Mass-marketing appeals can’t keep up with alums’ expectations for personalization. So, late last year, the Texas Christian University team swapped out their phonathon program and replaced it with a student-led lead-generation engine powered by personalization. They turned their best student ambassadors into Campus Creators, built a consistent calendar of personalized video content, and are executing multi-touch cadenced outreach to thousands of previously-overlooked donors. Join this session to learn about the ROI of TCU’s Donor Experience (DX) program, including reactivated donors, increased donors and dollars, hundreds of new leads for gift officers, and 100% coverage of more than 20,000 alumni.

Oh the places you will go! The Career possibilities are endless for advancement professionals as the fundraising job-market continues to grow and become more competitive for talent. Before you consider that next job offer, let's chat! Join these three development amigos who started out together with similar job titles 15+ years ago, but took very different paths. Representing institutions that range from small to large and public to private (and a plethora of job titles), we will share experiences and ask questions that may help you avoid a mid-career crisis and plan your path to a thriving career in advancement.

Print marketing is far from dead. In this session, Carrie Phillips and Trey Laverty will share how they are using print marketing to engage alumni, students, donors, and fans. Whether it’s using print to drive to a marketing website, creating virtual engagement, or building affinity – this session will focus on some of the latest trends and best practices in print marketing. You’ll leave with an understanding of new tactics and some ideas of how to incorporate them into your work.

In 2018, Trinity University’s offices of Annual Giving and Alumni Relations joined forces to better engage their reunion volunteers. Annually, Trinity University celebrates 10 reunion classes which culminates in a weekend of celebrations at Alumni Weekend in the Fall. By expanding the number of volunteers they engage, they have seen year-to-year increases in reunion giving donations and participation as well as attendance at Alumni Weekend. Learn how these teams collaborate - from recruitment, to engagement, and their final celebrations on campus.

Do our current fundraising efforts reach the full spectrum of the community we serve? Are we speaking the language—literally and figuratively—of tomorrow’s donors? A survey conducted by Blackbaud shows that a majority of donors to non-profits and higher education institutions were mostly white. At UTSA, we took that study and conducted an internal review where we found our alumni base was not only more diverse but also younger. Learn how we adjusted our fundraising efforts to resonating with the full body of our constituents and turned our diverse communities into our leading supporters.

We’ve all heard the numbers on staff turnover in Advancement, but what we haven’t heard is how that turnover can result in positive outcomes for donors. Join us to hear directly from an Academic Dean, Development Officer, Donor Relations, and Development Communications on the unique interactions each has in cultivating a principal gift, and how their inclusion at different points of the donor’s experience help contribute to overall cultivation of prospect. We’ll flip the script on turnover and how you can use the inevitable changes to your team over time to your advantage.

TikTok and Instagram Reels can be used to promote, maintain, and elevate campus culture and the image of the university through social campaigns, campus partnerships, and collaborations with current students and alumni. Effectively using TikTok and Reels requires communication across campus, staying on top of trends and knowing how to use trends to relate to and influence your campus demographic. By doing so, your presence on these platforms can help with recruitment, admissions, alumni engagement, and promoting campus culture and student life. This session will cover how to get started, find and lead student ambassadors, and build your content pipeline.

Many of our alumni are feeling others are more deserving of their philanthropic support than their alma matter. How can you strengthen your solicitations and cultivate your constituents.

This session will set the stage for the world we live in and our true competition for philanthropic support. We discuss how others view our prospects and how you can take advantage of what you know and the channels you use to communicate with them.

We also examine how Trinity University balances the use of communication and solicitation channels to remain engaged and relevant in the life of alumni and other constituents.

If it's all about the team and not the individual, how do you hold individual team members accountable for their contributions? Alternately, if someone becomes laser focused on their own performance, will the team's output suffer? Sports teams win or lose as teams, but team members focus on very distinct, individual tasks, goals and skills. The leadership challenge is balancing focus and dedication to YOUR work while never losing from view the importance of OUR work. This session is about leading others and developing yourself as an advancement professional and leader in a way that champions individual and team performance.

An overview of how UT-Austin has built a cohesive and comprehensive frontline support cohort across multiple teams throughout the University Development Office and campus. By allowing these cross-campus partnerships, fundraisers can focus on their fundraising objectives as opposed to managing their support team. Frontline Support managers serve as a vital link for the fundraiser and frontline support staff members by taking on recruitment, hiring, onboarding, training, conflict resolution, and management responsibilities.