Establishing and maintaining strong relationships with various stakeholders within your institution is essential for successful advancement. By cultivating these relationships with institutional leaders and volunteers, departmental heads, faculty and researchers, alumni relations, communications and marketing teams, or student affairs personnel, fundraising professionals can identify potential funding opportunities, secure support from alumni, coordinate fundraising efforts, reach out to potential donors, gain insight into student priorities, and align fundraising efforts with institutional objectives. This session will work on building a collaborative and integrated institutional community that can greatly enhance fundraising readiness and advancement success.

In management literature, there are a wealth of good practise models available that underpin successful strategy development. During such periods of intense competition and uncertainty taking a systematic yet dynamic approach to strategic planning is critical. This session will share some of the core aspects of these models, as well as demonstrating how they can be practically applied in a HE context for maximum impact. Themes will include broader strategic alignment, key stakeholder engagement, cultural transformation and change management, and effective target setting and performance metrics. Learning objective: Understand the fundamental building blocks of effective strategy development and have the confidence to put them into practise.

For many institutions, fundraising, alumni relations, and marketing & communications operate in parallel - but not always in partnership. This session is will help participants understand how these functions can align to create stronger engagement, clearer messaging, and greater impact. This session will explore what “integrated advancement” means in practice. We’ll look at how shared strategy, consistent storytelling, aligned data, and collaborative planning can transform disconnected activities into a cohesive institutional approach.

Join us for an engaging plenary session that goes beyond the basics of regular giving, delving deep into its pivotal role within a robust fundraising strategy. This discussion will unveil core principles, donor motivations, and the driving methodologies behind regular giving in just over an hour. We’ll also look at the significance of data and analytics in shaping a strong regular giving programme. Through insights into segmentation, donor profiling, and lifetime value analysis, you'll gain a profound understanding of how data fuels effective fundraising efforts. By the end of the session, you'll be equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to articulate the purpose and objectives of a stellar regular giving scheme, empowering you to either launch a new initiative or elevate an existing programme to new heights.