All of our institutions are either preparing for, in the midst of, or transitioning out of a campaign. There is no absolute truth about whether to integrate your annual fund and alumni engagement goals into the campaign, but there are some important considerations to address before you make your decision. And you may even discover mid-way that you want to go in a different direction. This discussion will explore some of the pros, cons, and factors to consider in deciding how, when or if to use your campaign to promote annual giving and alumni engagement.

Effective fundraising goals can serve as a planning exercise that illuminates the path to success - clarifying priorities, strengthening portfolio strategy, and improving follow-through across the year. This session offers practical approaches for strengthening goal setting with fundraisers through clarity, collaboration, and structure. We establish shared language around key concepts - metrics, targets, and goals - to support consistent understanding and reduce misalignment in practice. We then explore common approaches to individual fundraising goal setting and the organizational supports that make them effective, including structure, technology, portfolio management practices, historical context, and institutional priorities. When designed well, goal setting becomes both a system for organizational alignment and a tool for fundraisers to gain clarity, focus their efforts, and engage more meaningfully in planning their success.

Strong fundraising pipelines are built long before a proposal is written. This session explores how advancement services, alumni engagement, communications, fundraising, and related teams can work together to build a healthier long-term donor pipeline across the institution. Using examples grounded in behavioral science and prospect development, attendees will examine how engagement signals help identify future donors, how organizations move constituents from engagement to philanthropy over time, and how advancement services professionals can support sustainable donor growth beyond short-term fundraising outcomes. Participants will leave with practical ideas for thinking more collaboratively, strategically, and institutionally about pipeline development.

Great stories aren’t just nice to have, they’re a strategic advantage to better connect with your audiences. This session explores how you can move beyond feel-good narratives to craft purposeful stories that directly support institutional priorities like recruitment, retention, and advancement. Attendees will learn how to identify the stories that matter most, align them with key goals, and deploy them across channels for measurable impact. This presentation will equip you with a framework to turn storytelling into one of your most powerful tools for driving results.

Good ideas rarely succeed on their own. In advancement organizations, meaningful change depends on how people interpret information, respond to risk, build trust, and navigate competing priorities. This session explores how decisions really get made inside institutions and how advancement professionals can increase their influence at any level of the organization. Grounded in principles from decision science, organizational behavior, and change management, attendees will learn practical strategies for communicating ideas effectively, building credibility across teams, and helping new initiatives gain traction. Through real-world examples and interactive discussion, participants will leave with tools for becoming stronger strategic partners and more effective agents of change.