Across Circle of Excellence Awards categories, women-focused themes emerged. Here are five winning entries that highlight, uplift, and celebrate women through compelling storytelling.

Following the pandemic, in-person events returned to campuses in 2022 with renewed spirit, innovation, bold plans, and a greater emphasis on return on investment.

Annual giving days are a top tool for independent schools seeking to hit fundraising goals. But for many schools, planning and executing successful giving days is no easy feat.
 

This collection includes examples of succession planning guides, toolkits and other materials to help plan and prepare for employee transitions.

Food and beverage often take center stage at events that bring education communities together. Advancement professionals are creatively planning wine tastings, ice cream socials, tailgate parties, cooking classes, and food security volunteer opportunities that whet the appetites of the constituents they serve.

Major gift officers in university advancement voluntarily leave their positions for similar roles at other institutions at an alarmingly high rate—once every 18 months, on average. But workplace compassion can help retain fundraisers, according to research. Here’s how advancement leaders can create positive change to increase team members’ satisfaction and retain talented gift officers. 

Spurred by the pandemic, millions of people have quit or changed jobs in 2020 and 2021. How has the “Great Resignation” impacted higher education? It’s led many advancement professionals to consider work-life balance, workplace flexibility, pay, and stability. Now, institutions are realizing the pre-pandemic status quo needs a serious overhaul if they are going to stem the tide of people leaving the sector.

Disability inclusion at work is about more than hiring people with disabilities. An inclusive workplace offers employees with disabilities an equal opportunity to succeed, to learn, to be compensated fairly, and to advance.

Organizations can focus their efforts to equip managers to lead in an inclusive way that drives sustained impact, change, and results in changing times.  

In too many organizations, advancement is lagging on diversity, equity, and inclusion when it should be leading—and leading proactively. To build inclusive cultures and achieve real success in DEI objectives, advancement teams have to move from awareness to assessment to understanding. It's action with accountability. In this book excerpt, Angelique Grant and Ronald J. Schiller share key steps for leaders to do that.