Monday, January 31 Program
Implicit Bias
Location: Centennial III-IV
Dr. Bentley L. Gibson is the founder of The Bias Adjuster, LLC, a consulting firm that addresses Diversity, Equity and Inclusion through assessment, professional development training and strategic planning. She will lead our workshop on implicit bias to increase awareness about the ways in which these biases impact educational outcomes. The session will also highlight the ways in which implicit biases influence everyday evaluations and interactions in our personal lives and work practices (i.e., fundraising, marketing and communication). Attendees will receive instructions before the session on how to assess their race, gender and sexuality biases using the Harvard Project Implicit Website
Dr. Bentley L Gibson, Founder, The Bias Adjuster
Balancing Act- Recognizing Donors through a DEI Lens
Donors want to feel special. We want to recognize them. What happens when recognizing the elite among our donors is in direct contradiction to our commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion? How can we say we’re committed to inclusivity when we have giving societies that are based solely on a donor’s capacity to give large amounts of money? What do giving and recognition societies look like in light of our commitment to DEI as an organization? Join us for the rethinking of donor recognition. How do we balance the need to recognize our donors while understanding innately that the way we currently do this alienates others? In this session we’ll take a hard look at ourselves and our donors and find out what to do in these situations.
Lynne Wester, Founder, Donor Relations Guru and Avery Howard, Director of Stewardship, University of Tennessee
And We’re LIVE: Redefining Virtual Programming through Social Media
In 2020, many of us experienced a drastic and unexpected shift to working remotely. And, for those of us who relied on in-person events to foster connections among our alumni audiences, this shift brought with it a pivot to virtual programming. With Zoom fatigue running high, the delightful spontaneity of conversation became increasingly difficult to replicate using the traditional webinar model. Learn how we redefined virtual programming in 2020 by working across teams at the Yale Alumni Association, leveraging social media platforms, and creating Yale Alumni LIVE. Yale Alumni LIVE is a social media series developed and led by the Yale Regional Clubs team, that utilizes the “live” feature on Instagram and Facebook to tell the stories of Yale alumni across the world. Yale Alumni LIVE has capitalized on the increased use of social media platforms during stay-at-home orders to reach our audiences without the need to log in or RSVP. This program has challenged the idea of what a virtual event can be, resulting in a vast display of alumni from all walks of life. Notable episodes include concerts, venue tours, a magician, an escape room, athletes, culinary experiences, and Yale’s very own living mascot Handsome Dan. Our 60-minute presentation will cover the communications goals of Yale Alumni LIVE, how we work together to produce and promote the shows, and how we have partnered with other teams across Yale University to build deeper experiences for our audiences. We will discuss how we set goals and track progress, cover the technical requirements for the program, and take a look at how we hope to continue to redefine programming through the use of hybrid event models and emerging social media tools.
Stefanie Stevens, Assistant Director, Regional Clubs, Yale Alumni Association and Crissa Violante, Associate Director, Digital Marketing, Yale Alumni Association
How the Nation’s Best University Magazines Tackled COVID and Other Tough Topics
From COVID-19 to the Black Lives Matter movement to challenges facing higher education, university magazines took on these tough topics with grace and professionalism in 2020 and produced some of the finest journalism out there. This session provides examples of award-winning material from some of the best writers, photographers and editors in the business and invites discussion about how approaching these subjects can shine a positive light on your institution.
Billy Liggett, Director of News & Publications, Campbell University
Major Gift Fundraising and Engagement Strategies for People of Color
The weekly headlines from companies, foundations and individuals about major and principal level gifts in support of diversity have become common for more than a year now. This increased focus on racial equity and social justice has raised awareness among colleges, universities and non-profits of opportunities to deepen the engagement and investment from people of color. The lack of diversity among advancement leaders and fundraisers has contributed to a lack of major gift level donors of color despite increased wealth and philanthropic awareness among diverse constituents. Ultimately, how much money are we leaving on the table by not consistently and strategically engaging people of color. So, in order to get different results, you must do things differently, but what and how? Higher education and the non-profit sector has often struggled to figure this out because it seems complicated, but progress can be made. This session will focus on examining key questions and discussing answers that will help address the following: How to adjust traditional strategies to engage diverse constituents? What are major gift opportunities that are likely to appeal to diverse donors? How does the changing national demographics on race and socio-economic status influence our views on affinity groups, funding priorities and overall alumni and constituent programming? Acknowledging the different experiences of its changing alumni body, this session will highlight Stanford University’s efforts through new diversity initiatives in fundraising and alumni engagement to enhance the success in building lifelong friends and increasing the investment of major gift donors of color. A candid and thoughtful discussion about diversity and fundraising with practical advice to help you make progress that impacts your philanthropy for today and tomorrow.
