CASE is conducting qualitative research to learn more about how departments and advancement teams are successfully adopting AI systematically. This research aims to bridge the gap from early individual adopters to successful ways institutions are incorporating generative AI into an integrated advancement practice. The session will begin with an interactive discussion where participants are invited to share their both challenges and innovative ways their teams are adopting AI. The session will showcase preliminary findings of the research, including key components of successful adoption, AI sentiment from Chief Advancement Officers, and recommended next steps.

Everyone wants to make “data informed decisions” especially during periods of strategic planning and solicitation plan development. Yet, we often underutilize vital data-informed positions such as Prospect Development, which traditionally is viewed as a resource primarily for leadership and major giving. But what would it look like if we took prospect development and applied advancement data analytics to serve as a resource for all University Advancement? Come learn from Texas State University how their restructuring took prospect development, data analytics, and business processes and turned it into a strategic arm serving the entire advancement organization. Learn about holistic pipeline development when leveraging both prospect development and analytics together to advise and inform strategy development for alumni relations, annual giving, AND major giving.

In fundraising, it is often difficult to calculate the probability that a given prospect will make a gift, or the likelihood that our organization will reach a specific fundraising dollar goal. The usual measures used in identifying probability don’t always work when it comes to human activity, and donative behavior is no different.
During this presentation, Dr. Gregory Duke will review several methods of identification of probability and identify which of these methods can give you a better understanding of your prospects’ likelihood to give. Dr. Duke will also use other measures of probability used in games, sports, medicine, and nature to illustrate the depth and breadth of donor possibilities. Lastly, Dr. Duke will demonstrate a technique to put all these together to create a predictive model of donor behavior over time.

There has been increased interest in leveraging predictive AI by non-profits to generate new major and legacy gift prospects and for improving annual fund prioritization. Last year we looked at how the principles of Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) could help build better models. This year we will dive a little deeper into exploring potential factors using tools such as partial regression plots and diagnostics such as Hadi’s Influence and Cook’s Distance. We’ll also discuss approaches for effectively activating the results. Come see how we can make statistical modeling fun.

Dive into the strategies, tools, and workflows needed to create and sustain impactful alumni employment dashboards at your organization. Drawing on their experience with projects across multiple institutions, the speakers will share actionable insights on cleaning and classifying data to support the objectives of multiple functional groups, aligning outputs with institutional priorities, scaling initiatives, , and fostering sustainable workflows. Designed for advancement teams of all sizes and technical expertise, this session offers a roadmap to harnessing employment data for strategic decision-making and deeper alumni engagement.

The philanthropic landscape is evolving, and with $31 trillion in wealth set to be transferred by 2033, the opportunity to connect with the next generation of influential donors has never been greater. But how do you identify and engage these future donors effectively? Join us for an insightful session where we’ll explore how Altrata’s cutting-edge wealth intelligence can empower your organization to uncover, understand, and engage high-value prospects with precision. Discover how data-driven insights help organizations like yours navigate the Great Wealth Transfer, maximize wallet share, and develop strategic donor relationships.

Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT continues as the proven standard for excellence in Fundraising and Engagement Management at Higher Ed Institutions. Join us for a fast-paced session on recent and upcoming releases, designed to propel your institution's fundraising efforts far into the future. The session includes updates on Blackbaud’s innovative approaches to delivering intelligent action through predictive insights and optimizing internal workflows to integrate your campus tech stack. This session will share tangible ways that Blackbaud can help your team navigate the road to success with our cutting-edge tools.

Advancement teams are constantly balancing tight deadlines, donor expectations, and the need for more personalized outreach. Yet, many still rely on outdated, manual processes to determine who to ask—and for how much. It’s time for institutions to leverage AI-driven insights to transform their fundraising strategy. In this session, join GiveCampus as we explore how AI is helping today’s institutions remove the guesswork out of their fundraising efforts, leading to asks that are 30% more likely to be accepted. Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of how AI and predictive modeling can revolutionize donor outreach—turning broad, generic appeals into data-driven, targeted strategies that drive better results. Learning Objectives: Optimize Ask Strategies – Learn how predictive modeling can recommend the right donation amount for each donor, increasing both engagement and conversion rates. Enhance Donor Targeting – Discover the power of AI-driven segmentation and how automatically identifying key donor groups (e.g., recurring donors, leadership gift prospects) helps increase efficiency while maximizing impact. Streamline Fundraising Efforts – See how GiveCampus integrates these AI-driven tools into a seamless workflow, reducing manual effort and improving outreach efficiency.

As the University of Pittsburgh continues their journey of technology and organizational transformation, attention is turning to effectively using one of their most important strategic assets – data – to drive “campaign” and fundraising success. With the end in mind of targeting narrow segmentation (scalable segments of one), Pitt devoted significant attention and resources to operationalize a collaborative and strategic data management program to drive campaign and fundraising success.

It’s been almost nine months since the world’s first fully autonomous fundraiser interacted with its first assigned donor. During that time, 11 higher educational institutions joined together as a cohort to engage donors with an AI-powered Virtual Engagement Officer (and a second cohort is now live), but more importantly research, develop, and accelerate the deployment of autonomous fundraising for our entire industry.

In this session, Jennifer Shimp-Bowerman of Bucknell University and Natalie Spring of VCU will present the results they’ve seen from autonomous fundraising – donors engaged, dollars raised, and pipeline built, in addition to their experience being the first organizations in the world to deploy a Virtual Engagement Officer to a portfolio of their donors.

We’ll present what we learned, what we got right, where course corrections were needed, and how we navigated AI in a field defined by relationships. We’ll share all of our findings including portfolios for autonomous fundraisers, sourcing engagement content independently, accuracy, data collection, and more.

Finally, we’ll conclude by looking at where we are going, how we can continue to further personalize donor journeys led by donor engagement data, how to push the outer limits of technology, and more.