11:00 AM

Registration and Marketplace Opening 

1:00-2:30 PM

Summit Welcome by Sue Cunningham, and Opening Key Session: 

The Great Recalibration: Creating Employee Centric Cultures    

At the publishing date of this program many of our institutions are still experiencing a major shift in talent. Our opening key speaker, Rahaf Harfoush, is a Strategist, Digital Anthropologist, and Best-Selling Author who focuses on the intersections of emerging technology, innovation, and digital culture. Her research centres on the human impacts of artificial intelligence, algorithms, social networks, and big data. Her latest book, entitled “Hustle & Float” (February 2019) reveals how the collision of disruptive technologies and centuries-old beliefs about work, is creating an untenable tension for workers in the idea economy, and what organizations need to do to help their creatives thrive. She will help us understand how to motivate and drive up happiness for our teams in the modern workplace.   

Speaker: Rahaf Harfoush 

2:30-3:00

Refreshment break in Marketplace  

3:00 – 4:15

Leading Ethically: Crucial Conversations around the Leadership Table  

In this mainstage plenary session, a panel of senior advancement leaders from across disciplines and institution types will share candid experiences and insights about navigating difficult leadership challenges. They will help us look beyond ethical statements and toward ethical actions. We will consider the larger institutional, educational, and societal context: efforts to divest our endowments, acknowledging painful parts of our institutional history, and the challenges in alumni relations when institutions choose to make a stand. 

Terry Flannery, Senior Vice President & COO, CASE (effective July 1, 2022); Mo Cotton Kelly, Senior Vice President for Stakeholder Engagement and Chief Operating Officer, The UConn Foundation, University of Connecticut; Brian Hastings, President and CEO, University of Nebraska Foundation; and Rachel Sandison, Deputy Vice Chancellor, External Engagement, and Vice Principal, External Relations, University of Glasgow 

4:15-4:45:

Coffee Break in Marketplace 

4:45-5:45

Elective Sessions  

• Key Session Reaction Roundtable
  
  New to the Summit this year, we are creating space for you to discuss how the big ideas surfaced in our plenary sessions can be translated into action that moves your institutions forward or understanding that you can apply to your current leadership challenges.  

  Facilitator: Jesse Pisors, Vice President for University Relations and Advancement, Texas A&M University- San Antonio 

• Role of Alumni Associations in Capital Campaigns 
  
  In the evolution of major campaigns, engagement goals are becoming more common as a major part of a campus-wide campaign. In this session, we will hear from a few leaders from CAAE about their successes and challenges. We will also better understand how widespread the practice of engagement goals in a campaign are through some real time surveying of the group. Stimulating conversation around this topic is a given.

  Moderator: Ryan Chreist, Assistant Vice Chancellor and Executive Director, CU Alumni Association, University of Colorado, Boulder; Dianna DeBlaere, Director, Alumni Engagement and Operations, University of British Columbia; Whitney Espich, Chief Executive Officer, MIT Alumni Association; and Mike Pedé, Associate VP for Alumni Relations, University of Houston 

• Leading Change: Building Resilient Shops Through Succession Planning 
  
  All philanthropy teams must grow and evolve.  It is through successful planned transitions that these same teams stay healthy and vibrant.  Succession planning is key to both internal leadership development as well as future planning for possible transitions.  This facilitated session will tap into the experience of both the audience and those leading the discussion.  Each participant will have a chance discuss succession planning through small group discussions.  Key topics include role mapping, evaluating potential, retention strategies for up and coming leaders, and internal communication of succession strategies. 
  
  
  
  Ben Golding, President and Chief Executive Officer, Advancement Resources and Alison Traub, Executive Director of Development and Alumni Relations, University of Cambridge 

• Essential Modern Leadership for Happy, High-Performing Teams
  
  High potential, talented contributors are looking for leaders who mentor, coach, advocate, and empower. As leaders, it’s important to take time to assess our own abilities and characteristics that enable and enhance a healthy working environment. 

  Use this hour to get introspective and learn how you can level up your core leadership skills toward a goal of helping your team thrive.  

  Gia Soublet, Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement, North Carolina Central University 

• Ideas Reservoir: Using Proven Principles to Create or Enhance Your Institution’s Global Brand 
  
  A good institutional brand strategy helps us understand both who we are and what we want to be. Unfortunately, they are rare in the school and university sector for a few key reasons. Building and implementing successful brand strategy for education requires pulling together diverse and complex portfolios, strong leadership from executives and marketing colleagues, and buy-in from all manner of stakeholders.  