Henry Taylor, Senior Director of Development, Agnes Scott College
Shifting the Donor Landscape Paradigm: Strategies to Increase Engagement and Philanthropy among Donors of Color
Throughout history, the word “philanthropy” has been used almost exclusively to describe the generous giving of large sums of money from affluent Caucasian donors. Over the last two decades, “philanthropy” has begun to widen to include a larger swath of human generosity. This new definition now encompasses contributions not just from the wealthy, but from communities of color consisting of people from every income bracket. Still, major gift fundraisers overlook donors from a variety of demographic groups, even though about 14 percent of U.S. millionaires are from minority populations. As fundraisers, we must face the reality that our practices and methodologies have been built based on the traditions of white Americans. According to the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, the percentage of donors of color will increase from 27% to 47% by 2030. Our one-size-fits-all approach is increasingly proven to be anything but that. Now, we are presented with a critical inflection point that causes us to reevaluate our practices in order to reach a larger donor base that is diverse in its cultures and approach to philanthropy. The goal for fundraisers must be to meet all donors where they are. Given the current pressing social challenges, this effort has never been more important. This two-part session will allow participants to assess their organization’s diverse constituency landscape and establish a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) action plan to embed into their current fundraising initiatives. In the first half of the session, participants will work in small groups to assess their organization’s DEI goals, shortfalls, and opportunities. The second half of the session is designed to introduce DEI strategies that align with their fundraising plans and priorities. Participants will leave with a tangible action plan they can use to improve their individual donor engagement and the operations within their organization.
LaDaniel Gatling, II, Vice President for Institutional Advancement, Bennett College, Alyssia Coates, Director of Development for Diversity and Inclusion, Brown University, and Matthew Brandon, Chief Advancement Officer for Inclusion and Diversity, Virginia Tech
Redefining Leader Development: Using Challenges to Fuel Growth
Never before have we faced so many challenges at such a rapid rate, and never before have we needed strong leaders throughout all levels of an organization. More than ever, organizations need leaders who don’t just have the skills necessary to succeed but also have a greater sense of groundedness, maturity, and responsibility.
And yet so many leaders feel overwhelmed and stuck when it comes to developing their teams and themselves. In this session, we will pull back the curtain and share with you the theoretical foundation, best practices, and practical tools that we have used to accelerate leader development for over 20 years with a variety of industries and organizations, including being a trusted partner to the University System of Georgia for many years.
We will engage attendees throughout the session for an interactive time of learning as they experience various aspects of our program as well as discuss how to adapt the lessons, principles and curriculum to structure their own programs based on individual needs and resources.
Dr. Keith Eigel, Senior Faculty and Dr. Sara Musgrove, Senior Faculty, The Leaders Lyceum
The Art of the Ask: Strengthening Personal Solicitations Skills
Arthur Criscillis, Managing Partner of Alexander Haas, leads a super session addressing the key elements of working with individual prospects, from getting the first appointment, developing the strategy, soliciting the gift, handling objections, and closing the gift. Be prepared to garner some very practical information that you can utilize immediately. The first hour focuses on effective preparation for personal solicitation and explores strategies for getting the appointment — especially that critical first appointment—making the most of that initial visit and key steps in cultivation. In the second hour, Arthur will discuss soliciting the gift, with tips for presenting your request clearly and cogently. Recognizing that the answer to gift requests is often something other than “yes", he will also discuss ways to deal with potential objections and provide strategies for closing the gift. This session will send you home with new perspective on solicitation and enhanced skills to put to use immediately.
