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.

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).

In an era of shifting policies and political divides, university trustees play a key role in guiding institutions through uncertainty. This panel of experienced trustees will discuss how they stay engaged with their institutions despite policy or political differences, fostering constructive dialogue, and balancing personal values with institutional priorities. Conference goers will gain insights into navigating challenges, while staying mission-focused and aligned with a shared purpose.

Career programs and initiatives are expected from an alumni association. Not only are you asked to serve students with alumni volunteers, but you are asked to create meaningful opportunities for alumni and their career development processes. In this session we will explore the three C's framework to guide your team to develop a strategic and impactful suite of programs. Content, Connections, and Commendations are the three C's that any team can frame their programming strategy on any budget or staff size. This session will explore the three areas and share some realistic examples that participants can think about implementing on their campuses. The presenters will share sample programs and resources to help your team implement initiatives that will work for your school. Whether you are just getting started or you have a robust alumni career team, this program will give you sample events and programs that can meet your alumni's needs.

This session is designed to equip fundraising leaders with the tools and strategies to elevate their entire advancement team’s awareness of planned giving, even among staff who don't specialize in it. Attendees will learn how to train their teams to recognize planned giving opportunities, identify key donor signals, and seamlessly introduce these conversations into routine donor interactions. By the end of the session, leaders will be prepared to empower their staff with practical knowledge that strengthens donor relationships and ultimately increases planned gift commitments.

Engaging donors around planned giving opportunities is a powerful fundraising approach. As Professor Russell James, expert in Planned Giving strategies, puts it: cash is not king. Gift officers are often aware of planned giving vehicles but are challenged to find organic ways to guide donors to understand these opportunities. Planned giving vehicles can also seem technical and intimidating to many development officers. Planned giving training often focuses on the mechanisms themselves, which can generate curiosity but leave unanswered questions about how to turn theoretical knowledge into gift closures. This session follows a different approach. Through story-telling and case-studies, this session builds from the relationships and conversations development officers have with their donors to show the path forward to planned giving strategies and partnership approaches that close gifts.

Want to maximize your Gala ROI? Discover the transformative power of understanding your community and engaging your volunteers. This presentation will explore innovative strategies to enhance your return on investment (ROI). Learn how the Chinese American International School (PS-8) leverages our community's unique skills and passions to create a more dynamic and efficient event that meets and exceeds fundraising goals.

The #1 way to ensure your institution's success & your future success as a fundraiser is ambitious, consistent discovery now. But discovery is one of the hardest parts of fundraising! When you're getting in the door with amazing new potential donors, discovery can feel like an adventure. When you're slogging through names in your database and getting zero responses, discovery can feel overwhelming and oppressive. Join this session for tactical discovery tips from sending better emails to cold calling to turning the conversation to money in that first visit.

Can we attribute fundraising success in community college philanthropy to particular factors?  Is it about the knowledge and motivations of the chief fundraising officer, or is it more about organizational dynamics…or all of these?  Recent research conducted in California provides some clues.  And what factors determine whether that leader is interested in or is considered for higher levels of leadership?  Only 4% of sitting community college presidents in the U.S. come from a career in fundraising.  Why do so few of us aspire to the position of college president?  Join us to hear the fascinating discoveries of two California chief fundraising executives as they share findings from their own recently completed doctoral dissertation research. The implications here could help us as we consider how we prepare, support and hire community college leaders in the fundraising space…and in the presidential suite.

Learn from Arizona State University's College of Nursing on how we seamlessly integrated alumni relations in to the Marketing and Communications department. This partnership has produced a cross-collaborative relationship that is not only mutually beneficial, but contributed to new projects and programs that the university is looking to duplicate on a large scale.