The CASE Statement of Ethics begins . . . “Institutional advancement professionals, by virtue of their responsibilities within the academic community, represent their colleges, universities and schools to the larger society. They have, therefore, a special duty to exemplify the best qualities of their institutions and to observe the highest standards of personal and professional conduct.” We’ll consider a framework for making ethical decisions, the difference between real ethical dilemmas and perceived ethical dilemmas, and we’ll put to the test some real-life examples.

Leadership has many dimensions and can be defined in a range of ways, but what does it mean to be a leader? Many books have been written about how to turn yourself into a leader: stand taller, be more confident, be decisive, be collaborative, talk more, talk less. But at some point, can’t you just be yourself and also be an effective leader? This session will be a dynamic conversation about how you develop your own personal brand of leadership, adapt it to your team and environment, and remain authentic to who you are and your life experiences.

So, you have a great idea but aren’t sure how to get the green light. Have been asked to take on developing a new program to engage alumni and donors, but don’t know where to start? In this session, we will cover the ins and outs of strategic planning not just at the organization-wide level, but also at the program or department level. We will cover the why, approaches for ensuring ROI, managing outcomes, aligning resources, and lead an interactive exercise to support the development of meaningful roadmaps.

Is Your Institution Prepared to Respond Effectively? A crisis is any event or situation that can negatively impact your institution’s reputation. Whether you’re dealing with an infectious disease on campus, a polarizing speaker, or a social media post that went viral for the wrong reasons, knowing how to respond effectively is vital. From managing day-to-day issues to responding to a public relations nightmare, using real-life examples, this session will share ways to anticipate, mitigate and manage your school’s reputation through strategic communication tactics that are timely and effective.

As a leadership annual fund or major gift professional, you are a detective or anthropologist, uncovering clues to your donor's philanthropic interests, motivations and values. And, like a good detective or anthropologist, you have many different tools for gaining the information you need. In this session we will identify some of the critical skills needed to be a strategic listener and observer as well as an active participant in relationship building.

Do people read emails anymore? Yes—they do. But not the way you think.This talk will show you exactly how to write subject lines, optimize your links, and lay out your email copy so your message gets across. In this session, you’ll learn: How to write good subject lines that increase open rates. Typical email reading patterns and how to use them to your advantage. How to appropriately use formatting and white space. Recommendations on sentence structure and reading level. How to use links and buttons to guarantee click-through. A quick way to test if your email will get read. This session is useful for everyone, whether you send mass emails or just internal ones.

As your career advances you will face many opportunities and challenges…none so complex as learning how to effectively manage yourself in the various roles you play from day to day (or minute to minute!). This interactive conversation will focus on how to manage up, down, directly, through influence and through change management…all while sharpening your own working style and being part of a high functioning organization.

Analyzing your prospect data is a critical component of campaign management before, during and after the campaign. Review analytics projects you can do to get ready, stay on track, and learn lessons to apply to your next campaign. Discuss setting campaign goals, gift table development, prospect pool maturity analysis, campaign revenue projection, identifying problem areas during the campaign, and reviewing your campaign when it’s over.  

Addressing Cybersecurity and Data Governance in Education Fundraising 

For more than 10,000 years humankind has been moved by great stories. Stories have changed the course of history, been used to right wrongs, and to educate new generations. In fact, at the Summer Institute, we devote an entire General Session to hearing stories from our faculty, revealing key lessons learned while they were in the field. Each of our educational institutions is bursting with powerful, meaningful stories. As advancement professionals, we have the opportunity and the challenge to capture this vital information and bring it to life. Many believe that the best fundraisers are also exceptional storytellers. This elective session will build upon some of the lessons learned in the General Session while diving into the techniques and approaches that will help anyone learn to tell a great story, including time to role play what you’ve learned with your classmates!