Arthur L. Criscillis, Managing Partner, Alexander Haas
Redefining Board Meetings: Engaging, Value-Added, and Effective
Are you redefining your board management and engagement for meetings? Learn tactics that can be instituted in working with your board members to engage them at the meeting - from time with students to problem solving to executive sessions with your leadership. Learn ways to engage with them virtually and in person. Have your board members come out of the meeting feeling like they made a difference and impacted your institution.
Angela Mills, Director of Alumni Relations, College of Engineering, Virginia Tech
Advocacy in Policy: Redefining our Processes to Address Discrimination in Alumni Programming
With the ever-changing world around us, how can alumni engagement programs best make sure everyone’s identities are valued in our programs and events? Georgia Tech Alumni Association Student and New Alumni Team take a difficult situation and redefine it into a learning opportunity through the creation of a nondiscrimination clause and educational resources to give to our alumni speakers. This ever-developing project has led us to work with campus partners, ethics and legal affairs offices, and other institutions to take a step towards a more inclusive and equitable Alumni Association.
Emily Laurence, Student Engagement Manager, Georgia Tech Alumni Association and Savannah Lockman, Student Engagement Coordinator, Georgia Institute of Technology
Onboarding for Excellence – Talent Development from Before Day 1
From the hiring through their tenure, the Office of Institutional Advancement at Rollins College has developed an extensive on-boarding, mentoring and professional development planning program that applies to every team member. Communications, meetings, and arrival readiness invite new teammates into the fold for their maximum productivity and professional satisfaction. Myrna and Vicky, who started at Rollins on the same day four years prior, embraced the Rollins College Service Excellence standards and lead this initiative for their programs resulting in a comprehensive onboarding adoption as prior teams have changed, and new teams have formed.
“As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is, that each of us has something that no one else has-or ever will have-something inside that is unique to all time. It's our job to encourage each other to discover that uniqueness and to provide ways of developing its expression." Fred Rogers, ’51 ‘75H Rollins College.
Myrna Bizer, Associate Vice President for Advancement and Vicky Medlock, Senior Director of Advancement Services, Rollins College
Growing Followers and Reach: The College of Nursing Instagram Following Doubled in Two Years and grew by 20% on Facebook
The rise of social media saturation has made it more important than ever to create relevant and engaging social content that optimizes your brand goals. With a strategic communications plan implemented in 2019, The College of Nursing has seen an expansion in reach and increased engagement on social platforms. Facebook likes increased by 20% and Instagram following more than doubled, leading to stronger student interaction, greater alumni involvement, and a positive impact on student recruitment. The College of Nursing communications team has success and experience with social media takeovers, utilizing user generated content, and connecting with audiences through story telling. This session is designed for brands with a basic to intermediate knowledge of social media who are looking to amplify their social channels. The session will explore key questions to design and implement a successful social media strategy.
Mollie Roe, Communications Manager, University of South Carolina
Moving Them Through the Pipeline | Young Alumni Campaign Commitments
Big time campaign commitment contributions often feel out of reach for young alumni causing young alumni to be disengaged from your campaign. The solution to get them engaged and committed? Campaign commitments at scale. Young alumni can make a significant impact over several years when it is laid out for them. Young alumni are used to receiving annual solicitations for participatory gifts. A campaign commitment gets them invested for the length of your campaign and perhaps most importantly puts them in the pipeline for further cultivation.
Scott Leighty, Elon University
Rediscover Discovery
The #1 way to ensure your university’s success & your future success as a fundraiser is ambitious, consistent discovery now. But, discovery is one of the hardest parts of fundraising! When you're getting in the door with amazing new potential donors, discovery can feel like an adventure. When you're slogging through endless names in your database and getting zero responses, discovery can feel overwhelming and oppressive. Join this session for a discovery refresher & 5 simple steps to make it less painful. Plus, because we're suckers for tools you can use right away, you'll get a downloadable timeline to help you structure & organize your discovery outreach.
Jenna Goodman, Founding Partner, Generous Change and John Smith, Associate Vice President for University Development, Tennessee Tech
Squad Goals: Engagement and Partnerships in the Community College World
This session will share engagement and partnership practices of a small community college foundation. Learn how a three-person team plans and executes successful fundraising events through partnerships with alumni, college divisions, and external partners.
