Summer Institute in Advancement Services

Program

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Program Note:
Each elective session will have two options:

• Earth. Stay grounded in the latest tools and techniques.
• Sky. Let your mind soar across the big ideas and trends that shape our profession.
  
  

Day 1, Sunday, July 22

3:30-3:45 PM
Opening Session and Welcome Remarks
Come hear what's in store during our five days of learning, sharing and networking. Meet the faculty and review the roadmap for the week.

3:45-4:30
The Art and Science of Advancement Services
How many answers are there to "What is a gift?" According to the science—one. According to the art—many. Our industry is all about understanding the art and science and how to mix the two to support a relationship business. Learn what makes our industry challenging and exciting. You'll walk away appreciating the artist in you.

5:45
Shuttles to aquarium begin 

6:30-8:30
Networking Reception at the Aquarium
ECHO Lake Aquarium & Science Center
Enjoy food, drinks and good company at the ECHO Lake Aquarium & Science Center, located next to Lake Champlain. Find out more about ECHO at http://www.echovermont.org.

8:00-8:45
Shuttles return to residence halls

 

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Day 2, Monday, July 23

7:30-8:15 AM
Breakfast

8:15-8:30
Announcements and Session Notes

8:30-9:15
Advancement Services Best Practices
Join the faculty for a discussion of the trends, techniques and developments that are guiding the best practices in our profession.

9:30-10:45
Elective Sessions

• Earth Session: Prospect Management Fundamentals
  Prospect management is often organized within advancement services—or aligned strategically as a partner with the information system—because of its emphasis on information, tracking, systems and metrics. This session will focus on the basic and intermediate concepts, terms and benefits of relationship management.

• Sky Session: You've Just Been Promoted to Supervisor, Now What?
  Avoid the pitfalls of being a first time supervisor with this diverse discussion of considerations for the new supervisor. The always popular—Yikes, you don't want to do that!—exchange offers solid advice and resources for the new supervisor.  

11:00 AM-12:15 PM
Elective Sessions

• Earth Session: Gift Processing 101
  Are you just getting started in gift processing or do you want to brush up on skills acquired over a number of years in the profession? Do you have specific questions about the odd gift? Review the basics of gift processing and learn about the importance of relationships, mergers, stocks, streamlining and more.  

• Sky Session: Gift Processing 201
  Ever wonder how to book a gift your institution has never received before? How do you book a rare map collection or promissory note? Bring your "weird gift" questions and find out from your colleagues how to book the more esoteric gifts we're asked to record.

12:15-1:30
Lunch

1:30-2:15
Ethics and Accountability in Advancement Services
Advancement services professionals are in a unique position regarding many key issues of ethics, privacy, regulatory compliance and accountability that our organizations deal with daily. Our faculty panel will speak to key issues and situations that are prevalent in each discipline of advancement services (e.g., research, systems, gift recording and counting) and we'll also work through some case studies together to bring these concepts (and applied solutions) to life.

2:30-3:45
Elective Sessions

• Earth Session: Prospect Management: Meetings and Reports
  Ineffective meetings and poor reporting are two of the top three reasons behind prospect/relationship management not being helpful or effective within an organization. In this session we'll help you think through the must-haves in relationship management reports and must-dos in designing, running or facilitating prospect management meetings. Finally, we'll walk through sample reports and agendas and present the positive purpose behind each—or deconstruct why they aren't particularly useful at all. 

• Sky Session: From Services to Operations
  It's time to take advancement services to the next leadership level. Do you have what it takes? Hear from two professionals who will speak from experience on the next wave of opportunities on the advancement services horizon.

4:00-5:15
Elective Sessions

• Earth Session: Career Paths in Advancement Services
  When you were growing up, you told your teacher you wanted to be an advancement services professional. WRONG. This session explores how our profession has developed, how far it has come and how we as practitioners come to have meaningful and rewarding careers through our work in it.

• Sky Session: Project Management
  The work we do often entails complex relationships among people in multiple departments, responsible for various parts of a project. Formal prospect management may sometimes be too difficult to implement, but adopting some of the principles of that approach can help us manage this complexity and bring order to chaos. Examine these principles and discuss examples of applying them successfully, with practical examples of project plans, processes and reports.