  These challenges are far from insurmountable. You can make progress to close the gap between how your institution presents itself and how it is perceived.  

  This session will review brand archetypes from the consumer and retail sectors who have achieved distinction in their markets. You’ll then see how the principles behind successful consumer brand strategies can be used to great effect in a global and diverse set of education institutions.  

  You’ll leave the session armed with examples and tools that will help you inspire and inform your ability to boost your institution’s reputation and profile.  

  Michael Lavery, CEO, Brand & Reputation; and Interim Vice President for Membership Marketing and Communications, CASE   

• The Fundraising Throwdown! 
  
  In this interactive event, two teams of experienced fundraisers will tackle a surprise campaign challenge, live, in a cooking-show inspired competition! They'll accept your feedback as they "cook," and you'll determine their fate over three rounds of twists and surprises. See how things unfold live as the teams respond and experienced fundraisers share their perspectives on today's biggest advancement challenges. You’ll decide what happens at the end of each round and who will be crowned the Throwdown champions. Be ready to offer your take on key topics, including organizing complex campaigns, balancing revenue and participation, and engaging an inclusive donor base. It's a CASE session like nothing you've seen before! 
  
  
  
  Players:  
  
  Willie Jude II, Vice Chancellor for Advancement, University of Wisconsin, Parkside 
  
  Brent Swinton, Vice President for Institutional Advancement Executive Director of the BSU Foundation, Bowie State University 
  
  Christina Sebastian, Senior Executive Director, Donor Relations and Broad-based Marketing, Columbia University in the City of New York 
  
  Geoff Bartlett, Assistant Vice President for Strategic Initiatives, University at Buffalo 
  
  Facilitators: Chad Warren, Meg Weber, Greta Daniels, and Justin Marquart, RNL 

5:45-6:45

Welcome Reception in Marketplace 

7:30-8:30

Breakfast in Marketplace 

8:30-9:45 

Featured Sessions  

Each of the following sessions will be offered twice, or as a Part I and II that can be attended independently, please review the session description for details. 

These sessions will be repeated at 10:30 

• How to Prevent Crises at Your University 
  
  Colleges and universities are, by their very nature, at the crossroads of a variety of uniquely difficult issues—from racial justice and freedom of speech to rankings, athletics, Title IX, admissions, financial and accreditation scandals—all supercharged by political polarization, the fragmentation of traditional stakeholder groups, and social media.  

  What is anticipated to be the first “normal” semester in quite some time, is however, likely to be anything but.   

  While an effective response when issues arise on campus is imperative, the better (and saner) approach is to be proactive—to take steps now to prepare for these challenges and to prevent a crisis from happening in the first place! 

  As we start to prepare for our return to campus this fall, it is important to ask, is your school ready? 

  In this interactive session, we will: 

  • Learn about the importance of risk-sensing and how to keep ahead of emerging issues and threats; 

  • Practice, through a short team exercise, the challenge of making tough decisions when faced with competing values, priorities, and stakeholder perspectives; and 

  • Evaluate how prepared your institution is to effectively manage a significant issue or crisis

  Simon Barker, Managing Partner, and Jen Rettig, Partner, Client Lead, Blue Moon Consulting Group 

• Brand Impact Through Storytelling 
  
  Hear from Award-Winning Director, Creative Director and Storyteller Ritesh Gupta on how he helps major brands inspire their audiences & build brand loyalty through the power of storytelling.  

  Ritesh will walk through how he utilizes his creative and analytic process to take a brand's mission and convert it into content that engages audiences and delivers business results.  

  Ritesh is known for creating some of the most talked-about and awarded campaigns in advertising over the past half dozen years. He most recently was the creative lead on the culturally impactful campaign for Beats titled "You Love Me", which was the most awarded ad campaign globally of 2021. In addition to Beats, Ritesh has created several viral hits for brands like Budweiser earning Webby, Cannes Lions and Clio awards, as well as Comcast, ESPN Films, Wrigley Gum and more. Ritesh also has a special affinity for, and understanding of, higher education having served on the FSU Alumni Association National Board of Directors for six years and speaking on campus in classes whenever asked. Gupta is known for his high energy, visionary storytelling, and passion for pushing clients to answer the why with concise clarity. 