Dr. Suzi Brown, Executive Vice President of Institutional Advancement, Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College
Connecting Community-Based Programs to Community-Focused Companies
Funding programmatic needs of colleges is often a top priority of Deans, however it can sometimes be the hardest sell for a donor. With competing priorities for unrestricted funds and “cash in the door yesterday,” it’s hard to inspire donors to make a major gift that will not sustain a legacy through endowment or cause them to gamble on a new program that has little data to support its hopeful success. Hear from two senior development officers and their path of identifying corporate and foundation partners to invest in seed funding to bring a new program to life.
CarolinaTIP, a bridge program supporting new teachers as they transition to a career in the classroom, was in its first year and in need of additional funding to grow its program and serve more teachers. Through careful investigation and collaboration, the UofSC College of Education worked with the Corporate and Foundation Philanthropy (CFP) team to cultivate a local company with ties to education to invest in CarolinaTIP. By involving the director of the program and providing frequent data to support the success of the teachers, the company went on to make subsequent investments totaling five years of support and brought about additional partnerships through advisory board establishments and leadership development.
The presenters will take you through the thoughtful steps of how the collaboration between CFP, unit fundraisers and a devoted academic partner transformed a one-time gift to a five-year gift and then subsequently led to the uncovering of three additional CFP gifts. This session will focus on the importance of approaching funders as a team, involving your academic partners and faculty, and building on gifts each year through thorough data collection and reporting.
Erin Eigenbrot, Senior Director of Development and Jennifer McCormack, Executive Director, Corporate and Foundation Philanthropy, University of South Carolina
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Luncheon
How can we lead our teams to become more effective in our work, and more inclusive in our approach?
Laura Morgan Roberts, professor of practice at Darden Business School of the University of Virginia researches and consults on the science of maximizing human potential in diverse organizations and communities. She has published over fifty research articles, teaching cases, and practitioner-oriented tools for strategically activating best selves through strength-based development. Her talk will help you think differently about how to lead your team through a focus on authenticity, positive identities, and extraordinary leadership impact.
Laura Morgan Roberts, Professor of Practice, Darden Business School of the University of Virginia
How the Powers of Annual Giving and Donor Stewardship Came Together (Gasp!) to Create a New Donor Loyalty Program
How long do you want to retain your donors? FOR-EV-ER! Us too. It’s why we combined our teams’ superpowers because consecutive giving is critical to the success of university fundraising moving forward. Learn how the Annual Giving and Donor Relations teams at the Florida State University Foundation built Forever FSU, a new donor loyalty program. From data and reporting to marketing and buybacks, we’ll cover it all. Forever FSU was years in the making, so whether you already have a program you want to revamp or are just getting started, learn from our successes and pitfalls as you influence donor-giving behavior and improve donor satisfaction and loyalty.
Jennifer Reed, Assistant Director, Donor Relations and Stewardship, and Valerie Claus, Associate Director of Annual Giving. Florida State University Foundation
Why didn't we think of this sooner?? Walden's successful Grandparents Club
Of all the ideas that get thrown at development offices from our parents, alumni, staff and donors - this is by far the ONE idea I wish someone would have given me years ago...a Grandparents Club! It sounds so simple, right? I had no idea how robust, creative, active and enthusiastic one club could be. They are lined up to give us their time, talents and treasures! Join us for just one-hour and walk away with a years worth of great ideas so you too enjoy the benefits of a successful Grandparents Club!
Jenna Walker, Walden School
Building Inclusive Spaces Where Leaders Will Engage: Let's Start from the Beginning
Whether it is a board, committee, working group, alumni network, or any other makeup of individuals being brought together in support of a common goal, we need to ensure we are taking steps to engage the right people for the right reasons. Let's start from the beginning and discuss inclusive practices, how to make inclusive engagement everyone's responsibility, and the missteps that even DEI professionals make. Let's support each other is working smarter and learning from other's mistakes. Starting a board from scratch? I got you. Looking to have your current group be more inclusive of additional identities? I am happy to help. Have a diverse group but it just does not seem to be working? I have a few ideas.
