Transformational corporate and foundation partnerships require strategic alignment, intentional stewardship, and strong internal collaboration. This session equips participants with practical tools to strengthen their stewardship toolkit with corporations and foundations. We’ll explore how cross-campus partnerships can collaborate to reinvigorate existing relationships and construct new ones, with stewardship as a guiding priority. Through a stewardship lens, participants will learn how to align engagement strategies with institutional priorities, elevate visibility, foster holistic relationship management, and drive multi-faceted partnerships that advance university initiatives and create lasting impact.

In corporate and foundation relations, deadlines are tight and stakes are high. Too often, we move from one project to the next without stopping to ask what worked...and what didn’t. The result? Repeated frustrations, strained campus relationships, and missed opportunities.

After-Action Reviews (AARs) offer a simple, structured way to turn “what just happened?” into “here’s how we’ll do it better next time.” This session introduces AARs as a practical tool to strengthen collaboration, sharpen communication, and build trust across campus and with partners.

Drawing on real-world experience applying AARs to complex corporate partnerships and foundation opportunities, the facilitators will share lessons learned, tips for success, and scenarios that resonate with CFR professionals. Participants will leave with clear guidance, resources, and confidence to use AARs in their own organizations to build a culture of reflection, inclusivity, and continuous improvement.

Large state research universities face a critical knowledge gap at a delicate time: faculty and campus leaders need private institutional funding more than ever, yet most have rarely dealt with foundations and know very little about the best practices associated with engaging these entities. Making matters worse is the fact that the inevitably understaffed CFR teams, whose job it is to assist in orienting faculty to this unfamiliar arena, are presently unable to provide the personalized guidance available in previous years because they are overwhelmed with preparing and submitting proposals. At UMass Amherst, when demand for private foundation funding surged but resources stayed flat, our Foundations Relations team (comprised of 3 full-time staff) knew that we had to reorganize our priorities and redistribute our workload. Unable to clone ourselves, we embedded foundation funding education into everyday touchpoints—by shooting short videos, adding learning sections to newsletters, transforming routine interactions into teaching moments, and integrating content into multiple campus events. What began as rudimentary experiments grew into strategic collaborations with our Marketing & Communications and IT teams. We ultimately revamped digital resources and developed a faculty-informed framework that seeks to build lasting organization-wide capacity while diminishing dependence on a single office for basic guidance. This session will not only provide much-needed hope to attendees but will also equip them with a replicable model and toolkit to transform internal communications, events, and consultations into culture-building opportunities that maximize their limited bandwidth to raise more private funds. Through interactive exercises, participants will audit their touchpoints and leave with quick-win strategies to shift from reactive crisis management to proactive culture-building, even in resource-constrained environments.

As the world races toward decarbonization, philanthropic funding has become a critical catalyst in energy transition and climate solutions, spanning fundamental research, technology development, policy innovation, and real-world deployment. This plenary session brings together distinguished leaders representing complementary approaches to energy and climate grantmaking across the research-to-implementation spectrum. Evan Michelson, Program Director for the Sloan Foundation's Energy and Environment program, Jenny Frankel-Reed, Senior Officer for the Gates Foundation's Agricultural Development team, and Laura Birx , Deputy Managing Director, Global Climate Strategies for Climate Lead, will focus on a strategic exploration of how leading funders navigate the complex energy transition and climate solutions landscape. From Sloan's influential interdisciplinary research on low-carbon energy systems and Gates' work on climate adaptation in agriculture, this conversation will illuminate how philanthropy is driving energy innovation and climate solutions.

Large, multi-site proposals to complex funders like the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) require more than strong science, they demand strategic coordination, proactive engagement, and deep institutional support. At The Ohio State University, the Office of Foundation Engagement has played a critical role in supporting investigators through the full PCORI lifecycle: from socialization to application development to award management.

In this session, attendees will learn practical strategies for navigating a complex funder, supporting multi-site teams during proposal development, leveraging internal resources to strengthen applications, educating faculty on funding mechanisms, and fostering connections between investigators and program officers. We will highlight lessons learned from supporting three active PCORI-funded projects at Ohio State and provide actionable insights for foundation relations professionals and research administrators seeking to bolster team science proposals to challenging funders. The presenter will be joined by a special guest, an Ohio State faculty member who has successfully secured PCORI funding, offering firsthand insights into the application and award process.

Ready to transform the way you approach partnerships? In this high-energy session, we’ll dive into the complexities of using agreements—like Master Research and Education Agreements (MRAs/MEAs)—as powerful tools to design and sustain long-term, impactful partnerships.

Learn from real-world examples with industry giants like Amazon, Boeing, and Microsoft, and discover how these agreements drive global collaborations, research funding, and educational workforce development across sectors.

Through dynamic activities, small-group discussions, and self-reflection, you'll walk away with actionable insights into building effective cross-functional teams, navigating multi-stakeholder collaborations, and leveraging strategic business models to secure and sustain partnerships.

Whether you're a seasoned fundraiser or a senior leader, this session will sharpen your strategic thinking and set you up to lead the charge in shaping the future of interdisciplinary university-industry partnerships.

Don’t miss this chance to elevate your collaborations from the friendzone to the end zone!

Designed for smaller and liberal arts institutions, this session zeroes in on high impact CFR practices crafted for lean teams. Learn how to expand your reach by cultivating connections with gift officers, faculty, and university leadership – key collaborators who multiply your capacity. We’ll also tackle building a robust grants culture using cross-campus collaboration and elevating CFR’s role via outreach and capacity-building. Presented by advancement professionals from the University of St. Thomas – the first institution to leap directly from NCAA Division III to Division I – this session includes breakout discussions to spark peer-to-peer exchange and challenge your thinking on what’s possible. You’ll leave with actionable strategies to build internal momentum, strengthen funder relationships, and boost your institution’s visibility and philanthropic results.

Insights from both sides of the table. Drawing on firsthand experience in comparable roles across industry and academia, this session goes beyond surface level collaboration to unpack how each side really operates. We’ll challenge common myths about industry engagement, highlight where academic and corporate priorities diverge, and share what truly matters to companies when partnering with universities. Attendees will leave with practical insights for building more intentional, impactful, and strategic industry partnerships.

The grant funding world is in turmoil—and both funders and grantees are feeling the pressure. This session summarizes the current challenges and trends in grant funding and presents strategies to optimize pre and post award success. We highlight funding challenges specific to higher education and present strategies for university CFR officers to be competitive and grant ready for any opportunity that arises and to build cross-departmental partnerships for effective implementation and stewardship to meet increasing post award demands. This interactive session will encourage audience discussion of challenges and sharing of successful strategies.

In an increasingly complex philanthropic landscape, the pursuit of funding often overshadows the core values that drive our institutions. At Howard University, our "why" has always been clear: to champion educational access and equity. This principle guides our work in Corporate and Foundation Relations, where we believe that the most impactful partnerships are built on a foundation of shared values.

This session will explore a human-centered approach to CFR fundraising. We will share a framework for how our team at Howard University ensures that new corporate and foundation partnerships are authentically aligned with our institutional mission. We’ll discuss practical strategies for navigating these relationships, emphasizing that genuine connection and shared purpose are just as critical as the financial contribution.