Starting a career in fundraising can feel overwhelming—balancing visits, solicitations, stewardship, and metrics, all while learning the culture of advancement. This session provides newcomers with a clear roadmap for structuring their year, using metrics as helpful guideposts, and developing daily habits that lead to long-term success. Drawing on real-world experience exceeding goals and managing diverse donor portfolios, participants will leave with practical tools to stay on track, manage their work with confidence, and build authentic donor relationships from the very start.

Pipeline development is a major challenge facing our profession. Donor bases are declining, retention rates are sliding, younger alumni are less inclined to engage with their alma maters, and the principal gifts concentration is only increasing. The University of Nebraska Foundation has developed multiple data-driven, innovative strategies to "double down" on its pipeline development work. Combined, these programs have already resulted in 20,000 prospects contacted, 3,500 personal meetings, 400 qualified major gift prospects, $17 million in new gifts, and 82% retention of leadership annual donors. Explore the strategic intent, data, and processes leveraged to build a new, innovative approach to comprehensive pipeline development.

Learn how remote major gift officers can successfully connect with donors beyond the university’s immediate community, build strong relationships that lead to more meaningful in-person meetings, and stay engaged with colleagues and supervisors. This session will also highlight best practices and the unique advantages of working remotely in advancement.

Advancement is evolving rapidly, and so are the strategies required to lead effectively. In this interactive panel, three senior advancement leaders will share insights on the latest trends in campaign communications, shifts in organizational structures, and the role of change management in transforming teams. We’ll also explore how marketing technology is reshaping advancement work—and how talent and leadership development are essential to sustaining these changes. Participants will gain both big-picture perspectives and practical ideas to bring back to their campuses.

Leveraging over two decades of fundraising and fundraiser management experience, Vice Chancellor of Development Russ Austin will teach fundraisers how to help donors dream big – what impact does the donor want to make on the organization or the community and how their gift can make that impact a reality. He will show how to leverage data to inform solicitations while also trusting the “art” of fundraising. Learn tips and tools for managers to ensure gift officers have the confidence to make those big asks at the right time.

Join two seasoned fundraisers from different units within the same university as they share their journey of collaboration around shared donors and joint gift strategies. Through trust-building, strategic alignment, and open communication, they’ve unlocked transformative gifts that have benefited multiple areas of the institution. This session will showcase how cross-unit partnerships can deepen donor relationships, honor donor intent, and create win-win outcomes for donors and departments alike. Attendees will gain practical insights into navigating internal dynamics and maximizing philanthropic impact through intentional collaboration.

Our session will showcase how a behavioral segmentation analysis can transform the way universities connect with their alumni. By profiling graduates across engagement behaviors—event attendance, social media interaction, volunteering, and philanthropy—institutions can tailor programs, communications, and outreach to the specific interests of each segment. Continuous annual surveys keep the insights fresh, allowing universities to refine their strategies over time. This advanced-level presentation is designed for educators at every career stage who want to drive deeper, more meaningful alumni engagement.

Join me for an interactive round table dedicated to exploring how artificial intelligence can transform your work as a major gift officer. In this session, I'll dive into concrete examples of how leveraging AI is streamlining prospect research, personalizing donor engagement, and enhancing stewardship activities. Attendees will hear firsthand how we are using AI-powered tools to be more effective and strategic while managing our portfolios at Michigan Law. After an initial showcase of real-world applications, participants will engage in a collaborative group exercise to share current successes, challenges, and creative ideas for adopting AI in major gift work. Whether you’re an AI novice or already experimenting with innovative tools, this session will equip you with practical insights and foster a space for collective learning. Come prepared to contribute, discuss, and leave inspired to integrate AI into your advancement strategy.

Campaign readiness is not only about frontline fundraising; it is about the systems, services, and people that make progress possible. At Indiana University Foundation, we launched ARLO (Advancement Resources and Liaison Operations), a new customer service resource designed to be the go-to hub for development officers, engagement staff, and personnel within our campus, schools, and units (CSUs), this past fall. ARLO provides comprehensive assistance with gift and account inquiries, policy navigation, and access to critical IUF resources. Operating within IU’s decentralized advancement model, ARLO was intentionally built as more than a help desk to our 1700+ advancement partners. This session will explore how ARLO is transforming internal service delivery by offering a centralized point of contact, reducing bottlenecks, and improving operational efficiency. In this session, attendees will learn how ARLO was conceived and implemented, how it integrates with existing systems, and how it empowers both internal staff and our advancement partners to focus more on mission-driven work. Attendees will leave with strategies for designing or adapting similar partnership-driven service models within their own institutions.

Every year, your team sends hundreds of emails, publishes daily posts on social media and keeps myriad web pages up to date. All that communication generates valuable audience data — but creating a workflow to clean, analyze and form actionable insights around that data sounds like more than you can stomach. In this presentation, the St. Thomas Digital Engagement team explains how they built an analytics and reporting strategy for their email and social media channels from the ground up by breaking it all down into bite-sized action steps. Attendees will get expert tips on analyzing their digital communications data, identifying metrics that help them make actionable insights, and using those insights to inform a data-driven content strategy — all without feeling like they've bitten off more than they can chew.