Marche Simpson, Director of Diversity & Inclusion Engagement, Emory University
Culture Forward: One Advancement Shop’s Journey Toward Creating a Great Place to Work
Emory University’s Office of Advancement and Alumni Engagement (AAE) aspires to have the best possible workplace culture in our industry. With that goal in mind, in late 2019 AAE launched its “Culture Project” as an initiative of the Office of the Senior Vice President, with the full support of AAE’s Leadership Team. But, what does it mean to create a “great place to work”, and what does that look like in practice? Join this session to hear about AAE’s journey to create a best-in-class organization, where a “positive workplace culture” isn’t just a hollow catchphrase, but rather represents a new way of being in relationship with each other, so that we can bring our best selves, and thereby our best work, to our daily professional lives. In this session, you will learn about the steps AAE took to assess its current culture and to determine a roadmap toward its preferred organizational culture. You’ll also hear about one of the first major deliverables of the project – determining AAE’s new mission, vision, and values.
Bethany Baker, Senior Manager, Human Resources and Danielle Goeckel, Director, Organizational Culture & Effectiveness, Emory University
TL;DR: Your Annual Report?
Annual reports are often an institution's premier publication, requiring an investment of time and money for its creation. But with few opportunities for proper metrics, can you be sure this big project is reaping big results? In this presentation, you'll hear how the Florida State University Foundation shifted its delivery model to discover the truth about their Report on Giving. We'll share our findings (the good, bad and ugly) and what we're doing now to ensure the right message is reaching the right audience. This presentation is co-presented with Lynne Wester, Donor Relations Guru and founder of ODDER, On Demand Digital Endowment Reports.
Kimi Wilcoxon, Assistant Director, Communications, Florida State University and Lynne Wester, Founder and Principal, Donor Relations Guru
Pouncing on the Audio Wave: Attracting and Retaining Students with Podcasts and Audio Integration
Have you been curious about starting a podcast for your institution? Now would be the right time to get started. Join Raysean Ricks, digital content coordinator at Augusta University’s Communications and Marketing and host of In the Wild, AU’s official podcast, as he shares how to integrate podcasting and emerging audio platforms in your institution digital content strategies to attract, retain and engage students, employees and alumni.
Raysean Ricks, Digital Content Coordinator, Augusta University
Inclusive Philanthropy: Building Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging (DEIB) Value Propositions
Since 2020, advancement shops are called to 'redefine' their commitment to diversity, social equity and justice, inclusion, and belonging while facing the challenges of the pandemic and economic downturn. The Florida International University Foundation Office of Inclusive Philanthropy recognized these challenges as an opportunity to enhance inclusive philanthropy to support the diverse student recruitment and graduation, hiring and retention of faculty, and curriculum-building. Our Office unites institutional and monetary goals with strategic emphasis aligning organizational assets to drive DEIB outcomes in terms of increasing dollars raised and expanding donor bases.
George Corton, Chief Development Officer, FIU Foundation and Maia McGill, Senior Executive Director, Foundation Relations and Executive Director, FIU Foundation Office of Inclusion
Breaking Down Silos: A Strategic Relationship Between Institutional Advancement And Sponsored Programs And Research
Does your institution continue to work in silos, whether in academics, administration, or resource development? Higher Education is facing challenges at an unprecedented scale. Declining student enrollment, less state funding, and questions about the importance of a college education have all placed heavy burdens on colleges to continue to find financial resources to implement strategic initiatives that are critical to future success for the institution. To more strategically find resources for programs and initiatives, The University of West Alabama (UWA) is working to eliminate silo thinking between the Office of Institutional Advancement (OIA) and the Office of Sponsored Programs and Research (OSPR). As part of a restructuring, and in part to respond to the COVID 19 pandemic, a shared position between OIA and OSPR helps leverage public and private funding to support critical initiatives. This session will serve as a case study to best leverage public and private financial support at a university. It will also highlight how to form clear communication, goals, objectives, and overall strategy between two entities in a university that historically has not cooperated at this level. Finally, a discussion on personnel and the experience and skill set needed for someone to excel in having priorities in both the OIA and OSPR.
Christopher Theriot, Director of Grants and Resource Development Liasion, and Chris Thomason, Vice President for Institutional Advancement, The University of West Alabama Foundation
Financial Planners and Fundraisers - A Dynamic Duo
Fundraisers have told donors for years to speak with their Financial Planner, CPA, lawyer, etc. to find out the best way to make a gift to the organization and it would be a tax benefit for the donors. What if we changed our narrative to have the fundraiser as part of the conversation? What if fundraisers begin building relationships with those financial planners? During this session, you will see how a fundraiser and financial planner have built a working relationship and partnership that encouraged them to think creatively and to direct impact when it came to donor engagement and giving.
