Parents are a significant part of our school communities. They are key volunteers, supporters, champions, and yes, they are also the clients of our institutions. Join us for a special preconference offering featuring three sessions designed to explore the best ways to engage your parents for the success of your school. Advocates, Activists, and Other A-Words explores how schools can turn parent voices into powerful allies when implementing major changes—whether launching new programs, overhauling systems, or pursuing ambitious building projects. Drawing on real-world lessons and strategies, this session equips you to navigate advocacy and activism effectively, ensuring your school improvement plans succeed. Designing a New Parent Journey that Builds Connection and Drives Giving shares Seattle Academy’s proven blueprint for cultivating lifelong engagement and early philanthropic support. From personalized summer meetings to curated events and mission-driven touchpoints, learn how to create authentic, high-touch experiences that build trust, nurture loyalty, and inspire meaningful first-year giving without sacrificing authenticity. Turning Tension Into Trust: Fundraising in the Era of Parent Grievances addresses the growing challenge of zero-sum thinking and parent frustrations that can derail fundraising efforts. This session provides actionable strategies to lead with empathy, reframe tough conversations, and partner with school leaders to defuse tensions—protecting your role as a trusted advisor and sustaining a resilient philanthropic culture even in challenging times. Walk away with actionable tools to strengthen community, deepen trust, and secure transformational support—starting now. Don’t miss this opportunity to elevate your impact!

*Separate registration required The Senior Leadership Forum is a deep learning opportunity for chief advancement or communication officers, heads of school, trustees, and other school leaders to explore high level topics including building trust with your board, the leadership work needed to secure transformative gifts, and the opportunity for AI to inform your strategies. This preconference workshop will include: The Trust Factor: How AI and Psychographics Turn Donors into Believers Big gifts don’t come from big asks. They come from big trust, and the smartest schools are now using AI to understand exactly how to build it. In this high-energy session, a senior school leader and an AI expert team up with a special guest AI copresenter to reveal how the latest advancements in artificial intelligence and psychographic data are transforming advancement strategy. You will see how you can uncover the values, motivations, and emotional drivers behind giving, helping leadership teams build genuine confidence with donors and each other. Learn how today’s top schools are combining behavioral insights and AI to predict donor behavior, personalize engagement, and strengthen trust across the entire philanthropic ecosystem. This is a look into the future of relationships, where data, discernment, and authenticity work together to inspire transformational gifts that advance mission. Building Constituent Trust in the Era of Grievance: What You Need to Know & Do This Year Engaging with your constituents is difficult right now. Whether it's polarization, challenges between different generations of faculty and staff, or a general sense that "parents don't trust schools like they used to," things are tricky—to say the least. As we face the largest intergenerational wealth transfer in history, school leaders and revenue-generating teams must adapt to the unique preferences, motivations, and communication styles of different generations to maximize both tuition and advancement revenue. Get an overview of psychographic trends among millennial and Generation X audiences and actionable ideas to craft compelling strategies and messages that resonate with diverse groups that make up your school community. Gifts of Significance: Working with High-Potential Donors on Meaningful Gifts Hear from four seasoned advancement leaders who have built their careers on working with high-level donors. This panel discussion will review the mindset required to have success with our highest-level donors. What time should be carved out for this work? Where does it fit in the priorities for the head of school, board leaders, and advancement professionals? Each panelist will be involved in posing questions that are on the minds of many.

As we adapt to a rapidly changing world, "people problems" can be the most complex and critical challenges we face—but they don’t have to be. Humans are not chaotic, they are predictable, even in chaotic times. That means all adults pass through sequential stages of development that feature different fears, motivators, and goals. By constructively exploring these stages, we can transform our understanding of ourselves AND each other. In this interactive, entertaining, and highly actionable keynote, former Disney+ host, tech founder, and Adult Development Theory expert Arel Moodie introduces the overlooked science of human potential to help us Build People Power™ inside our organizations like never before. You’ll walk away with a clear understanding of how to predict and drive certain behaviors—no matter which stage someone is in. This roadmap will give you a renewed and restored sense of where your organization can go, and help you move people into action so you reach bigger goals together. *Conference badge is required for entry into the Convention Center. Please visit CASE Registration desk on the 3rd floor at the Hyatt Regency to pick up your badge.

