About Boston College

BC’s Office of University Advancement, led by Senior Vice President Jim Husson, has experienced significant growth and success over the past couple of years. Currently staffed at 195 with the goal of hiring 30 incremental staff prior to the launch of the next campaign, the division has attracted some of the most capable and collegial professionals in the field. With one of the industry’s highest retention rates combined with a culture of community, collaborative best practice, and career progression, BC Advancement is a leader among its peers.

BC’s record-breaking Light the World campaign raised a total of $1.6 billion, exceeding its goal by more than $100 million. The campaign, concluded in August 2016, was one of the most successful in higher education this decade, featuring gifts from 140,000 donors and more than tripling the results of Boston College’s Ever to Excel campaign, which raised $441 million in 2003. Light the World doubled annual philanthropic revenue from $60 million in 2005 to $120 million in 2016, positioning BC among the top 5% of private colleges and universities nationwide in annual contributions. 

Currently ranked 38th among national universities in U.S. News & World Report, BC enrolls 14,500 students in more than 50 fields of study, through eight schools and colleges in Boston, America’s preeminent city for higher education. BC has over 800 talented faculty, a low faculty/student ratio of 1:12, and an undergraduate acceptance rate of 27.9%. The University’s students have earned more than 200 prestigious academic scholarships over the past decade, including three Marshalls, eight Goldwaters, and 179 Fulbright grants.

Programme to cover

• From planning to executing a campaign, from one of the decade’s most successful campaigns
• Parent fundraising
• How to run a successful giving day
• High-end annual giving
• Multi-media marketing
• Confirmed keynote speaker, Jim Husson, Senior Vice President

Program

9:45 – 10:00 
Arrive at the Cadigan Alumni Center
2121 Commonwealth Ave., Brighton, MA

10:00 
Welcome & Overview of the Day
Brenda Ricard, Associate V.P., Operations & Planning

10:15 – 11:00
Parent Fundraising
This session will cover the importance of engaging new parents and the various programs that focus on parent involvement and parent giving.
Ben Anderson, Associate V.P., Major Giving
Michelle Bishop-Dorsey, Sr. Associate Director

11:00
Break

11:15 – 12:00 
Engaging Academic and Administrative Leaders in Philanthropic Relationship Building
This will be a panel discussion with faculty and academic leaders.
Ginger Saariaho, Associate V.P., Schools and Programs
Renee DeCesare, Executive Director, School Development

12:00 – 13:00
Lunch and session
The Impact of Volunteerism on Philanthropy
Leah DeCosta, Associate V.P., Alumni Relations

This session will include several engaged BC volunteers talking about their own volunteer experience and their motivation to serve in this capacity.

13:00 – 14:45
High-End Annual Giving and Giving Day
This session will cover initiatives used to drive leadership level gifts and an overview of our recent Giving Day.
Peggy McCorkle, Associate V.P., Annual & Leadership Giving
Cynthia Figueroa, Director, Annual Giving Marketing & Participation
Kim Kawecki, Marketing Campaign Manager

13:45 – 14:45
Campaign Fundraising, Leadership Development and Open Discussion
Jim Husson, Sr. Vice President, Advancement

14:45 – 15:30
Optional Student Led Tour of Campus

3:30
Reception and Networking

About Boston University

Over the past half-century, Boston University has transformed itself into a top-tier educational institution of international scope and impact.

Founded in 1839 and chartered in 1869, BU was established on principles of social justice and community service. It was the first American institution of higher education to open all of its departments to women (in 1872). It has graduated many luminaries, including Nobel laureate Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (GRS’55, Hon.’59), Pulitzer Prize winners, Guggenheim awardees, and MacArthur fellows. 

Today, BU is the fourth-largest private research university in the United States, with more than 15,000 graduate students, nearly 17,000 undergraduates, just over 4,000 faculty members, and approximately 10,000 employees. We offer more than 250 degree programs through our 17 schools and colleges, ranging from liberal arts, science, and technology to professional programs, including business, law, and medicine. 

BU most recently placed 42nd among US universities in U.S. News & World Report and in 2012 was admitted to the Association of American Universities, which comprises 62 of the leading public and private research universities in the US and Canada. 

Boston University Participants

Scott Nichols, Senior Vice President, Development & Alumni Relations
Karen Engelbourg, Vice President, Development
Steve Hall, Vice President, Alumni Relations
Steve Witkowski, Senior Associate Vice President, Development
Ron Gray, Associate Vice President, School Development
Amy Bronson, Associate Vice President, Advancement Resources & Strategic Talent Management
Josh Aiello, Assistant Vice President, School Development
Anthony Barbuto, Assistant Vice President, Leadership Gifts
Glenn Vivian, Assistant Vice President, Principal Gifts & Planned Giving
Scott Graham, Executive Director, Annual Giving
Susan Richardson, Executive Director, Alumni Relations
Ellen Bryan, Director, Research
George Kosar, Director, Foundation Relations
Rachel Loughran, Director, Stewardship and Donor Relations
Julia Serazio, Director, Development Communications

Confirmed Topics

• Principal Gifts
• International Fundraising
• Major Gifts
• Alumni Relations
• Annual Giving
• Planned Giving
• Foundation Relations
• Prospect Research
• Stewardship and Donor Relations
• Advancement Services
• Development Communications
• Talent Management

09:00 – 09:30
Travel to Northeastern University

09:30 – 10:30
Development: Entrepreneurial Approaches to Major and Principal Gifts Fundraising
Innovation is a defining characteristic of Northeastern University. An entrepreneurial approach to fundraising is also a necessity and a source of pride to an insurgent university. This session will focus on novel strategies for engaging prospective donors and pursuing opportunistic gifts that advance the mission of the university.  

