It will happen if it hasn’t already. You and/or members of your team must face a difficult decision. Not a black or white issue, but one of those grey areas with multiple points of view, involving board members, top donors, staff leaders, colleagues, faculty members, or someone you supervise or report to. What to do? In this case-study-based discussion, we give you a researched approach to working through real situations advancement professionals just like you have faced. You will walk away with new insights, tools, and strategies that will help you and your team, operate at the highest ethical standards.

Leadership has many dimensions and can be defined in a range of ways, but what does it mean to be a leader? Many books have been written about how to turn yourself into a leader: stand taller, be more confident, be decisive, be collaborative, talk more, talk less. But at some point, can’t you just be yourself and also be an effective leader? This session will be a dynamic conversation about how you develop your own personal brand of leadership, adapt it to your team and environment, and remain authentic to who you are and your life experiences.

Over the past decade, higher education has shifted from having our faculty experts comment during election years to candidates using our work and missions as polarizing talking points. Regardless of your role in marketing or communications, grasping the interconnected nature of higher education and politics will empower you to be more effective in your role. Teresa will provide vital tools for proactive, strategic, and thoughtful action. In addition, this session will provide data and national trends from the current election year to frame how we can help our leaders look around corners and return to strategically communicating with our internal and external stakeholders to remain true to our strategic foci and key messages. Teresa will share what works in a polarizing environment, what we need to plan for in the coming months, and how we should position our expertise for different stakeholders so we can have a leadership role in shaping our own narratives and our institutions’ reputations.

Our alumni aren’t just names on a list, they’re constituents, stakeholders, potential life partners … a most valuable resource for our institutions. They want and deserve access (to a degree), a voice (always), and to be advocated for (who doesn’t!), so how we communicate with them—to open a relationship or to deepen one—is crucial. Let’s review strategies and deliverables for interacting with these important and often far-flung community members.

Known for creative and innovative marketing campaigns, Ashley Budd is one of the most influential voices in education marketing and fundraising. In her popular creative brainstorming class, Ashley shares how she crafts timely and relevant messages, visuals, stories, and digital content through division-wide brainstorming sessions. Learn her brainstorming framework for bringing teams together and solidifying buy-in for creative projects. Ashley will share how to leverage online tools, create an audience mindset, lean on team member strengths, and make it fun!

Most external facing advancement officers have experienced an uncomfortable, offensive, tricky, or harmful donor interaction. Perhaps you have. If not, chances are you will. Power dynamics is real, and it is easy to feel as if the donor, volunteer, or potential donor has ALL the power. In this hands-on workshop, we’ll equip you with tools and tactics to help you navigate difficult donor situations in the moment, follow-up actions, and ways to create strategies that will minimize troubling donor interactions in the future.

What's a Gift Agreement? Why are they necessary? We'll cover the critical importance of a properly written Gift Agreement, what it should and should not include and how it benefits both your institution and the donor. The session will include stories 'from the road' about how fundraisers navigate conversations with prospects, ensuring that we facilitate the philanthropic impact they want to make while staying compliant as an organization.

Affinity and Identity-based alumni engagement is a powerful strategy framework designed to foster stronger connections with our communities. Rather than solely organizing events and solicitations on graduating class identity, this framework leverages an individual's interest and identity to engage more effectively. In this session, we will discuss the “magic of 3” and how to optimize relationship building using affinity and identity to achieve successful outcomes including deeper connections, better event attendance, and stronger fundraising.

As your opportunities and career advance, you will face ups, downs and everything in between. Ideally, you will learn how to choreograph your energy through conscious and effective management techniques. This interactive session will focus on managing up, down, diagonally and sideways using skills of collaboration, compromise, influence and change management.

Elevate your institution's alumni engagement and achieve meaningful returns by joining our session on "Maximizing Alumni Event ROI Through Effective Operational Support." Discover the critical role of operational excellence in driving successful alumni events and learn how advancement services can provide the streamlined support necessary to exceed expectations. We will explore best practices in planning, execution, and post-event analysis, offering practical strategies to maximize event ROI and enhance future success. Gain valuable insights and actionable tools to transform your alumni events into impactful, ROI-driven successes. Don't miss this opportunity to refine your approach to alumni engagement and operational excellence!

“Without data, you're just another person with an opinion." Explore the essentials of using data for effective measurement and reporting in fundraising. Understand the different types of reports your prospect development shop may need and how each type drives your strategy. Learn what to measure, why it matters, and identify key performance indicators (KPIs) for benchmarking.

