In this session, you’ll learn how to create and maintain a custom AI assistant that helps you work smarter, scale your impact, and free up time for the human side of philanthropy. You’ll see how it can support your work across annual giving, research, and frontline efforts, with ideas you can adapt to your own context. You’ll leave with clear ways to keep your AI sharp, relevant, and actually useful in your day-to-day work.

In the ever-evolving landscape of alumni relations and fundraising, understanding and leveraging the power of data is critical for success. This session will delve into the strategic use of metrics and KPI to drive alumni engagement and boost fundraising outcomes. Attendees will learn how to harness data to identify trends, measure engagement effectiveness, and tailor outreach efforts for maximum ROI.

Managing social media can feel overwhelming, but this session will share a practical, step-by-step framework to bring clarity and purpose to your work. We’ll start by discussing how to audit your current efforts and identify what’s working (and what’s not), then align your content and platforms with institutional goals like recruitment, retention, and engagement. From there, we’ll explore key trends, audience behaviors, and platform strategies shaping higher ed today. Finally, we’ll focus on working smarter, sharing tips for streamlining workflows, strengthening account management, and leveraging AI tools to increase efficiency without sacrificing authenticity. Attendees will leave with actionable insights and a roadmap for managing social media with confidence.

In this session, you’ll learn how to create and maintain a custom AI assistant that helps you work smarter, scale your impact, and free up time for the human side of philanthropy. You’ll see how it can support your work across annual giving, research, and frontline efforts, with ideas you can adapt to your own context. You’ll leave with clear ways to keep your AI sharp, relevant, and actually useful in your day-to-day work.

No matter how your organization classifies major gifts, these large commitments are the fuel that often drives annual production of private support. This introductory session will explore definitions of major gifts, how they fit into a comprehensive development effort, and what motivates donors to make them. The presentation will provide a conceptual understanding of how the development cycle applies to major gifts and the steps involved in securing them. The session will close by placing these large donations in the context of societal, economic, and philanthropic trends across the nonprofit educational sector.

A Giving Day is a 24-hour (or longer) fundraising event aimed at bringing communities together to raise awareness for a specific cause, increase engagement, and drive donations. For many, a successful Giving Day lies in its time-sensitive nature: donors have just one day—24 hours—to support a cause and reach goals. This time-boxed theme creates urgency and excitement and can provide a jolt of adrenaline to any campaign. In this session we’ll talk about how to showcase personal donor testimonials, examples of great Giving Day storytelling, big ideas, things that didn’t work just right, and how to engage donors, faculty, staff, and more to spread the word and motivate individuals to get involved, raise awareness, and ultimately make a gift, or two.

Join us for an insightful presentation on the significance of student philanthropy at our organizations. We will explore how educating students about philanthropy through initiatives such as senior gift campaigns and awareness drives fosters a culture of giving that lasts beyond their time on campus. Attendees will learn best practices for implementing a robust student philanthropy program and understand the lasting impact of instilling philanthropic values in students before they graduate. Walk away with practical strategies to nurture the next generation of engaged and generous alumni.

Turn up the heat on your cold calls and keep the door open after your first visit. Learn how to get the appointment, how to start the conversation and keep it on track, and most important, how to end the visit ensuring a productive next step. Have to solicit on that first call? We'll cover that as well. The development professional who masters and enjoys cold calls and first visits is destined for success.

It is more than a meeting: it is ensuring success in every stage of a significant solicitation. We often think of a solicitation as a singular event, the moment when we "ask for the order." In this session, we will look at personal solicitation in a broader context, by discussing the five stages of the solicitation process, beginning with the call to request an appointment and concluding with post-solicitation follow-up. Our goal will be to understand how a thoughtful and rigorous approach to each stage can help ensure the best possible outcome in your solicitation of a high-potential prospect.