8:00–9:00 AM Conference Check-In and Continental Breakfast
|Stop by the registration desk between 8:00 am and 8:45 am to get your conference materials and enjoy a continental breakfast before the program begins.
9:00–9:15 Welcome, Introductions and Conference Overview
This is your conference, let’s start it out right! Join conference faculty to kick off the program, meet your fellow attendees, and set the stage to make the most of our time together.
9:15–10:30 Fundamentals of Comprehensive/Capital Campaigns
An overview of the fundamentals needed to conduct a successful campaign. The current landscape, fundraising trends, and overall campaign trends will be reviewed. In addition, the 10 Best Practices that lead to overall success will be shared.
10:45 AM–12:00 PM Building the Case for Support & Campaign Branding
Transformative campaigns and the gifts that make them successful are driven by your institution’s ability to put forward concrete ideas and well-defined priorities with tangible outcomes and measurable impact. Learn about how institutions can use strategic planning and visioning efforts to establish goals, priorities and buy-in from stakeholders – internally and externally – and motivate philanthropic investment.
12:00–1:30 Lunch on your own
1:30–2:45 Panel Discussion: Resourcing a Campaign
Successfulcampaigns require both one-time, multi-year and permanent funding. This panel discussion will provide an overview of today’s campaign funding realities. Considerations for financing your campaign, assessing current resources and needs, establishing appropriate staffing levels, and investments in additional resources (marketing, events, consultants, etc.) to prepare your university leaders and governing boards for the multi-year commitments to launch and celebrate the campaign.
3:00–4:15 Deans, School Heads, and Leaders Academic leaders are crucial to the success of every capital campaign. The support, training, and counsel you need to provide these leaders is often the difference in success or underperformance of project goals. This session will discuss the support that leadership needs to be successful. You will learn what types of leadership you will need to work with on your campaign and what you can do to support the Gift Officers assigned to staff these leaders to ensure success.
4:30–5:30 Breakout Discussions
Group attendees by phase of campaign, i.e. beginning campaign, going public/launching, quiet phase, public phase.
5:30–6:30 Welcome Reception
Join conference speakers and your colleagues to network and socialize after the first day of the conference. Drink tickets and hors d'oeuvres will be provided.
6:30 Conference Adjourns for the Day
Dinner on your own, group dine-around options available.
8:00–9:00 AM Breakfast and Roundtable Discussions
9:00–10:00 Launching a Comprehensive Campaign and Maintaining Momentum
From quiet phase to launch, introducing your campaign to the public is your time to shine.
Rally your institution's community around your campaign and lay the groundwork for a multiyear follow-up. This session will give provide examples of past successes and practical advice on how to launch a campaign.
10:00–11:00 Mini Campaigns, Flash Campaigns, Targeted Campaigns
Whether conducted independently or under the larger “umbrella” structure of a comprehensive effort, mini campaigns, flash campaigns, giving days, and targeted campaigns can help accelerate your success. These time limited and focused fundraising opportunities help elevate emerging themes, drive key giving conversations forward with specific prospect bases, and often expand the marketing and communication efforts already underway to engage new supporters, including through more extensive use of social media and volunteer stories and voices.
11:15 AM–12:15 PM Prospect Development
Prospect development is more critical than ever to the success of comprehensive campaigns and the overall long-term philanthropic “health” of our institutions. Multiple parts of advancement operations must be integrated to create a seamless network of information, engagement and action to develop the prospect pipeline effectively. Learn more about how this work can be structured - operationally and culturally - to build out a more robust prospect development effort.
12:15–1:45 Lunch on your own
1:45–2:45 Constructing a Campaign – Group Exercise
This group exercise provides the opportunity for you and your teammates to apply the principles you have learned to create a hypothetical campaign, or apply the principles directly to the planning of your campus campaign. Your team will outline the case for support, identify a campaign brand, identify campus resources for funding, define the roles of deans and campus leaders, and establish effective prospect development for success. The workshop template can be used for future campaigns or to fine-tune your current campaign.
3:00–4:00 Constructing a Campaign – Group Presentations
You and your team will present your work to the rest of the attendees highlighting your campaign strategy and key plans. Teams will have the opportunity to share their approach and thought process for the campaign decisions they recommend.
4:15–5:30 Constructing a Campaign – Review and Discussion
Faculty will facilitate the group in a discussion to compare the unique approaches to the campaign case presented during the previous session. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions of each other and evaluate the different campaign strategies.
5:30 Conference Adjourns for the Day
Dinner on your own, group dine-around options available.
7:15–8:00 AM Continental Breakfast
8:00–8:45 Managing Volunteers & Campaign Leadership
Comprehensive campaigns are powered by institutional and volunteer leaders. Leveraging
key relationships to maximize your campaign's success and ensuring outstanding experiences
for those who lend their time, their name and their resources to your transformative effort is
critical to realizing your monetary and engagement goals. This session outlines important
steps and considerations in the recruitment process and explores the growing trend of
customized volunteer engagement. Discuss the strategic, thoughtful use of campaign
volunteer leaders' time—all components core to your campaign's success.
8:45–9:30 Expecting the Unexpected
Today’s campaign planning requires a proactive approach to deal with the ever changing challenges and opportunities that impact fundraising. From recessions, leadership transitions, to athletics success, campaign leaders need to maneuver the internal and external climate to meet the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities that occur over the life of a campaign.
9:45–10:30 Closing a Campaign/Planning the Next Campaign
The end of a campaign is a time of transition. It is a time to build on success—and to make plans to capitalize on opportunity. Explore the various elements of post-campaign analysis and determine how it can drive strategic planning for future fundraising and communications.
10:30–11:30 Final Faculty Q&A
11:30–NOON Closing Conversations
Workshop faculty will stick around post-conference to connect with attendees and answer any final questions you may have.