For many independent schools, old brand perceptions can be difficult to shake. Learn how New York City’s Xavier High School (a 179-year-old Jesuit, Catholic school) worked to modernize its brand through creative, emotional communications, ongoing data analysis, and strong partnerships between the communications, admissions, and advancement teams. Whatever the age of your school, this session will help you clarify your brand and maintain that clarity during turbulent times.

Alumni giving at Thacher isn’t just alive; it’s thriving. At a time when schools are rethinking what alumni engagement really means, we’ve reimagined it as a full-spectrum experience that blends highly personalized outreach with broad-scale initiatives to spark pride, momentum, and connection across generations. With 48% overall alumni giving and 71% participation among young alumni, we’ve seen how reunion giving, young alumni campaigns, virtual giving days, career and networking support, and data-informed outreach can foster a true culture of engagement, one that drives both community and philanthropy. This session will share our most effective tools, lessons learned from both big wins and messy pivots, and practical, scalable strategies to make alumni giving feel personal, meaningful, and successful; whether you’re a team of two or twenty.

To ensure Board members understand both your role and theirs in fundraising success, be the conductor of the trustee train. You need to educate trustees in fundraising and philanthropy; use your advancement committee well; sit on the buildings and grounds, finance, and governance committees; and employ your head of school’s help when appropriate. This session will offer directors of advancement pointers for forging a [more] productive partnership with the Board of Trustees.

No matter the size of the team, there are always donors who deserve personal, meaningful engagement — but too often, they’re out of reach. Recognizing the opportunity to deepen connection at scale, DeLaSalle High School was one of the first to tap into Autonomous Fundraising. They’re using trusted digital labor to expand their small team’s reach like never before.
After a strong onboarding experience with the Version2 team, DeLaSalle realized that a different constituency — one with both the capacity and the inclination to give — was being underserved by their Development Office. With support from Version2, they confidently shifted to a new portfolio approach, focusing their VEO on engaging current and past parents. The VEO now helps deliver timely, personalized outreach and surfaces giving potential that might otherwise be missed.
Seeing early success with alumni, and now with parents, DeLaSalle is strengthening its donor pipeline with consistent, meaningful engagement throughout the year.
This session will explore how DeLaSalle strategized around the VEO’s portfolio assignments, showcase actual results and examples of their VEO’s engagements with constituents, and explain why they see Autonomous Fundraising as a strategic way to grow capacity. Attendees will leave with practical ideas for how independent schools can pair human strategy with a VEO to reach more donors, build stronger connections, and advance their mission.

Launching a major gifts program can feel daunting, but with the right foundation, it’s entirely achievable. This session will explore how to build a sustainable program from the ground up, discussing the importance of leadership commitment, a culture that supports philanthropy, and an appropriately sized and strong team of staff and volunteers. The panelists will share their experiences at their current schools, and discuss why a compelling case for support, defined giving priorities, and clear goals (along with systems to track progress and report outcomes) are essential elements to success. Whether you're a new advancement leader or head of school, this session offers practical strategies to build a major gifts program to deliver sustained fundraising results.

From Idea to Iconic: Building an Alumni Event That Transforms Your School Community

How do you turn a bold idea into the most successful alumni event in your school’s history? In this session, we’ll take you behind the scenes of MKA’s inaugural Alumni Innovation Summit—a two‑day, campus‑wide celebration that brought back 25 accomplished alumni (many returning for the first time since graduation) to inspire students, spark faculty innovation, and reconnect with each other in transformative ways.

