The demands and expectations placed on institutional leaders continue to increase and change. If we are to see fundraising playing an increased and more impactful role in our universities, it needs to be more strategically positioned.

We will share thoughts and trends on the evolution of leadership both institutional and philanthropic across UK HE and will look at the differences between mission groups. If more of our institutions are to make significant progress in fundraising, how important is it that we crack the leadership thing?

Vice-Chancellors and development professionals will share their thoughts and address some tough questions: what does the profession need to look like to face future challenges? Are leaders willing to make sustained investments to see the returns?

Alumni relations and fundraising are universal. It may take different forms and it will be constantly evolving, but they are common to all cultures.

Culture is real. Navigating your way through different cultures is complex and challenging. Yet, cultural literacy is a must-have not a nice-to-have. You will be a better person – as an individual, as a member of your community and as a professional, if you develop your cultural literacy.

This session will focus on cultural competence with the emphasis on cultural intelligence and understanding bias, looking at these through the lens of advancement. Flo and Maarten will address questions such as: how to be an active, attentive and authentic listener; starting with curiosity and humility, understand and be comfortable with your own culture; use it as the platform to understand others. The session will be a presentation liberally interspersed with a mix of video and real-life examples from the speakers and an invitation to all participants to share theirs.

Join Blackbaud’s customer success managers, David Upcraft and Rebecca Williams, for a session packed with insights and best practices to help your institution better leverage technology and data to achieve core business outcomes. They’ll share advancement trends and innovations for identifying and stewarding key influencers, embedding integrated supporter journeys, harnessing rich data from across the institution, engaging new audiences and networks, and ultimately growing your philanthropic income – backed by practical examples from other universities.

Have you been trying to imagine a new-normal, or just impatient to get back to the old-normal? Maybe you’ve taken some time to interrogate what normal was, and wonder whether Advancement in 2019 was really serving our institutions and our communities - or were we just going through the motions? While the public asks fundamental questions about the value and quality of Higher Education and our institutions are shaken by repeated financial, social, and health crises, can we really keep doing what we’ve always done?

Joshua R. Newton serves as Senior Vice-President, Advancement and Alumni Engagement at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Josh is known for his disruptive approach to fundraising and engagement practices, often challenging long-held beliefs and truisms in pursuit of a better experience for Emory alumni and better results for the university. A champion of people, relationships, and insightful strategy over the traditional Advancement playbook, Josh will share his thoughts and vision for our sector in a post-pandemic world and try to help us imagine: what happens now?   

Being a fundraiser is surprisingly similar to being a parent or carer: from helping a donor to take their first steps in philanthropy to celebrating their graduation and creating special memories along the way. Join new mum Hannah Langford as she reflects on lessons learned from her first year as a mum including how to manage difficult personalities, expectations, and boundaries, treating everyone equally, explaining differences and doing your share of the chores...and all without tears before bedtime!

Whether you are being encouraged to ‘tap the goldmine’ of alumni in the States or you have been fundraising there for years, let’s get together to share our expertise. During the hour, I will open the floor for your questions, share my war (and success) stories and encourage other attendees to make their recommendations too. Whether you want to learn about tax-efficient giving, ask about trip planning, or just hear about an established programme, this session will be a safe space for you to join others and ask anything or share everything related to US Fundraising. Let’s connect and support each other on this exciting mission.

How has the pandemic impacted your scholarship and stewardship practices? In this special roundtable, we’ll be discussing the challenges, trends and opportunities facing institutions, as we shine a light on what’s holding many back from creating impactful stewardship practices and improving student access to awards. Pre-pandemic, 82% of institutions stated their current way of managing awards did not meet their needs, and over half said their processes were not well organised. As a wave of digital evolution sweeps across higher education institutions’ out-dated and inefficient practices, how can scholarship and stewardship follow suit and embrace a digital-first experience?

COVID-19 has given HEIs a new urgency to fundraise for health research causes, and with many institutions looking to convert donors onto other causes as the pandemic, questions will start to arise as to where those donors move to. But health research is a tricky area where HEIs need to assert themselves as drivers of research while respecting the roles of charities whose sole focus is health research (and who often provide hundreds of millions of pounds of funding to HEIs). This session will encourage health research fundraisers to come together and network, sharing their challenges and strategies and moving towards a consensus of how HEIs could (and should) work with and around other health research charities in the marketplace.

With legacies being the fastest-growing charitable income stream in the coming decade and bequests to Higher Education being at the forefront of this growth, the potential for our sector is significant. This session will address how a legacy gift should not be seen as an alternative to lifetime giving, instead of working to grow and complement each other, and will cover topics such as:

• Why HEIs should be investing in legacy giving
• How to engage your loyal supporters in legacy giving and create a legacy campaign
• How to talk about legacies and how to ask for them
• How to engage your legacy pledgers to increase their lifetime giving too

Donor walls are a critical part of successful stewardship that help to build strong connections between you and your most generous donors. Whether you love getting creative to bring these to life or you spend time worrying that you’ll spell a name wrong, there’s no avoiding them.

We're now seeing inspiring examples of forward-thinking design, where recognition is central to capital projects from the start. But what about when you're starting from scratch? This session will share UCL’s journey to the 2019 unveiling of a donor wall recognising its Circle of Benefactors. From running a student design competition, to personally involving each donor in fabrication, hear how Advancement worked with Public Art to create something unique and meaningful for donors, but also authentic to UCL.