Effective stewardship is about more than a "thank you." It's about creating a structured, personalized approach that deepens donor relationships over time. Join us to explore how you can design and implement a stewardship matrix to ensure consistent, meaningful engagement with donors at all levels.

AI is changing how we work - and a well-built CustomGPT can supercharge your effectiveness. In this session, Dayana Kibilds will walk you through how to build, train and deploy an AI tailored to your specific goals. But building it is just the beginning. Through real examples - including the popular Mailed It! GPT — she’ll also share tips for keeping your CustomGPT sharp and aligned with your needs. You’ll learn how to upload data, fine-tune instructions and avoid common pitfalls so your AI works hard for you.

Why do some fundraising professionals thrive while others plateau? What can we learn from those who ascend to the highest levels of impact? In this interactive session, we’ll go beyond inspiration and introduce a practical framework rooted in the habits, mindsets, and disciplines of expert performers. Through this lens, you’ll chart your path toward excellence—whether you're seeking sharper skills, stronger relationships, or a more purposeful career. Discover why advancement stars are made, not born—and how you can shape your journey to become one.

To effectively communicate the impact of social media, you can’t rely only on the metrics provided by platforms. It’s important to find ways to assess social media efforts against your specific goals in marketing, communication, fundraising, or recruitment. This session will cover the different types of metrics used to assess social media success, where to find them, and how to choose the appropriate metrics to report to various stakeholders.

As the landscape of advancement continues to evolve, leaders and teams are considering how to create programming that reflects their mission and resonates with all audiences. Oftentimes, there is a question: "Why do we need to...?" This session will help you understand and be intentional in your efforts to create purposeful engagement.

Ensuring alumni develop a lifelong affinity to your institution requires cultivating relationships throughout their time as students and as they transition to young alumni. Historically, alumni engagement efforts have not always included segmented student and young alumni programming and messaging, certainly not as a priority; however, recently, institutions are reconsidering how to best meet students and young alumni where they are, in spaces conducive to their evolving life stages. Come to this session to gain practical insights for strengthening your team’s student and young alumni engagement efforts.

Alumni board volunteers partner with alumni staff in executing institutional/departmental goals for the alumni community. Defining specific roles and responsibilities for each volunteer leads to their accountability for how to achieve those goals. Don’t miss this train, as we embark on an overview of strategic alumni board management while making stops to discuss operations, governance, and pipeline development for future board leadership.

For many institutions, alumni do not stay local to their alma mater. When considering emerging trends and best practices, there are many ways that institutions can engage with their geographically distant alumni. During this presentation, we will explore how to rebuild, reactivate and revitalize your regional alumni engagement after a year of virtual experiences and varying covid policies. We will address big questions about the future of regional engagement efforts, local clubs, and emerging technologies in engagement trends in order to connect with alumni in a meaningful way no matter where they live.

Events are at the heart of alumni engagement, and understanding the “art of gathering”, how to strategically approach events based on your intended outcomes and next steps, and the core elements of successfully planning and executing are critical. This session is designed to provide you with a tactical approach to events, as well as a modern approach to evaluating the outcomes and success of your events.

Data is at the heart of many decisions we need to make in Alumni Relations. Whether qualitative of quantitative, anecdotal or scientific, data should be the driving force behind the analysis of effective alumni engagement. Data-informed strategies and tactics can lead to the outcomes you desire for your campus. During this session, we will discuss the importance of data and how to best leverage the information you have at your disposal to improve engagement outcomes.