 6:00 PM-MIDNIGHT
Shuttles run between residence halls and downtown Burlington

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Day 3, Tuesday, July 24

7:30-8:15 AM
Breakfast

8:15-8:30
Announcements and Session Notes

8:30-9:15
Alumni Affairs and Advancement Services: How Can They Work Together?
Alumni affairs is all about friend raising. How does/can advancement services really support that goal? Tracking contactability and engagement, and allowing our colleagues in alumni affairs to understand how their work fits in with all of advancement, is critical to implementing an integrated operation.

9:30-10:45
Elective Sessions

• Earth Session: The Alumni Directory: Making the Most of Your Investment
  Do you consider your alumni directory a chore or an investment? Learn how to maximize the return on investment you can achieve from the time and effort you put into your alumni directory. Explore the reasons for producing the directory, available options and the best practices in producing the directory.

• Sky Session: Strategic Planning and Goal Setting
  Taking a strategic planning approach helps tie advancement services with other fundraising functions, and helps a manger show the relationship between departmental goals, unit goals, budget and staffing. Walk through suggested strategic planning processes and formats and learn how to use the process, even if it's not the current culture at your organization. 

11:00 AM-12:15 PM
Elective Sessions

• Earth Session: Counting Rules and Case Management Standards
  CASE counting rules have changed with the 4th edition of CASE Reporting Standards & Management Guidelines for Educational Fundraising. Knowing the changes will help many institutions in their campaign preparations. During this session we will review counting standards and highlight the changes between the third and fourth editions.

• Sky Session: Incorporating Donor Stewardship Across Advancement Services
  Stewarding the contributions of our donors is a central responsibility of all development staff. Advancement services professionals play important roles in this process, from ensuring that gifts are processed in ways that honor donor intent to creating reports on the impact of those gifts to working with our colleagues on effective donor stewardship plans. Discuss the critical role that advancement services staff members from outside the donor relations area contribute to the stewardship process, and ways to ensure that our donors always remain front and center as we deliver our services.

12:15-1:30 
Lunch

1:30-2:15
No Longer Relegated to the Back Room: Advancement Services at the Senior Table
Advancement services has come a long way. Today, many advancement services professionals are asked to share their perspectives in the highest level thinking on best practices in the profession. It wasn't always this way. During this session you'll review practical steps for moving a program in the direction of a comprehensive approach and hear perspectives from senior leaders in the field.

2:30-3:45
Elective Sessions

• Earth Session: What Is Asked vs. What They Want
  LYBUNT, SYBUNT, TGC, PL, OG, PG, OMG! Advancement is a world of acronyms—much to learn and even more important to understand—especially when it comes to reporting. Learn the reporting jargon that will get you what you want, rather than what you ask. Bridging this language gap is an important skill of the advancement services professional.

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

4:00-5:15
Elective Sessions

• Earth Session: Proactive Data Collection
  Collecting data—both from campus-wide systems and external sources—is instrumental to the successful tracking and measuring of alumni and donor connection with the institution. Discuss strategies for data collection across the industry and review examples of innovative approaches taken at two institutions—each with a different level of resources and fundraising maturity. 

• Sky Session: Moving to a Self-Service Reporting Environment
  As users' information needs grow, the ability to provide self-service reporting solutions becomes more desired. Come hear how Lehigh University moved from a centralized two-person reporting team to a desk top self-service environment to support its 100+ user base.

 

6:00 PM-MIDNIGHT
Shuttles run between residence halls and downtown Burlington

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Day 4, Wednesday, July 25

7:30-8:15 AM
Breakfast

8:15-8:30
Announcements and Session Notes

8:30-9:15
Advancement Services Staff as Fundraisers
The products and services that advancement services professionals provide are critical pieces of the development process. They gain impact as we gain greater understanding and appreciation of how our clients and colleagues use them directly with donors. A firm grasp of fundraising principles, trends and challenges makes our work not only more interesting, but more effective.