Amanda Fabrizio-Grzesik, Director of Development, Tennessee Technological University and Brian Homra, Financial Advisor, Edward Jones
Using Data to Drive Cross-Campus Relationships and Parent Fundraising Success
In this session, participations will hear from three Parent Giving Officers at three large public institutions who will discuss how each of their shops uses data to drive partnerships across campus and success in parent fundraising. Attendees will then hear case studies that speak to success (and stumbles!) in using data in their development work. We will also discuss changes to the common app and how this will impact collection of data. Although the presenters represent large universities, this interactive session will benefit development officers at schools of all sizes.
Emily Takleddine, Director of Development Parents Giving and Student Life, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Lynne Deshler, Senior Director, Parent and Family Relations, The Ohio State University
Strategies in Growing in Advancement Office Start-Up in a Pandemic
The past year of COVID-19 has been a wild ride for higher education institutional advancement offices, full of unexpected challenges, new approaches to engaging donors, and, in many cases, increased demand for resources. The pandemic may have spotlighted these challenges, but this was an everyday occurrence in the world of advancement. Now let's add in a Foundation with a negative reputation with a lack of trust among staff, faculty, and the community, plus establishing a new advancement office within a 2-year Historically Black College and University were enough to close the book and walk away. I will share my learned lessons, failures, and strategies from being an unknown/unpopular Foundation to a rising Foundation on the move. This session will discuss ways to incorporate traditional business tactics, find your networking superpower, creating strong partnership alliances internally and externally, and reshaping the board of directors that can assist in redefining, developing, or enhancing an advancement office.
Sherrica Hunt, Director of Institutional Advancement, Bishop State Community College
’Canes Communities: Transforming Grassroots Alumni Chapters into Campaign-Ready Communities
Your alumni, parents, and friends want to support your institution, but often limit their engagement to attending local game watch parties, socials, and networking events. If you are interested in more meaningful engagement regionally, particularly as you gear up for a capital campaign, join us to learn practical ways to strengthen your regional structure, offer supportive tools and resources to your volunteers, and financially commit to the growth and development of your regional communities.
The University of Miami will share its regional tiered structure, along with a series of tools and resources for volunteers, to build a foundation for campaign-related outreach efforts, regionally. Gain insights on how to help your regional communities adjust their focus, align with national volunteers and institutional priorities, and promote a culture of philanthropy for the university.
Erica Arroyo, Associate Vice President, Engagement; Heather Kopec, Assistant Vice President, Philanthropic Giving + Digital Engagement; and Desiree Rodriguez, Assistant Vice President, Lifelong Engagement, University of Miami
CASE AMAtlas: From Global Standards to Global Data
Discover the latest trends that impact advancement within your district, across the country, and around the globe. The CASE AMAtlas team will share recent findings from our benchmarking surveys, including the Voluntary Support of Education and Alumni Engagement Metrics. You will also get a sneak peek at data from our Core Metrics pilot (focusing on creating global metrics) and new Campaign Survey.
CASE’s new Global Reporting Standards are foundational to the ongoing work of AMAtlas. The CASE Standards address the dynamic landscape of an ever-evolving advancement profession. This new global edition comes at a time when the increasing size and complexity of gifts require clear standards and guidelines for counting and reporting for all types of institutions regardless of location. Learn more what is included in the new standards, why they matter, and how these new standards will intersect with AMAtlas surveys to provide global metrics and benchmarks.