You’ll learn exactly how we did it: from crafting highly personalized invitations that turned even the most disengaged alumni into eager participants, to building a program structure that fostered authentic connection and excitement. We’ll share the complete playbook—panel topics, moderator briefs, faculty think tanks, student interest groups, itineraries, and even the questions that fueled unforgettable conversations.

Walk away with practical strategies, concrete resources, and the confidence to create an alumni event at your school that not only inspires your community but becomes a defining chapter in its history.

What if students weren’t just the recipients of philanthropy—but its leaders? At The Whitfield School, the Student Philanthropy Board empowers students to manage real budgets, evaluate grant proposals, and lead giving initiatives that make an immediate and lasting impact. This session will explore the full structure of the program, including student selection, budgeting, grantmaking, and fundraising strategies. Special focus will be given to Spring It Forward, a weeklong internal campaign that encourages students to give back through time, talent, and treasure, and its companion Giving Day, which engages alumni, families, and friends in a community-wide celebration of generosity.

Participants will leave with practical tools—including templates, timelines, and campaign strategies—as well as a deeper understanding of how student philanthropy fosters leadership, ownership, and a strong foundation for long-term alumni engagement. Whether you're starting from scratch or looking to grow an existing program, this session offers an actionable roadmap to inspire future changemakers and lifelong givers—starting now.

For a school head and leadership team, alignment with the board of trustees is crucial; in times of change, it is even more essential. In this session, Morva McDonald will talk through governance practices--big and small--in the context of ambiguity and uncertainty. She'll also share key trends independent school boards and leadership teams should be aware of, as well as ways to frame these trends in the context of a school's unique culture, market, and tolerance for risk.

Leadership transition is a difficult process in the field of advancement, especially when the outgoing advancement leader or head of school has served successfully for more than a decade and built strong relationships in the school community. In this session, the previous and current directors of advancement at The Kinkaid School will discuss the lessons they learned in their recent baton-pass during the fourth year of a $200 million campaign as well as from previously onboarding new Heads of School. They will offer suggestions on managing the expectations of trustees, staff, colleagues, and the community; documenting the outgoing leader’s institutional knowledge; creating a 100-day onboarding plan for the incoming leader to meet key donors and stakeholders; assessing the staff and its structure; learning about School operations; and building a strong relationship with the Head of School or advancement leader. The lessons learned by Kinkaid provide valuable insights for any school, regardless of its size or length of service by the advancement leader or head of school.

Learn how Polytechnic School built an Annual Fund framework rooted in segmentation, clearly defined ask tiers, ROI-driven projections, and donor-behavior tiers. We’ll walk through how these elements informed our annual fund strategy, shaped donor-behavior insights, and strengthened our overall forecasting approach. This session concludes with a look at our data model; how we projected a $4.1M outcome, stayed on course through a natural disaster, exceeded our goal and increased giving by 10% in one year, and ultimately landed within <1% of our projected target. Expect practical takeaways you can immediately implement as you plan for your next fiscal year.

When the Palisades Fire devastated parts of Los Angeles in January 2025, Carlthorp School found itself at the epicenter—its families, alumni, and community members deeply affected. In the immediate aftermath, the Advancement team, in collaboration with key internal and external partners, stepped into a central leadership role, launching both urgent relief efforts and long-term recovery initiatives. This session will explore how Advancement galvanized support—from mobilizing resources such as uniforms, furniture, and essential supplies to fostering unity during a time marked by both heartbreak and division. One year later, the work continues. Learn how a school community became a lifeline, how storytelling and relationships inspired generosity, and how your own advancement office can serve as a force for resilience in times of crisis.

Tired of chasing down emails, outdated mailing addresses, and job information? Learn how one school leveraged strategic—and sometimes sneaky—methods to refresh alumni contact data without making it feel like a chore. In this session, the team shares how they embedded data collection into quick five-minute surveys, incentivized updates through visible contact displays at events and online, and used an alumni portal with gated features that encouraged logins and profile updates. They also collected deeper insights through thoughtfully designed, well-timed alumni surveys to maximize participation and integrated all updates seamlessly back into the database through efficient tech workflows.

