculate the probability that a given prospect will make a gift, or the likelihood that our organization will reach a specific fundraising dollar goal. The usual measures used in identifying probability don’t always work when it comes to human activity, and donative behavior is no different.
During this presentation, Dr. Gregory Duke will review several methods of identification of probability and identify which of these methods can give you a better understanding of your prospects’ likelihood to give. Dr. Duke will also use other measures of probability used in games, sports, medicine, and nature to illustrate the depth and breadth of donor possibilities. Lastly, Dr. Duke will demonstrate a technique to put all these together to create a predictive model of donor behavior over time.

Recent trends in U.S. giving indicate a consistent decline in donor retention rates over the past decade. This trend threatens the sustainability of crucial programs and initiatives. To combat this, organizations must harness the power of data-informed strategies to better understand donor behaviors, identify gaps, and optimize outreach efforts.
This presentation will explore innovative ways to leverage data analytics to reverse declining donor trends. Key areas of focus will include donor segmentation, predictive modeling, personalized communication strategies, and the significance of donor lifecycle analysis. By integrating these approaches, we aim to cultivate more meaningful relationships with donors, enhance retention rates, and foster long-term support.

Over the last two years, University of Chicago’s Prospect Development team has published a “Year in Review” for each of it's over 100 fundraisers. These videos are inspired by Spotify Wrapped, an annual celebration of Spotify user’s listening habits that is shared through social media and contains unique data visualizations. The University of Chicago project shares a custom and visually unique minute-long video celebrating each fundraisers work over the course of the year. This presentation will share inspiration drawn from social media and industry, lessons learned from implementing this project, a detailed walk through of the code (including sharing the Github repository) and how participants can implement this in their own programs, and offer ideas for future iterations of this project.

In the age of data abundance, organizations have unprecedented access to insights that can significantly enhance their fundraising strategies. This presentation explores how leveraging historical performance data, coupled with compelling storytelling techniques, can transform forecasting processes and decision-making in fundraising. By analyzing past performance metrics, we can derive actionable insights that inform more accurate and strategic forecasts. The session will also highlight methods for effectively communicating data to stakeholders, ensuring clarity and context around financial projections. This approach aims to bridge the gap between raw data and strategic action, empowering organizations to achieve their fundraising goals with greater precision and confidence.