Engaging Alumni: Launching and Scaling an Evidence-Based Mentoring Program
There have been many studies and theories that have identified the benefits of mentoring (Allen, Eby, Poteet, & Lima, 2004; Bozionelos, 2004; Kram, 1985; Ragins & Scandura, 1994; Eby & Lockwood, 2006; Young & Perrewe, 2000; Bierema, 2017). Universities are always looking for ways to engage their students and alumni. Within higher education, mentorship has direct benefits in line with common goals of post-secondary institutions, including improved student retention and academic achievement (Putsche, Storrs, Lewis, & Haylett, 2008). Student-alumni mentoring programs help to build relationships with future supporters (Tyran & Garcia, 2005) and contribute to the evolution of successful university-community partnerships (Allen & Eby, 2007). Mentoring can help students feel a greater connection with their institution, promote student engagement and contribute to positive student outcomes (Institution for Higher Education Policy, 2011). Research indicates that mentoring is a means of directly or indirectly improving academic outcomes, such as grade point average and persistence in higher education (Bordes-Edgar, Arredondo, Kurpius, & Rund, 2011; Campbell and Campbell, 2007; Crisp, 2011). Numerous scholars have noted that alumni are increasingly key stakeholders and can potentially offer a wide variety of value to students’ employability (Helgesen & Nesset, 2007; Nguyen & LeBlanc, 2001). Moreover, there is a scarcity of research in this area, whether participation in student-alumni mentorship leads to identifying and creating future donors; there is an opportunity to examine the proposed causality (Gallo & Cownie, 2019). Although mentors’ purpose lies in paying it forward to their protégés, they also gain a sense of satisfaction, connection, and motivation in the mentoring relationship (Abramson & O’Brien-Suric, 2016). This session will discuss how universities can launch and scale a university-wide mentorship initiative. The UGA Mentor Program and its data will be presented.
Jeremy Daniel, Director, UGA Mentor Program
Roadmap How NC State's Innovative Strategic Planning Process Put Think and Do Into Action.
Learn how NC State’s University Advancement team launched a creative and strategic roadmap process to both identify and implement opportunities to build a constituent-centered culture and organization. Attendees will gain insights on engaging staff at all levels of the organization, harnessing diverse perspectives and putting ideas into action in order to achieve leapfrog outcomes.
Jim Broschart, Associate Vice Chancellor, University of Development, Brian Sischo, Vice Chancellor, University of Advancement, and Allison Williams, Executive Assistant to the Associate Vice Chancellor, Advancement Services, North Carolina State University
“Segments of One” – The Art of Personalized Communication
What if every piece of donor communication you sent was no different than if you wrote a personal hand-written letter to each individual in your database? In today’s digital world, this level of personalization is possible, and with less effort than you think! Join Amber Gwaltney from Eastern Virginia Medical School along with Jonathan Van Oss of Pledgemine as they show you how to create “Segments of One” in all of your donor communications and see the difference it could make to your fundraising efforts.
Amber Gwatlney, Assistant Director of Giving Development and Alumni Relations, Eastern Virginia Medical School and Jonathan Van Oss, Consulting and Analytics, Pledgemine
Collaborative Success: Breaking Down Silos to Build Strength for Your Brand While Staying Within Budget
Do you have a limited marketing budget? Are you expected to promote your program or school across multiple mediums for maximum brand exposure despite your lack of resources? Then welcome to "Collaborative Success: Breaking Down Silos to Build Strength for Your Brand While Staying Within Your Budget." This session is for anyone who has ever had to manage high expectations on a shoestring budget when it comes to marketing. In this session we will outline our journey on how we came to redefine how our schools think about marketing and began to use the power of collective buy-in to maximize ROI. While many university departments tend to stay siloed, we chose to work together as graduate schools seeking students who are life-long learners. Our shared motto, "Life-changing degrees at your pace," applies to nearly all of our graduate programs. As a result, what once seemed impossible -- television ads and interstate billboards are just a few examples -- is now possible because we are working together, pooling our resources and finding new opportunities to promote our brand among shared and respective targeted audiences. Let us share our journey, best practices (as well as some missteps) and how and where to find strategically aligned partners so that you can return to your campus and start your own collaboration!
Lisa Snedeker, Law School Communications/Marketing Director, Campbell University School of Law and Sarah Bowman, Executive Director of External Affairs and Alumni Engagement, Campbell University School of Osteopathic Medicine
Tell Me What You Think: Using a Survey to Boost Planned Giving AND Annual Giving
Can a simple questionnaire improve fundraising? This session will explore how a coordinated, evidence-based survey can significantly improve both planned giving and annual giving. After reviewing the science and research behind the survey design, we will review how a university’s planned giving and annual giving teams coordinated the implementation of a brief, scalable questionnaire about donors’ general perspectives on giving. You will be able to see how this led to planned giving leads and bequest notifications far in excess of conventional marketing efforts, and how fiscal year-end annual giving results dramatically improved. Institutions of all sizes will be able to learn how a simple tool with coordinated, cross-disciplinary implementation can improve their fundraising outcomes.