This session will discuss 5-6 facets of the most important fundraiser in your school, the Annual Fund, and how three different schools in Houston, Texas, achieved their goals, sometimes taking different paths. All experienced increased success with their Annual Funds, both in terms of dollars raised and the cultivation of a culture of generosity. Each school will provide descriptions of the different routes they chose for their community, along with what worked, and, in some cases, what did not. We will cover key areas of importance in the planning and execution of the Annual Fund, including the timeline, use of volunteers, Giving Days, giving societies, donor fatigue, and more.

In this dynamic session, AI as Your Thought Partner: Rethinking How We Work, Jen Fifer of The Episcopal Academy will share a practical, real-world look at how AI is reshaping advancement work today—from idea generation and strategic planning to donor engagement, team leadership, and operational efficiency. Drawing on dozens of live examples from her own workflows , Jen will demonstrate how AI can become a reliable thinking partner that sharpens decision-making, condenses complexity, and accelerates the work of a modern advancement shop without sacrificing authenticity or institutional context.

She will be joined by Emma Sonduck, Senior Data Strategist at CASE, who will introduce the latest findings from CASE’s interactive Generative AI in Advancement report and walk participants through CASE’s comprehensive framework for responsible, scalable AI adoption across shops of all sizes. Emma will share sector-wide trends, emerging use cases, and what institutions are learning as they move from curiosity to true integration.

**What you’ll walk away with**

* A clear understanding of how AI can strengthen strategic planning, donor engagement, team management, and message refinement.
* Practical prompts and use cases you can immediately apply in your own shop—from simplifying complex decisions to elevating communications.
* A roadmap for bringing your team along, including stages of adoption, common concerns, and examples of measurable impact.
* Insights from CASE’s newest research: how peer institutions are experimenting, what’s working, and what a thoughtful, future-ready AI strategy looks like.
* A sharper sense of what’s possible when AI becomes not a replacement, but a disciplined and creative thought partner.

Advancement Services is often viewed as a behind-the-scenes data hub position, but during a campaign, this role can greatly expand to become the key command center, critical to the success of the campaign from start to finish. In this session, three advancement services directors will explain how their roles grew from data managers into campaign managers. They will share how Advancement Services can effectively manage more traditional tasks like database management, research, policies and procedures, and working with consultants, fundraisers, gift records, and the business office to additional campaign-related tasks like volunteer management, front-line fundraising, donor stewardship, and coordinating with architects, signage consultants, marketing agencies, and communications teams. Attendees will leave with tangible strategies and practical tips on how to staff and prepare their teams and enable Advancement Services to confidently step into a more prominent, mission-critical leadership role.

Endowment is a permanently invested fund that provides long‑term financial stability by generating annual income to support core priorities such as excellence in teaching and learning, financial aid, program innovation, and campus stewardship. In this session, the presenter will highlight national benchmarks, share historical endowment growth through simple visuals, and explain spending policies that balance sustainability with impact. They will also illustrate how endowed funds transform lives through stories of students, faculty, and programs. The presenter will outline future endowment goals aligned with institutional priorities, describe opportunities for donors to create named funds, and walk through examples of endowed fund agreements and how they are established.

2025 brought significant federal developments for independent schools, from a wave of Executive Orders to the landmark passage of the One, Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). As we look ahead, what priorities will the Trump Administration and Congress pursue in 2026, and how will key provisions of the OBBBA reshape the independent school landscape? This session offers a comprehensive federal legislative briefing tailored to independent school leaders, with particular attention to issues shaping advancement strategy and operations.

