As a leadership annual fund or major gift professional, you are a detective or anthropologist, uncovering clues to your donor's philanthropic interests, motivations and values. And, like a good detective or anthropologist, you have many different tools for gaining the information you need. In this session we will identify some of the critical skills needed to be a strategic listener and observer as well as an active participant in relationship building.

The CASE Statement of Ethics begins . . . “Institutional advancement professionals, by virtue of their responsibilities within the academic community, represent their colleges, universities and schools to the larger society. They have, therefore, a special duty to exemplify the best qualities of their institutions and to observe the highest standards of personal and professional conduct.” We’ll consider a framework for making ethical decisions, the difference between real ethical dilemmas and perceived ethical dilemmas, and we’ll put to the test some real-life examples.

As a leadership annual fund or major gift professional, you are a detective or anthropologist, uncovering clues to your donor's philanthropic interests, motivations and values. And, like a good detective or anthropologist, you have many different tools for gaining the information you need. In this session we will identify some of the critical skills needed to be a strategic listener and observer as well as an active participant in relationship building.

As your career advances you will face many opportunities and challenges…none so complex as learning how to effectively manage yourself in the various roles you play from day to day (or minute to minute!). This interactive conversation will focus on how to manage up, down, directly, through influence and through change management…all while sharpening your own working style and being part of a high functioning organization.

Do people read emails anymore? Yes—they do. But not the way you think. This talk will show you exactly how to write subject lines, optimize your links, and lay out your email copy so your message gets across. In this session, you’ll learn: How to write good subject lines that increase open rates. Typical email reading patterns and how to use them to your advantage. How to appropriately use formatting and white space. Recommendations on sentence structure and reading level. How to use links and buttons to guarantee click-through. A quick way to test if your email will get read. This session is useful for everyone, whether you send mass emails or just internal ones.

There’s no shortage of projects and priorities. How do you make sure you’re making the most of your limited resources and focusing on what matters most to your institution? In this presentation, Mike Barzacchini will share a planning process and tools for organizing your marketing, communication, and other advancement efforts to move your institution’s strategic priorities forward. The session will also include tools to help you share your story with internal stakeholders to gain buy-in and support.

So, you have a great idea but aren’t sure how to get the green light. Have been asked to take on developing a new program to engage alumni and donors, but don’t know where to start? In this session, we will cover the ins and outs of strategic planning not just at the organization-wide level, but also at the program or department level. We will cover the why, approaches for ensuring ROI, managing outcomes, aligning resources, and lead an interactive exercise to support the development of meaningful roadmaps.

Why do some fundraising & advancement professionals thrive where others struggle? What can we learn from individuals who arrive at the highest levels of performance? How might recent studies of expert performers inform our approach to our work? We will explore these questions and review techniques that are essential to our craft. Join us and discover why advancement stars are made and not born.

Analyzing your prospect data is a critical component of campaign management before, during and after the campaign. Review analytics projects you can do to get ready, stay on track, and learn lessons to apply to your next campaign. Discuss setting campaign goals, gift table development, prospect pool maturity analysis, campaign revenue projection, identifying problem areas during the campaign, and reviewing your campaign when it’s over.