  Ritesh Gupta, Filmmaker 

• CASE-GG+A Research and Advanced Practices Symposium, Parts 1 and 2 
  
  (Part II  will take place from 10:30-11:45)  

  Part 1 –Remote Engagement: Data and Insights from Zoom  
  
  What has Zoom learned about remote engagement over the past two years? When the world turned to Zoom to keep their organizations running, Zoom captured extensive data on user experience and practices. Join Zoom leaders as they share insights on what they have learned about remote engagement and the implications it has for the future. The CASE-GG+A Research and Advanced Practices Symposium showcases active research and innovation in the field to foster lively engagement with leading practitioners.  
  
  
  
  Ted Brodheim, Global CIO Advisor, Zoom, David Palmer, Vice President of Advancement, University of Toronto 

  Part 2 –Remote Engagement: Insights from Advancement Practitioners            
  
  Join a lively discussion about the future of remote engagement. A panel of advancement leaders will respond to the insights shared by Zoom in part 1 and highlight effective remote engagement practices from their institutions. The CASE-GG+A Research and Advanced    Practices Symposium showcases active research and innovation in the field to foster lively engagement with leading practitioners. 

  Moderator: Tim Dolan, Vice President of Advancement and UH Foundation CEO, University of Hawai’I,
  
  Panelists: Ted Brodheim, Global CIO Advisor, Zoom, Cindy Fredrick, Associate Vice President, Engagement & Annual Giving, University of Virginia; Martin Shell, Vice President and Chief External Relations Officer, Stanford University; and Rhea Turteltaub, Vice Chancellor, External Affairs, University of California, Los Angeles 

9:45-10:30 

Break in Marketplace

10:30-11:45

Featured Sessions  repeated from 8:30-9:45.  

12:00-1:30 PM

CASE Distinguished Service Awards Luncheon 

1:30-2:00 

Dessert Reception in Marketplace 

2:00-3:00

Key Session: Free Speech: Lessons from History 

Jacob Mchangama has written and commented extensively on free speech and human rights in international media outlets including the Economist, Washington Post, BBC, CBS News, NPR, CNN, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Wall Street Journal, Politico as well as academic and peer-reviewed journals. He is the producer and narrator of the podcast “Clear and Present” Danger: A History of Free Speech and the critically acclaimed book “Free Speech: A History From Socrates to Social Media” published by Basic Books in 2022. 

Jacob will address current global free speech controversies and contextualize them through the prism of what we can learn from 2,500 years of free speech history. He will discuss on why the culture of free speech is essential for this freedom to flourish in practice and why such a culture depends as much on a commitment to tolerance and open-mindedness in cultural and educational institutions (colleges, universities, media outlets etc) as on the legal provisions in constitutions.  

You’ll leave this session prepared to discuss topics of free speech and contribute to your institution’s responses to the current free speech dialogues on your campuses.   

3:00-3:30 

Coffee Break in Marketplace 

3:30-4:30 

Elective Sessions  

• Key Session Reaction Roundtable: 
  
  New to the Summit this year, we are creating space for you to discuss how the big ideas surfaced in our plenary sessions can be translated into action that moves your institutions forward or understanding that you can apply to your current leadership challenges.  

• Gift Officer Management - Lessons from the Pandemic 
  
  As we move beyond the pandemic, what are the lessons that we learned as we adjusted to remote work, virtual meetings, hiring, talent management, and adjusting our metrics?  As higher education advancement made rapid changes to our gift officer work, we learned many lessons that will be applied to our major and principal gift work in the coming years. This session will explore these new learnings and discuss how they can be applied in this dynamic panel presentation. 

  Kathi Dantley Warren, Vice President, Development and Alumni Relations, Rice University, David Lively, Senior Associate Vice President, Northwestern University, and Matt Ter Molen, CAO and Senior Vice President, Advancement and External Affairs, Syracuse University 

• Mind the Gap. The Strategic Advancement Approach: Closing the Gap Between Institutional Performance and Reputation 
  
  Using the University of Exeter, UK as a study we will explore how data from brand trackers and global league table analysis has helped build the strategic approach to reputation management, league table improvement and ultimately increased budgets to support this important area for advancement. 
  
   
  
  The session will cover:

  • Creating brand strategy and focused campaigns using data.  Discover how to lead and deliver on strategic objectives to advance research and build a global reputation.  

  • Coach and engage leadership and academic “brand champions” using your influence. Discuss critical elements needed to create and nurture empowered teams.  

  • How The University of Exeter (UK)  built a reputation improvement process that delivered on its purpose, secured institutional buy-in and increased budgetary support of advancement.  

