Pre-Conference Master Sessions

Dig deeper into an issue and attend one of our 3-hour pre-conference Master Sessions.

Sunday, 8:30 – 11:30 am

$99, Registration Required

Building Innovation Capacity: The Essential Toolkit to Engaging New Generations

Development

Are you effectively developing the next generation of philanthropists?

Human-centered design is a proven methodology in the world of innovation, with Stanford's d.school at its heart. In this workshop, we'll use some of the key principles of the design process taught at Stanford's d.school - empathize, innovate, prototype, and iterate - to get your shop ready to engage and educate these emerging donors.

We’ll dive into one university’s human-centered design approach to the traditional Senior Class Gift program as a case study. Senior Class Gift programs are a common higher education strategy to build the alumni participation pipeline and identify and cultivate future major donors. Yet, despite increasingly heroic efforts, participation rates have dropped by 50 percent over the past two decades. The University of St. Thomas jettisoned their traditional Senior Class Gift and revamped their strategy using design thinking principles.

In this session, we will discuss human-centered design principles and how they can be leveraged to create solutions to even the most complex philanthropic challenges. We will share examples of online and offline engagement from some of today's most creative shops. This will be an interactive workshop.

Learning Objective(s):

• Participants will be able to understand how the environment for alumni philanthropy has changed, including Gen Z attitudes toward philanthropy
• Participants will be able to explain human-centered design principles & processes and how those tools can be applied in their own shops
• Participants will be able to articulate the purpose, value proposition, and key strategic areas for focus behind a Senior Class Gift initiative and other participation efforts targeted to Gen Z
• Participants will be able to share examples of cutting-edge frameworks for creating a culture of philanthropy in use at other organizations -- and leave feeling equipped to develop their own

Speaker(s): Felicity Meu, Director of Partner Success, GiveCampus; Ariene Willkom, Assistant Director of Annual Giving, University of St. Thomas; Jessica Etten, Senior Director of Alumni Engagement and Annual Giving, University of St. Thomas; Kestrel Linder, Co-founder and CEO, GiveCampus

CASE’s Advancement Analytics Initiative: VSE Insights, Alumni Engagement Metrics, and Presenting Comparative Data

Alumni Relations

In July 2018, CASE announced “AMAtlas,” our focus on being the global resource for education advancement metrics, benchmarks and analytics. This Master Session about AMAtlas will have three one-hour components. The first hour will offer insights from the most recent Voluntary Support of Education (“VSE”) survey, including a look at historical trends and investments in the advancement office, data that has been gathered since 2009. The second hour will focus on CASE’s new Alumni Engagement Metrics survey, our new industry-wide framework for measuring alumni engagement with alma mater; we’ll discuss and answer questions about the definitions in the survey and the broader applicability of the framework. The last hour we’ll spend on how to present comparative metrics to senior management and volunteer leadership. You may have great information at your fingertips, but what are the best ways to provide clarity to those who may not have all the details?

Speaker(s): David Bass, Senior Director, Research, CASE

Developing a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Plan for your Advancement Program

Personal Development

Diversity, equity & inclusion continue to be priorities for many Higher Education institutions, but how does this translate to Advancement?  Beyond hiring and retaining a diverse workforce, where and how should we be focusing our efforts towards Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion?  This section is designed to provide advancement professionals at every level an opportunity to explore practical ways to build a DE&I strategy for leveraging the benefits of a diverse workforce and engaging with diverse prospects, donors, and alumni.

Learning Objective(s):

• Conduct and assessment of where their Advancement program is in relation to 4 strategic priorities for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I)
• Develop a set of practical next steps for moving forward towards their institutional DE&I goals
• Share best and promising practices with institutional peers

Speaker(s): Charleon Jeffries, Director, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Pennsylvania State University

Don’t Hate Them Because They’re Beautiful:  Well-Designed Reports Make an Impact

Advancement Services

We’ve been taught not to “judge a book by its cover,” but the truth is that the design of a report has a profound impact on readers. From colors, shapes, size variations, and placement along a visual plane, learn how your design decisions can optimize fundraising analytics tools for use in strategic decision making. 

Learning Objective(s):

• Have a basic grasp of scientific research in the field of perception and the value of employing that body of knowledge in report design
• Understand specific concepts of how humans perceive (e.g. size, shapes, colors) and how those concepts can inform the ways that reports are designed.
• Identify the design attributes most valued by senior executives and volunteers when reviewing fundraising reports.

Speaker(s):

Ron Eisenstein, Partner, The Solas Group

Sara Acosta, Vice President for University Advancement, Dominican University