9:30-10:45
Elective Sessions

• Earth Session: Delivering Donor Relations Solutions
  Wondering what the hubbub is about donor relations? Why the investment is critical to the advancement operations and how it impacts future giving? Advancement services has a significant role, and knowing how your efforts makes a difference is step one to advancing the next gift opportunity. 

• Sky Session: Software Selection and Conversion
  Few words can strike as much terror into the heart of an advancement services professional as conversion. Yet, the selection and implementation of a new information system, while requiring a considerable financial and human commitment, can change the way your institution does business. Whether this change is for better or worse is something that you, as a key member of the conversion team, can help to determine. Review the essential steps for a successful implementation and gather ideas on how to be a catalyst in building an effective implementation team.

11:00 AM-12:15 PM
Elective Sessions

• Earth Session: Designing and Applying a Ratings System
  From capacity, affinity, interest, to readiness: effective goal-setting, campaign planning, prospect and prospect pool management all depend on having a solid ratings system in place. Discuss different methods and approaches for defining, structuring, applying and maintaining ratings on your prospects. 

• Sky Session: Data Modeling for a Campaign
  As you embark on a campaign, understanding the data needs required to meet strategies and priorities is an essential component. Modeling the data in a flexible and dynamic fashion to allow for the ever-evolving reporting needs is a must in order to survive the information management needs of the varied users—from administrative to the board.

1:30-2:15
Campaign Planning
With the post-campaign hibernation period ending and the economy recovering, comprehensive fundraising campaigns are likely to spring up like flowers in philanthropy's meadow. This session will provide basic and intermediate considerations, such as prospect identification strategies, campaign staffing forecasts, reporting and technology environments, and counting policies, in order for participants to calibrate best practices with contemporary trends.

2:30-3:45
Elective Sessions

• Earth Session: Introduction to Analytics
  Did that mailing work? Was it more successful than last year? How is the return on phonathon pledges? Why is our donor count down from last year at this point of time? Learn how to apply analytics to advancement work to understand trends and inform users on the results of initiatives.

• Sky Session: Using Data to Communicate the Value of Research
  What do you track, and what do you measure? Learn how to use data to track and report on the performance of your research shop and connect it to your organization's mission. Explore methods to use this information to advance the status of the information function in your organization. 

4:00-5:15
Elective Sessions

• Earth Session: Managing Up, Down and All Around
  Developing outstanding relationships within advancement and across your organization builds a strong foundation on which to create amazing successes. Communication and leadership are essential ingredients to developing those relationships. Discover how your communication impacts relationships up the ladder, down and all around you. Building on your strengths and understanding the impact of what we say (or don't say) and how we say it is a key outcome of this session.

• Sky Session: Hiring and Managing an Advancement Services Staff
  Advancement services professionals bring a unique set of skills to the development process, so hiring the right people and managing them to succeed is crucial. Discuss some of the skills and attitudes that effective advancement services staff members bring to the team, learn how to create ambitious and relevant work objectives and professional development plans, and review the management rules that work best with talented teams.

5:45
Buses leave from residence halls for Spirit of Ethan Allen

6:30-9:00
Lake Champlain Dinner Cruise
Spirit of Ethan Allen
Spend your last evening in Burlington on the famous Spirit of Ethan Allen. Enjoy dinner and dancing during this cruise on Lake Champlain.

9:00-9:30
Shuttles return to residence halls

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Day 5, Thursday, July 26

7:30-8:15 AM
Breakfast

8:15-8:30
Announcements and Session Notes

8:30-9:15
It's all Politics: What's Next When Good Work Isn't Enough?
Many people believe doing a good job, and accomplishing goals and objectives, are enough to secure and promote their career. In most environments, however, this isn't the case. One of the most important components to creating professional success is managing alliances and relationships. Discuss the challenges of understanding the unwritten rules of your workplace and navigating hierarchical relationships in your organization. Learn how to exert some control over them and find out why "politics" doesn't have to have a negative connotation.

9:30-10:45
Elective Sessions

11:00 AM-NOON
Advice from the Faculty

NOON
Commencement and Institute Adjourns

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Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5