• Ways to build presence and pipeline
• Training a development team to think broadly and creatively
• Customising opportunities to support institutional priorities
• Pivoting in gift conversations

Luanne Kirwin, Vice President of Development
Paul Zernicke, Associate Vice President of Development
    
10:30 – 10:45
Refreshment Break
    
10:45 – 11:45
Alumni Relations: Expanding Impact Through Virtual Engagement
This session will show how Northeastern is expanding the reach of our alumni programs by offering: 

• an alumni mentoring and networking platform
• webinars
• online mini-courses with faculty
• virtual networking events 
• live-streamed presentations

These cost effective efforts allow you to engage alumni beyond the locations of live events. Discover new ways of building alumni connections across geographic boundaries and widening your impact. Information will be provided about products that make it easy to implement these offerings. 

Rick Davis, Vice President, Alumni Relations and Annual Giving
Michele Rapp, Associate Director, Alumni Career Strategy
    
11:45 – 12:45
Advancement Services: Innovative Engagement
This session will involve various staff members within Advancement Services discussing the creative things they are doing around innovation and engagement. 

• Donor relations 
• Prospect research and management 
• Advancement communications 
• AI and its use in fundraising

Joseph Donnelly, Vice President, Advancement
Charlotte Troyanowski, Senior Director, Donor Relations
Bruce Berg, Senior Director, Development Research
Noelle Shough, Executive Director, Advancement Communications 
Russell Gelinas, Director of Technology, Enterprise Data Sharing
    
12:45 – 13:45
Lunch Break

13:45 – 14:45
Talent Management and Operations: Retention Initiatives within University Advancement
This session will focus on our recent Retention Project and how it affects recruitment, morale and culture.  

Timothy Kenneally, Assistant Vice President, Finance and Operations
Caitlin Hahn, Associate Director, Operations and HR Administration
    
14:45 – 15:00
Refreshment Break
    
15:00 – 16:00
International Advancement: Major and Principal Gift Strategies
This session will focus on international fundraising and engagement strategies including:

• Family Strategies – engaging students, parents, and young alumni (YGL).
• The art of the pivot: when good things go bad.
• “Let me introduce you to my good friend” …. The complexities of managing relationships from admissions referrals to building a globally networked community of alumni, parents and students.  
• Conversations through the opaque looking glass – explaining your role as a fund raiser and the liberating power of transparency.
• “Do only what you are uniquely qualified to do” …. The art of delegation

Robert Dietrich, Associate Vice President, International Advancement

About Brandeis University

Brandeis University is a private, mid-sized, research-intensive (R1) university just outside of Boston, the youngest of the 62 top North American research universities comprising the American Association of Universities (AAU). With 3600 undergraduates (all in the College of Arts & Sciences), 1800 graduate students in four graduate schools, and 350 full-time faculty, it is also the second-smallest R1 university, next to Cal Tech, with 32,000 alumni. Brandeis is one of only five private R1 universities in the US focused on its undergraduate liberal arts program and the only one without a medical or engineering school. Current faculty include two Macarthur Fellows, three HHMI Investigators, ten National Academies fellows, and three Pulitzer Prize winners. Profs. Michael Rosbash and Jeff Hall were awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology for their work at Brandeis on the genomics of circadian rhythms. Since 2008, Brandeis has supported one of 21 NSF Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers, the only one at a university without an engineering program.

Brandeis was founded in 1948 by the American Jewish community as its contribution to the American tradition of liberal education and named for Louis Brandeis (1856-1941), the first Jewish justice of the US Supreme Court.  Though explicitly secular from the beginning, the university is committed to and rooted in Jewish values and traditions: deep respect for learning, openness—the welcoming of strangers—and, to paraphrase the Talmud, the conviction that the world is sustained and improved through active study. President Ron Liebowitz is now in his third year, and having undertaken a full review of the institution's programs, infrastructure, and financing, has articulated a framework for future development and an eventual capital campaign.

Advancement programme to cover:

• Working with faculty
• Student Philanthropy and Young Alumni Programs - building the next generation of donors
• Leveraging cultural identity, opportunities and challenges -- the significance of our Jewish founders and friends and how we are approaching that today
• Advancement Communications in a crowded higher ed ecosystem
• Leveraging data for benchmarking and management