Join Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences Major Gifts Leadership Team for an energetic discussion on aspirational thinking through a significant reorganization (during a pandemic!). Five leaders discuss the merger of two fundraising teams and how a focus on culture building, content fluency, and consistency led to increased aspirational thinking. Throughout, we strived for best practices but found out a little cow bell and laughter go a long way toward success! We’ll share tools we created and dive into tactics that got us through. We invite your best thinking and discussion as you prepare for an interactive session.

The Prospect Management team at Queen's University was recently presented with an awesome project - implementing a new Prospect Management Framework with multiple stakeholders. Working as a team we made adjustments to our database, workflow, training process and more. In this session we will cover the key takeaways from our experience, the challenges faced, and the strategies taken to mediate them, along with best practices to provide a jumping-off point for other Prospect Management shops that may be undertaking a similar task.

The ingredients that comprise culture are a lot to balance. And with ever evolving staffing models due to the pandemic and the Great Resignation, leaders need new and better tools to manage their departments. In this session we’ll examine an innovative approach undertaken by The Hill School with the goals of gaining a clear view of the advancement team’s perceptions on culture, optimizing employee satisfaction, and building internal consensus. The unique design of the process provided leadership a view of team members’ top priorities, allowing for change management most beneficial in retaining talent, strengthening teamwork, and improving productivity.

With 85% of jobs today found through network connections, it's more important than ever to include alums in the student experience from day 1, whether that day is in upper school, community college, or a four-year college/university. It's especially important to ensure that any effort include a laser focus on students from underserved backgrounds with more limited access to social capital. Learn how Drew University's new Center for Mentoring offers personalized connections for all students and collaborates across campus to ensure that students from underserved backgrounds are not missing out and how even baby steps can achieve the same goals.

This discussion will focus on the lived experience of BIPOC, and especially Black, advancement staff in higher education. Organizations all over North America tout the importance of DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) in their work and workplace, but how does that feel for BIPOC staff? What is their experience like in workplaces attempting to be more diverse? How can we learn from these (our) lived experiences to make stronger teams, with less turnover and thus a stronger donor base?

Learn how to put together a multimedia package that combines video and written stories to create a highly effective fundraising and engagement tool. These video-story pieces are an effective way to highlight special programs, scholarships, alumni, or donors. They typically generate high readership, foster engagement, and can even lead to sizable donations. This workshop explains the process, from finding promising leads to teaming up with development officers and promoting the final package for optimal results.

Does being donor-centric mean giving a donor everything they want? How do you balance being donor-centric with achieving your organization’s needs? With pressure to meet goal, fundraisers at times can close gifts that are extremely restrictive, not aligned with priorities, or worse, that “eat”. In this session, you will hone your negotiation skills by learning how to incorporate flexibility into gift conversations and strategize with donors to achieve win-win outcomes for both the donor and the organization. Join fellow major, principal, and planned giving officers to take your fundraising skills to the next level. Negotiators wanted!

How do we go beyond the endowment report to engage our donors throughout the year, but keep our workload in check? Join us in discussing opportunities a few Case institutions took to connect with their donors throughout the year on their funds, impact, and legacy.

Each of us (easily) receives over one hundred emails each day. With all of this competition, how can you ensure your communication is cutting through the noise and getting in front of your readers? In this session, you’ll see email examples from Cornell University’s advancement communication team, which boasts industry leading open and click rates. Learn how to curate quality content for your newsletter and boost engagement for each of your constituent emails.

In this session, you will learn how to communicate, work with campus partners and engage students with your alumni population. Consider the big picture when it comes to communicating with students, best practices, and what events they are actually looking for from your Development and Alumni Engagement Office.