  Jane Chafer, Director of Marketing, Recruitment, Communications and Global, University of Exeter 

• CASE Research -- Putting Advancement Metrics Into Practice for Leaders 
  
  How am I doing?  Is it good?  So, what?  In this session, you’ll learn how these questions can set you up for successful benchmarking and analysis.  You’ll also hear about the first prerequisite to benchmarking—a common set of counting practices, as established in the newly released CASE Global Reporting Standards. 
  
  
  
  You’ll walk away from this session with:

  • An understanding of how CASE’s Global Reporting Standards can inform your institution’s counting practices and gift acceptance policies based on a unified definition of Educational Philanthropy;

  • Deeper knowledge of the resources available from CASE for benchmarking across the advancement spectrum; 

  • Insights from the latest global and regional philanthropic trends; 

  • A deep dive into the newly-released Alumni Engagement Metrics report for FY21 and why they matter to all advancement leaders; 

  • Suggestions for applying data and benchmarks for strategic change 

  
  
  Jenny Cooke Smith, Senior Director, AMAtlas Services, CASE and Cara Giacomini, Vice President, Data, Research, and Technology, CASE

• A Strategy of Luck: Focusing on How We Work to Drive Institutional Success 
  
  So much of advancement focuses on metrics, treating our programmes like a simple production line, however what if we start to think of these activities differently? 

  The University of Bristol in the UK has experienced 350% growth of new funds raised over the past five years. Key to this success was an ambitious and empowered team supported by a culture of trust, motivated by a common goal that focused on the “how” rather than the “what” of advancement work.  

  We will explore what enabled this shift, and the behaviors that resulted from it, which ultimately enabled sustainable growth and a team that was luckier than ever before! 

  Andrew Monk, Executive Director of DARO, University of Bristol 

• Rising to the Moment: Supporting Staff and Leading an Organization When Faced with Donor Misconduct and Harassment 
  
  For most of the history of our profession, sexual misconduct and other forms of harassment have been silently endured, particularly when perpetrated by external stakeholders. This gap in institutional response and support, particularly in situations involving donors or volunteers, can significantly impact employee retention and performance. Addressing unwanted and unwelcome behaviors requires a multifaceted approach and broad support industry-wide, including training to empower and protect staff members as well as transparent reporting and remediation processes. 

   Launched in 2019, the Collaborative for Respectful Workplaces in Higher Ed Advancement (CRW) is a group of advancement peers from 22 higher ed institutions who seek to provide leadership awareness, staff training, and to develop a guiding framework to support institutional decision-making.  

  During this highly interactive discussion, you will:  

  • Develop an awareness and understanding of the prevalence of harassment in the field  

  • Understand the challenges and nuances of dealing with harassment involving external stakeholders 

  • Strategize how best to lead your institution in advancing a safe and respectful fundraising environment  

  • Learn from peers about what steps they have taken to advance change at their institutions 

  Karen Isble, Vice President for College Advancement, Kalamazoo College

4:30-5:30

Wine and Cheese Reception in Marketplace 

7:30-8:30 AM

Breakfast in Marketplace 

8:30-9:30

Understanding and Communicating the Value of Higher Education 

In an era of declining trust in big societal institutions, education is no exception. We know the value of our institutions and yet sometimes their contributions of get muddled in the public conversation. As we close the annual CASE Summit for Advancement Leaders, this session will provide insights about messages that resonate. It will equip you with methods to engage in collective action and collaboration within our communities that work to solve problems and advance education to transform lives and society.Hear from a stellar panel of leaders with experiences in different continents and contexts toward the same goal: influencing the narrative and public perception of our sector. 

Moderator: Sue Cunningham, President and CEO, CASE;  Mary Gresch, Senior Vice President for University Advancement, University of Washington; Barbara Miles, Vice-President (Advancement), Australian National University; and Dale Wright, Associate Vice Chancellor for Advancement, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 

9:30-10:00

Coffee Break in Marketplace 

10:00-11:00

Closing Session  

Creating Cultures of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging 

In this closing key session, you’ll gain insights about the critical steps you can take to build a more inclusive and diverse staff. Evaluate how your current culture reflects (or doesn’t reflect) best practices in diversity and inclusivity. You’ll leave with a better understanding of the positive outcomes associated with a more diverse team and a positive culture of belonging.  

Discussion Leader: Ben Fiore-Walker, Senior Director, Opportunity and Inclusion Center, CASE; Sergio Gonzalez, Senior Vice President for Advancement, Brown University; Christine Pina, Chief Advancement Officer, Miss Porter’s School; and Ben Plummer-Powell, Chief Philanthropy & Global Engagement Officer, The London School of Economics and Political Science