In this interactive pre-conference workshop, Jenny Cooke Smith and Sam Camarena will guide participants through the art and strategy of data storytelling in the context of advancement. Drawing from CASE Insights resources and award-winning examples, this session will help advancement professionals move beyond spreadsheets and dashboards to craft compelling narratives that inspire action and deepen stakeholder connection. Participants will explore how to select meaningful data, set strategic goals, and build stories that resonate with constituents, volunteers, and institutional leaders. Through hands-on exercises and real-world examples, attendees will leave with a personalized storytelling plan they can immediately apply in their work. This workshop is designed to empower participants at all levels to be effective data storytellers. Ahead of the session, attendees will be encouraged to identify a challenge or opportunity within their unit. During the workshop, they will receive frameworks and strategies that are applicable regardless of title, including exercises that help translate insights into actionable steps. Participants will also be prompted to identify colleagues or supervisors they may want to connect with after the session to carry their insights forward. Through hands-on activities and real-world examples, attendees will leave with a personalized storytelling plan they can immediately apply in their work, whether they lead a team or contribute within a larger unit.

AI in advancement is moving from concept to practice. This session introduces a comprehensive framework for adopting agentic AI in advancement—from identifying the right use cases to designing, testing, and governing AI agents. Using Microsoft Copilot as a demo environment (with principles transferable to OpenAI and other tools), presenters will show how agents can reconcile gifts, troubleshoot CRM issues, and more. Participants will see the framework in action, explore real-world case studies, and leave with practical checklists and templates to guide adoption in their own shops. Closed captioning available for this session, bring your own fully charged phone, tablet, or laptop to access the captions.

The Growth Mindset revolutionized how we approach learning and development in 2006, emphasizing effort, persistence, and the ability to learn and grow over time. But with the rate of change we experience in comparison to 2006, effort and persistence is causing burnout. The Reset Mindset is based on value creation, not learning. And it is supported by the willingness to re-invent and dynamic reassessment to stay focused on the highest value. Dynamic reassessment helps individuals and organizations not only grow but also realign, reposition, and respond with agility. Closed captioning available for this session, bring your own fully charged phone, tablet, or laptop to access the captions.

Drowning in data but starving for direction? You're not alone. Many advancement professionals feel paralyzed by endless metrics, unsure which numbers actually matter for their daily work. The secret isn't more sophisticated analysis—it's starting with simple, powerful tools that cut through the noise.

This hands-on session shows you how to build clarity from chaos using accessible techniques that don't require a statistics degree. You'll create visualizations that energize your team and simple algorithms that guide real decisions..."

Data can feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to sink your advancement strategy. This session, co-presented by St. Bonaventure University and GiveCampus, will demystify the complexities of data management with practical, repeatable approaches that advancement professionals can implement immediately. From designing smarter import workflows to mapping fields with intention, attendees will see how clean, structured data builds the foundation for stronger reporting, segmentation, and outreach. Real-world campaign examples will highlight how analytics not only measure outcomes but actively inform future tactics. Above all, participants will see how using data strategically can supercharge fundraising efforts—unlocking smarter campaigns, deeper donor engagement, and bigger impact. With an emphasis on building a culture of continuous improvement, this session offers a roadmap to leveraging your data as a strategic asset—so you can swim with confidence, not drown in the details.

Advancement teams rely on data to guide fundraising strategy, alumni engagement, and campaign planning. Yet, analytics professionals are often stuck in a “Waffle House” model—serving up data on demand, 24/7, without being invited into strategic conversations. This session explores four common paradigms that keep data teams in reactive roles and offers a roadmap for building a strategic data culture where analytics professionals are valued as thought partners, not just report generators.

This session is designed for professionals at Level 4 (Leading/Managing) and Level 5 (Directing/Strategizing) within advancement organizations.

While the session may resonate with professionals at other levels, its core focus is on those who lead data teams and those who shape the environment in which data teams operate. Without leadership support, data teams risk remaining stuck in transactional roles—leading to burnout, turnover, and missed opportunities for strategic impact.

Machine learning isn’t a buzzword, it’s a practical tool advancement teams can use today to improve donor engagement and retention. This session will show how institution-built ML models can predict donor attrition with surprising accuracy and help advancement leaders make smarter, data-informed decisions.

I will highlight a working attrition model built with Stony Brook’s donor history, where advancement experts validated the list of “most at-risk” donors as highly accurate. The lesson is simple: models trained on your own donor data outperform vendor black boxes. By leveraging the patterns in institutional giving history, shops can maximize unique donor counts, focus stewardship efforts, and strengthen retention.

The session will also cover how to prepare donor datasets for modeling, approaches to validating results, and ways to get started with machine learning even without a dedicated data science team. Participants will walk away with a clear understanding of how ML can support fundraising and stewardship when applied directly to their own donor data.

As AI transforms the philanthropic landscape, advancement leaders face a critical choice: risk being overtaken by disruption or lead the way with intelligent, mission-driven teams. This session introduces the AI Risk & Readiness Matrix, a practical framework for mapping where your organization stands today and charting a path toward an AI-ready future. Drawing on Clark University’s journey, including the creation of an internal AI Lab, team restructuring, and new governance models. Joe will share how to align technology adoption with ethics, mission, and culture. Attendees will leave with actionable tools to assess readiness, build guardrails, pilot with purpose, and invest in teams—not just tools—to unlock AI’s potential while safeguarding trust and values.

This session explores the development of a generative artificial intelligence system designed to create detailed individual profiles from structured input data. Attendees will follow the full project lifecycle, including planning, data collection, model training, and user interface design. The session emphasizes the use of Python for data preprocessing, and deployment, showcasing how the programming language supports scalable and secure AI solutions. Participants will gain practical insights into building robust generative artificial intelligence applications while addressing usability, privacy, and performance challenges.

Alumni engagement metrics are most valuable when they inform strategy—not just reporting. This session provides an overview of CASE’s Alumni Engagement Framework, highlighting key definitions, KPIs, and benchmarking trends to show how institutions are sharpening focus and demonstrating impact.  Participants will explore best practices for aligning engagement data collection with institutional priorities, identifying the forms of engagement that matter most to their mission, and using metrics to guide decision-making. The session will also examine how insights into generational engagement behaviors can inform more intentional, data-informed outreach strategies—helping institutions allocate resources effectively and design engagement approaches that resonate across alumni populations.