Join us for an energizing roundtable experience where you'll connect in small groups to dive into key topics in annual giving, alumni relations, and donor engagement. This interactive session is designed for open dialogue, fresh ideas, and peer-driven learning. Whether you're a seasoned pro or new to the field, you'll leave with actionable insights, new connections, and renewed inspiration to take your work to the next level. Come ready to share, learn, and grow together!

Leadership transitions are inevitable—and often chaotic. Whether you're losing a long-term head of school, facing an interim era, or rebuilding trust after a rocky departure, the advancement office is still expected to keep dollars coming in and donors feeling confident. In this candid session, we’ll share real-world strategies for fundraising through turbulent leadership transitions, including how to message uncertainty, retain donor trust, and even use change to your advantage. You’ll leave with a toolkit of adaptable tactics (and probably a few battle stories) to help your school thrive—even when the building feels like it's on fire. Spoiler alert: You can still raise money even if your organizational chart looks like a crime scene.

Say goodbye to the 100 days of giving that seem to drag on forever! It can be taxing on your fundraising team AND on your donors. It’s time to say hello to having a successful Annual Fund program in 30 days or less! Come learn more about how The Wesley School went from running year long Annual Fund campaigns to 100 days, and now successfully achieving 100% parent participation in 30 days or less.

How do you turn a milestone anniversary into a movement? At Christ Church, the 500th year became more than a celebration - it became a strategic opportunity to re-engage long-lost alumni, spark fresh connections, and capture lasting engagement data.

In this session, an alum-turned-staff member and a fellow alumna share insights from both behind the scenes and as a participant in a remarkable year of activity — from sold-out black-tie dinners to bespoke scavenger hunts and commemorative merchandise. Discover how the program leveraged shared history and sentiment to boost attendance, drive reconnection, and enable smarter tracking through cross-departmental collaboration.

Most strategic plans gather dust. This session explores how schools have turned their plan into a digital storytelling platform, inspired community engagement and drove lasting impact. Discover how, in partnership with Interactive Schools, traditional five-year plans were reimagined as a branded, interactive experience that reflects each institution’s identity and fuels real momentum. We’ll unpack how a bold visual identity, microsite, and content strategy can transform a strategic vision into something the entire community can rally behind. From campaign-style rollouts to embedding storytelling into everyday school life, this session offers a practical, creative roadmap for turning your strategic plan into a living, breathing communications tool. Whether you’re in the early stages of strategic planning or preparing for a major relaunch, come ready to think differently - and walk away with ideas you can put to work at your own school.

How can a small advancement team create meaningful donor connections, increase participation, and empower volunteers—all while keeping efforts manageable and impactful? At Forsyth Country Day School, Aaron Craven, Director of Philanthropy & Community Engagement, has developed a highly personalized communication strategy centered on thoughtful email and text outreach. From LYBUNT renewals to student-led giving campaigns and alumni engagement events, he'll share real-world examples of how strategic segmentation and engaging messaging can energize your community, increase giving, and scale your impact without scaling your team. In addition, we'll delve into the broader industry trends and data points that will explain why Forsyth Country Day School's efforts exceeded their desired outcomes and how you can adopt similar strategies to elevate your own fundraising efforts.

You started the fundraising year with a great script and a full cast: a solid plan for each program and each Advancement team position filled. But that was the halcyon days of summer! Since then staff members have been dropping out…and there are no understudies in sight! How do you navigate the unexpected challenges presented by staffing disruptions and keep your program on track? Our panelists, who have successfully managed similar situations, will share their practical experiences and best practices, offering actionable insights to plan for the unexpected, overcome hurdles, and ensure the “show” is a success.

Discover how you can authentically involve students in donor engagement. This interactive session explores the dual benefits of student participation: while students develop public speaking, leadership, and storytelling skills you can deepen donor connections through genuine narratives. Participants will hear firsthand student testimonials, engage in a story-mapping exercise, and receive practical tools for implementation. Leave equipped to launch or strengthen student-centered fundraising strategies!