The session will provide insights from personal experience working as a Head of the Fundraising Office and later as a Vice-Rector for Strategic Development and Finance at the University. Given the close intercorrelation of these two functions in reference to the university’s development, the session will focus on this issue from both perspectives and give recommendations on achieving greater efficiency in implementing the aims through joint cooperation.

Please choose one session from the below. The campfire sessions are facilitated discussions.

How can we create long-term and large-scale collaboration to last over many years and involve all parts of the university?

As institutions we take painstaking care in crafting and agreeing our values. We share them. We talk about them. But how often are we actually checking in on ourselves with how we are living them in our every day interactions? In the choices we make. In the ways that we engage with one another. In this discussion we’ll explore the ways in which we do and do not live and breathe our university values in our every day advancement work, and we’ll share some ideas with each other as to how we might embed them deeper into our work.

How to get private (and public) sector donate money for Student scholarships? Who are companies and individuals who donate for scholarships? In what way do private sector scholarships differ from scholarships offered by the University, and how can students leverage these differences to their advantage? How today’s grants and scholarships can increase interest in a particular field among middle and high school students? What innovative approaches are being taken to make scholarships more accessible and impactful for a diverse range of students? What is the value proposition for both sides – to the donor and to the grantee? Should there be one? During the discussion we will look answers to these and other related questions.

Alumni engagement is vital to any institution or university’s long-term success. Strong connections with graduates can lead to numerous benefits for both the alumni and their alma mater. But how do you engage them, and in what activities should alumni be included? In this session we will explore the importance of alumni engagement and discuss strategies for using alumni.

The strategy of your institution gives the framework for the alumni engagement and internationalization. Institutions have limited resources to go towards their vision and build wider alumni engagement. Cooperation with other HEIs can give valuable support to reach the goals and build even better engagement for alumni network. Where to start? What to expect? Join us to discuss about the potential of HEI cooperation for alumni relations development.

This is a discussion about starting basically from scratch and developing step by step well-functioning alumni structures and accomplishing a vibrant alumni organization with various alumni activities at a university in a year’s time.

How can focused engagement of alumni outside of a ‘home’ country be used with limited resources as a means for advancing your university’s alumni strategy? Join this session to learn tips and tricks from the University of Twente in the Netherlands on how these alumni support education, research as well as institutional brand-building.

Explore Vilnius University's 2023 recruitment campaign, focusing on leveraging its famous or highly accomplished alumni network. Learn how representatives per faculty were selected for the campaign, how they were reached and convinced to participate in this campaign and become poster-people. Discover the benefits for both alumni and the university, see the impact on the recruitment numbers. Expect an unfiltered discussion revealing the campaign's successes, challenges, and key takeaways.

Our academic colleagues are the people behind the knowledge, programmes and innovations that ensures our institutions thrive. They are often deep in the work of research and teaching. And yet for advancement activities to thrive - from fundraising to recruitment, from reputation management to policy influencing - we need to invite them into partnership with advancement professionals and to support our work, as well as us supporting theirs. In this session we’ll explore ways in which we can build mutual understanding and a true sense of shared purpose with our academic colleagues, get them excited about advancement activities, and design them in such a way in which everybody gets to win.

Join me in showing you how the Leiden University Fund unlocks the power of alumni relations. Join me in exploring how cultivating lifelong relationships with alumni paves the way for substantial gifts and legacies. Discover the transformative journey undertaken by the Leiden University Fund, illustrating the profound impact of sustained alumni engagement on philanthropic success.

Georgs Rubenis' session will offer a comprehensive look at the higher education landscape in the Baltic region, delving into successful fundraising case studies and best practices for donor engagement. It will explore innovative fundraising strategies, including digital platforms and alumni networks, and emphasize the importance of impact measurement and transparent reporting. Additionally, the presentation will cover the legal and regulatory context of philanthropy in the Baltics, providing insights into emerging trends and future predictions for educational philanthropy in the region. This rich content mix is designed to equip participants with practical, actionable insights for effective higher education fundraising.

The systematic use of donations and communication about the impact is essential to internal community´s commitment to fundraising, but above all for strengthening donor relations. The University of Oulu has been developing an effective and transparent process of allocating donation funds and following up on results and impact. In this session we will review how the use of donation funds supports the development of university's operations, engages both internal stakeholders and donors and increases the impact of university´s scientific activities.

Ever wondered how the next generation can seriously shake things up? Join us for a workshop that’s all about how student ideas changed the game and gave us a fresh perspective on how we create awareness about the alumni network. BI Norwegian Business School recently held a case competition, where students were asked to give their solutions on how to best recruit young students, build awareness about the alumni network, develop the relation, and retain the members by creating value. It turned out to be a valuable source of bright ideas, students' thoughts, and expectations on how the alumni network should work and function. We’ll explore the ideas from the competition and how the alumni team put these ideas into action, from brainstorming to execution. The students' significant impact in building an active alumni network and integrating innovative ideas has transformed our approach to alumni awareness.

In this dynamic session, you will hear about the four key ingredients to achieve impact, and practical tips within each. We will cover: crafting inspiring messaging about the impact of your institution; creating a culture of philanthropy among key internal people; ensuring an audience and donor-focused approach; and recognising and thanking supporters effectively. We will share inspiring, relevant case studies from around the world – and there will be plenty of time for questions and to share your own experiences.

At the annual CASE Europe conference in summer 2024, CASE and More Partnership released a seminal report analysing a decade of fundraising in the university sector – it is freely available here. This included deep analysis of millions of data-points and interviews with practitioners, senior leaders and donors. In this session we’ll share some of the key learnings from the report, ensuring these are placed carefully in the Nordic context. We will look at the ingredients of the most successful programmes, and the priorities for those programmes at earlier stages. There will be time for questions and debate on the key recommendations, and ten top tips to take from the evidence in the report.

2024 marks the 50th Anniversary of CASE as an association. To mark the anniversary, CASE is looking squarely into the future, and how our work as champions of our institutions, may change. Whether you work in advancement services, alumni relations, communications, fundraising, marketing, or any other specialty, we want to surface the trends and issues that are around the corner. At many conferences during the year, CASE is asking a panel of volunteers some questions about the profession – in the future. At the end of the year, we will take stock of the responses and share what we think the future might hold for our profession and all its disciplines – the ones we know now, and the ones that might emerge!