Change is afoot in educational advancement. We are required to navigate unique challenges – some internal and others external – that impact institutional brand, fundraising, communications, and financial sustainability. This session focuses on what it takes to thrive as an advancement professional during a transition time for our industry. It is intentionally designed for those in their first three years as an advancement professional, those new to the education sector, and those attending their first CASE conference. You will walk away with a deeper understanding of the wide range of skills required to constantly pivot, navigate change, and craft a successful career arc in the wonderful world of advancement. This pre-conference experience includes an opportunity to engage with important content during two keynote presentations as well as networking and learning from peers in small group discussions. You will also hear from a panel of diverse and experienced professionals on how best to craft your successful advancement career in times of change. *Separate Registration Required

In this session, Sacramento State President Luke Wood will share his inspiring personal journey from humble beginnings to becoming the University’s ninth president in 2023 at the age of 41. Drawing from his own experiences, President Wood will highlight what makes Sac State a transformative place for students, particularly through its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. He will discuss the growth the University has seen in enrollment and graduation rates, emphasizing the efforts that have positioned Sac State as a leader in student success. With a focus on leadership, advocacy, and philanthropy, President Wood will provide an insider's view of the challenges he faces, particularly in light of budget decisions, and share how the Advancement team is key to realizing Sac State’s bold vision for the future. The session will close with a reflection on his deep connection to the University and a call to action for those present to continue supporting higher education’s mission of equity and access.

In this session you will grow your capacity to work with your campus CEO to create a lucrative fundraising partnership. Community college foundation executives take you through the evolution of their work to begin to install a culture of philanthropy on and off their campuses. We will show you what strategies we’ve used that have boosted major gift fundraising dramatically.

In need of a new event to energize alumni, engage volunteers, and offer opportunities for collaboration, the Alumni Engagement team at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo looked to the past to create a new annual tradition — Founder’s Day! Celebrating the university's founding on March 8, 1901, Founder’s Day aims to engage as many alumni as possible in new and exciting ways. During the inaugural event on March 8, 2024, 17 alumni communities hosted unique events across the United States, reconnecting alumni to Cal Poly by celebrating this special day in history. During this session, you’ll learn more about how we collaborated with our Board of Directors, alumni volunteers and campus partners to facilitate the planning, timing, pricing, food & beverage, and all other event details needed to pull off this successful engagement event. We’ll go over planning a timeline and marketing plan, as well as lessons learned and planned improvements for this year’s celebration. Join us for this interactive session and leave with a few ideas on how you can utilize your university or institution's unique brand and history to engage alumni on new levels.

Are gift clubs dead? Not if you ask their members! But Starbucks, Target, and Amazon have changed what people expect from loyalty programs, and fundraising needs to follow suit. See how the annual giving team at Caltech put personalization over perks and stewardship over rewards to build a leadership annual giving program that accounts for nearly 90% of their annual gift revenue and is growing at a rate of 10% each year.

Most development professionals have experienced an uncomfortable, offensive, or harmful donor-constituent interaction. This cannot just be seen as “part of the job” rather something that is addressed to create a culture and systems that build brave spaces and policies and procedures that result in greater safety and professional satisfaction.

Why is it that there is sometimes a tension between frontline staff and Advancement Services? Is it because we don't speak the same language? Join us in a lively interactive session with Dhiraj Chand, Deputy Chief Philanthropy Officer - Principal Gifts and Paul Majnik, Deputy Chief Philanthropy Officer - Advancement Services from the University of Utah along with Clay Buck, Kindsight Fundraising Coach and Caroline Chang, VP Product Evangelism, as they dive into why there is a communication gap and what we can do to bridge that gap to speak the same (love) language.

In the dynamic world of advancement for education, effective management and support of volunteers is crucial for organizational success. This session, "Advancing Board Management," delves into the volunteer component of advancement, exploring how to optimize work with a variety of volunteer groups including alumni boards, advisory boards, foundation boards, governing boards, task forces, and committees.
We will begin by examining the best practices of high-functioning boards, highlighting key strategies that drive efficiency and impact. Learn about proven techniques to cultivate a productive board culture, establish clear roles and responsibilities, and implement robust governance structures.
Next, we’ll explore effective engagement strategies for board members that enhance participation and commitment. We’ll share innovative approaches to involving board members in meaningful ways, ensuring they are both motivated and empowered to contribute their best.
Finally, we’ll discuss ways to leverage communities of practice to increase collaboration among colleagues doing similar work, helping to provide for a more cohesive and coordinated approach towards effective board management.

How often have your staff come to you to tell you about an inappropriate comment, touching, or other more egregious behavior from a donor, board member or volunteer? Or do you simply hear about it second hand because reporting it means losing a prospect or being told that it's "just part of the job"? Staff who work in the field have put up with harassment in many forms for many years, but with recent cultural shifts and efforts like CASE"s Zero Tolerance Policy, advancement shops are taking action. Please join the presenters to learn about how some shops are taking concrete actions and practices to prevent harassment and discrimination in advancement, fundraising, and related functions and how you can take these approaches back to your own team, including training to empower and protect staff members, as well as transparent reporting and remediation processes. Through gathering research, developing guidelines, and creating concrete actions and practices to address the problem, and sharing our own journeys, we can all help change the industry to create a safe and respectful workplace culture.

In today's evolving philanthropic landscape, digital engagement officers are proving to be indispensable in enhancing fundraising strategies and cultivating robust donor pipelines. This session explores how digital tools—such as video, texting, email, virtual meetings, and even traditional phone calls—can transform donor interactions and drive substantial results.

Gain insights from a successful program that developed a digital engagement strategy from the ground up, now generating over $1M annually. Learn actionable tips for streamlining your digital outreach efforts, discover valuable resources, and receive practical samples to implement in your own organization. Benefit from the experiences of seasoned development officers who have navigated this digital frontier, and leave equipped with the knowledge to elevate your donor engagement and fundraising success.

Universities across the country deploy regional development teams to engage and cultivate alums who are far from campus. While cultivation opportunities have become more accessible virtually, remote alumni still crave in-person engagement with campus leadership for an impactful experience. The UC Berkeley East Coast and Emerging Regions Major Gifts team developed a program to efficiently and effectively bring campus leadership, from Deans and Vice Chancellors to the University Chancellor, across the country specifically for development work and donor meetings. This system, tailored over years of iteration, has resulted in historic fundraising revenue from the region, contributing over $373M to the recently completed Light the Way Campaign. Brown University deployed a similar strategy on the West Coast, including a bespoke events program focused on campaign priorities and key donors. In this session, we will outline the strategy and implementation plan to collaborate with campus fundraisers, build a sustainable regional donor pipeline, and use qualitative and quantitative data-informed strategies to bring campus leaders to regions in which their time will be used effectively to drive forward major gift conversations.

Each and every message we send and receive over the course of the day is coded by the
sender and decoded by the receiver. This leaves room for misinterpretation and confusion
if we aren’t careful. Using Schramm’s Communication Model, this interaction session will
demonstrate the power and impact of coding and decoding of messages and attendees will
leave with a new perspective on the intentionality we should consider with every
communication we send (or receive).