What is our purpose in doing good stewardship and building meaningful relationships with our donors? How do we retain donors and inspire them to keep giving? Our best future donors are our current philanthropic partners already invested in our mission and our future. Explore the why and how of stewardship that results in substantive relationships with donors who are inspired, generous, joyous and invested in our institutions.

It is more than a meeting: it is ensuring success in every stage of a significant solicitation. We often think of a solicitation as a singular event, the moment when we "ask for the order." In this session, we will look at personal solicitation in a broader context, by discussing the five stages of the solicitation process, beginning with the call to request an appointment and concluding with post-solicitation follow-up. Our goal will be to understand how a thoughtful and rigorous approach to each stage can help ensure the best possible outcome in your solicitation of a high-potential prospect.

Your leadership annual giving program represents a dedicated group of donors who provide vital unrestricted support year after year. But have you maximized the full potential of this engaged constituency? This session will explore strategies for leveraging your leadership annual giving society to elevate your overall fundraising efforts.

Yes, you will spend many an hour at various events representing and serving your institution. You are also likely to quickly discover that some events result in better outcomes than others. In this session we will consider what can make or break an event in terms of both institutional planning and personal participation--as both are key to success!

One of the joys of fundraising for any organization is the relationships developed with our volunteers – those people who care so deeply about your institution that they are willing to commit their time, energy, ideas, connections, and financial support to your school. We will discuss the value of involving volunteers with your institution, volunteer recruitment strategies, how to engage and partner with volunteers, and how to maintain the post-volunteer relationship.

A Giving Day is a 24-hour (or longer) fundraising event aimed at bringing communities together to raise awareness for a specific cause, increase engagement, and drive donations. For many, a successful Giving Day lies in its time-sensitive nature: donors have just one day—24 hours—to support a cause and reach goals. This time-boxed theme creates urgency and excitement and can provide a jolt of adrenaline to any campaign. In this session we’ll talk about how to showcase personal donor testimonials, examples of great Giving Day storytelling, big ideas, things that didn’t work just right, and how to engage donors, faculty, staff, and more to spread the word and motivate individuals to get involved, raise awareness, and ultimately make a gift, or two.

Join us for an insightful presentation on the significance of student philanthropy at our organizations. We will explore how educating students about philanthropy through initiatives such as senior gift campaigns and awareness drives fosters a culture of giving that lasts beyond their time on campus. Attendees will learn best practices for implementing a robust student philanthropy program and understand the lasting impact of instilling philanthropic values in students before they graduate. Walk away with practical strategies to nurture the next generation of engaged and generous alumni.

Strategic and generative conversations are at the heart of our work. Questioning and listening are powerful life skills. First, they will help you create productive donor relationships. What organizations do you support with your philanthropy? Where are we on your list of philanthropies? How do you make your philanthropic decisions? What has been your most meaningful gift? Quality questions elicit amazing information that will guide you in the solicitation process and help you build relationships on campus with your supervisor, peers and faculty members. Learn how to develop questions instead of talking points that will inform your gift strategy, advance relationships, and result in a joyful, generous "Yes" to your request for increased engagement with your institution, a significant gift to one of your priorities or for whatever you were hoping that volunteer or colleague would do to help you achieve your goals.

Turn up the heat on your cold calls and keep the door open after your first visit. Learn how to get the appointment, how to start the conversation and keep it on track, and most important, how to end the visit ensuring a productive next step. Have to solicit on that first call? We'll cover that as well. The development professional who masters and enjoys cold calls and first visits is destined for success.

Connecting annual giving and major gifts programs is crucial for development organizations to build a robust donor pipeline, foster donor engagement and loyalty, and gain valuable insights into donor behavior. This integration ensures financial stability by providing a steady income stream while securing funds for major projects. Lean how to shape a mindset that enables long-term donor strategy, allows for personalized engagement, and strengthens your craft as a fundraiser.

Parent engagement and fundraising efforts pose unique challenges to a traditional development program. With parents, there tends to be a narrow window of opportunity for engaging, cultivating, soliciting and stewarding parents, so we must thoughtfully plan the critical fundraising touches along the way - from the admissions cycle through graduation. If we do this well we can achieve our goals and provide rewarding experiences for our parents and families. Let's explore the journey of parents/families and discuss ways to optimize fundraising opportunities along the way.