Steve Clark, Assistant Vice President of Gift Planning, Virginia Tech
Collaboration & Coordination: Integrating Engagement and Annual Giving
Want to quadruple your number of donors next year? Join this session to learn how the University of Virginia’s Office of Engagement collaboration and coordination with the Center for Politics increased the area’s annual donor numbers 418 percent in FY21 through—collaborating across teams, integrating direct marketing and engagement initiatives, leveraging new technology, building the pipeline, and exceeding fundraising goals.
Session attendees will learn how to: 1. Define strategies to strengthen internal relationships and collaboration - This session will highlight how four departments in University Advancement at the University of Virginia (University Annual Giving, Digital Engagement, University Advancement Services, and major gift officers at the Center for Politics) pivoted during a global pandemic and embraced the opportunity to redefine collaboration. 2. Identify key audience segmentation - Learn how the teams thoughtfully identified segmentation to renew, reactivate, and acquire donors. Acquisition audiences included constituents who were engaged with the Center for Politics but not yet making a gift including event attendees, subscribers of newsletters, and alumni who took classes and workshops with the Center. 3. Develop compelling content and messaging - Explore how carefully selecting signatories, leveraging targeted content, and timing can elevate your appeals and increase donors. 4. Integrate communications, new technology, data, and events - Annual giving is a rapidly changing, competitive industry, it is essential to strategically explore new technologies and use data to develop strategies and inform decisions. This session will explore how taking risks and testing approaches can yield compelling results. At the conference, we’ll be able to share full FY21 results as well as how these teams continue to elevate the Center for Politics’ strategy in FY22.
Unleashing the Power of Women’s Philanthropy- A CASE Study
Historically, fundraising in higher education has centered around older, Caucasian men. This session will demonstrate the potential and impact of women's philanthropy which, for the vast majority of colleges and universities, is historically untapped. This session will review what we did at James Madison University to successfully unleash women’s giving here at the university in levels never seen before. Together, we will walk through the inspiration, being educated on women’s philanthropy, diving into our data, making the case, stakeholder buy-in, marketing and communications and finally making the ask. Attendees will walk away with a blue print of how to create their own plan to realize the power of women’s giving at their institution.
Cannie Campbell, Assistant Vice President for Constituent Engagement and Sean Clifford, Assistant Director of Volunteer Engagement, James Madison University
The 3 C's: Unlock Your Fundraising Superskills
Wonder what skills it REALLY takes to be a successful fundraiser? At best, fundraisers have been described as "Curious Chameleons", "Road Warriors" and "Philanthropic Advisors". When the stereotypes come out, you're just the take-people-out-to-lunch-people, the schmoozers, the cold-callers or the money-grubbers. You know it takes A LOT to be a fundraiser. Join us to explore the hallmarks of phenomenal fundraisers, hone the extraordinary skills you already have and get inspired to put those superskills into practice when you go back to your office.
Jenna Goodman, Founding Partner, Generous Change and Amanda Fabrizio-Grzesik, Director of Development, Tennessee Technological University
De-Escalating Landmines: Strategies to Drive Change in Advancement to support minority populations
The impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic and instances of racism and discrimination still exist in our society and the advancement profession is not absent of the implications of these incidents. To that end, as a society seeking to recover from the continuing harms of the COVID-19 pandemic, this also presents an opportunity for advancement leaders to redouble their efforts to organize, drive, sustain and promote philanthropy around issues related to minority student populations. This session will provide advancement leaders with strategies to de-escalate landmines in order to drive change in advancement to support a more racially and ethnically diverse student population.
DeShanna Brown, Higher Education Consultant, Elizabeth City State University and Darrell Ray, Chief Equity Strategist, Systematic Equity Solutions
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging
Location: Centennial III-IV
DeShanna Brown, Higher Education Consultant, Elizabeth City State University and Ben Fiore-Walker, Senior Director, Opportunity & Inclusion Center, Council for Advancement and Support of Education