Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 1, Wednesday, May 1

NOON-1:00 PM
Registration

1:00-1:15
Welcome and Introductions

1:15-2:05
Campaign Planning for Advancement Services
Often times, the advancement services department is left out of the critical discussions before, during and after a campaign. Advancement services serves a critical role in building the infrastructure going into a campaign, monitoring the progress of a campaign and telling the story after the campaign. Proper involvement from advancement services can make any campaign run smoother.

2:15-3:00
Strategic Conversations (choose one)

• Strategic Planning for a Campaign
  Preparing for a comprehensive campaign ideally begins with an extensive analysis of internal and external factors that might affect the timing, size and advisability of a campaign launch. From economic, philanthropic and demographic trends in society, to historical patterns of giving and unique characteristics of a nonprofit's constituency, the strategic planning process can be invaluable in campaign planning, goal setting and ultimate success. This session will provide you with a roadmap to strategic planning for a campaign at your institution.

• Ready, Set, Ready?
  It's one thing to say it's time for your organization to go into another comprehensive campaign. It's another to say you have sufficient prospects to support one. However, what does your internal clock say? Can your infrastructure support a campaign? Discuss the key indicators for assessing your readiness for a campaign, and learn how to conduct that analysis.

3:15-4:05
Creative Funding Models for Advancement
An internal readiness assessment will likely indicate the need for increased staff, improved technology, and expanded stewardship and marketing efforts. However, money does not grow on trees. This overview will outline various advancement funding models analyzed over the past decade, and review their pros and cons.

4:15-5:00
Strategic Conversations (choose one)

• Whose Budget Is this Anyway?
  At many institutions, budgets become turf wars with all parties struggling for their share of the pie. Explore how advancement services can change what is often a time of conflict into a positive strategic planning process.

• Application of a Business Model to Nonprofit Budgeting and Planning
  Decreases in giving totals, budget shortfalls and increasing competition for charitable dollars have made it important than ever for nonprofits to look to best practices in the for-profit sector to inform budgeting, program evaluation and decision making. Opportunities and challenges in the philanthropic world demand that today's nonprofits take a more rigorous, quantitative approach to budgeting and performance tracking to ensure the highest return on their development investment. Examine the use of metrics to guide development planning, to calculate return on investment, to determine optimum budget and staffing allocations, and to measure program effectiveness. You will leave this session with tools and techniques that can be used to increase budgetary effectiveness and accountability in your fundraising programs.

5:00 - 6:00
Networking Reception

 6:00
Institute Adjourns for the Day
Dinner on your own

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Day 2, Thursday, May 2

8:00-9:00 AM
Continental Breakfast and Roundtables (by database)

9:00-9:50
Hiring the Right Staff for the Campaign
Having the right people on your advancement services team is important all the time, but it becomes critical when entering campaign mode. Who to hire with what skill set can be a very complicated question, and the correct answer requires a holistic look at your organization and its needs. We'll take a look at what makes for a good advancement services staff member, as well as other considerations to take into account when planning for a campaign.

10:00-10:45
Strategic Conversations (choose one)

• Retaining and Motivating Staff During Budget Difficulties
  Many institutions are currently unable to provide the financial incentives staffs deserve because of lacking financial resources. We'll share ideas on how to keep staff motivated and rewarded when the dollars are not available. Bring what has worked for you and take some new ideas back.

• Avoiding Crisis, Conflict and Confusion
  Now that you have hired the right people for the right job, you need to keep them. Three keys to ensuring staff retention are communication, management and evaluation. We'll identify many of the right communication and management principals, and explore their value and use in the development of performance goals and annual evaluations.

11:00 AM-NOON
CASE Circle of Excellence Awards for Advancement Services

12:15-2:00 PM
Luncheon and Keynote Presentation: The Future of E-Engagement
Speaker: Fred Weiss, President, iModules

2:15-3:05
Campaign Reporting Standards
Review the key campaign policies that all organizations must have documented and in place prior to launching a campaign, most notably internal campaign counting standards. CASE has developed the gold standard for these—adhered to by nonprofit organizations near and far, and required for educational institutions participating in national surveys—thus our concentration on exactly what these standards are.

3:15-4:00
Strategic Conversations (choose one)

• Balancing External Reporting Standards and Internal Pressures
  CASE, VSE, U.S. News, etc. all provide guidelines on how to count gifts and donors. However, we all receive pressure internally to interpret those guidelines in different ways. Discuss how to handle these situations and learn where to draw the line.

• Finance and Fundraising
  War and Peace? Crime and Punishment? Although it may sound like a Russian epic or Armageddon, our relationships with our friends at the other end of the general ledger don't need to be. Explore how we educate our colleagues throughout our institutions on the differences between financial and fundraising account, as well as what special stresses may surface in campaign mode.

4:15-5:00
Capstone Presentation: Supporting Campaign Communications
Speaker: Jon Thorsen, Director of Advancement Services, The Nature Conservancy

 5:00
Institute Adjourns for the Day
Dinner on your own

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Day 3, Friday, May 3

8:00-9:00 AM
Continental Breakfast and Roundtables (topics determined on site)

9:00-9:50
Prospect Identification
No single factor is more important to the success of a campaign than identification of sufficient numbers of major gift prospects to meet the campaign objectives. Prospects must be identified for every gift level, for every campaign priority and for every major gift officer. Explore tools and techniques for prospect identification from high- tech, high-cost wealth screening, to low-tech, low-cost internal data mining and peer screening. This session will provide hands-on knowledge in prospect identification for organizations and budgets both large and small.

10:00-10:45
Strategic Conversations (choose one)

• Effective Prospect Management and Tracking for Campaign Success
  The basic elements of a comprehensive prospect management and tracking system—prospect gift capacity ratings, funding interest areas, staff assignments, and contact and solicitation data—provide the foundation for statistical analysis which can tell you what you need to know to be successful in planning, implementing and monitoring your campaign. Prospect management data can tell you how much your organization should be able to raise, in what time period, how many development officers you need, how effective they are and how much money is in the campaign pipeline. Learn the specifics of how to set up such a system and learn how to use the data for planning and decision making.

• Prospect Tracking Systems and Accountability
  We often have to explain to our line staff that our information management system is really their friend and not their enemy; this is never truer than in the case of prospect management systems. With proper training, an effective prospect management system will help staff better organize their fundraising efforts with less administrative overhead, while at the same time providing those managing staff with solid tools for evaluating individual staff performance. We will discuss a case study of implementing such a system and how it can be applied to your situation.

11:00 AM-NOON
Final Conversation and Institute Wrap-up

NOON
Institute Adjourns

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