Registration

Opening comments

Overview to Annual Giving Planning Strategy

Proper annual gift planning strategy can lead to fruitful results, even in difficult economic times. In this session, we will discuss the annual giving big picture, offer a map of the planning process, highlight key strategic decision points, and propose suggestions for evaluating success.

Working Session: Using a SWOT Analysis to Brainstorm and Prioritize Your Efforts

In small groups, you will identify specific strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats associated with your annual giving efforts to prepare you for creating a strategy that takes into account your institution's unique culture. You will then come together as a group to identify common issues and offer initial feedback.

Afternoon break

Strategic Messaging for Annual Giving

Should your message change with the times? How do you position your institution within the world of nonprofit organizations? What is the best strategy for addressing a wide variety of alums? This session will explore best practices for strategic communication as part of a holistic plan for annual giving.

Day 1 wrap-up and closing Q&A

Networking reception (included in registration)

Continental breakfast (included in registration) and topical roundtables

Building Your Team: Staff Support and Retention

Annual giving shops are consistently in transition, losing ground and money when your most valued resources - your people - move on. This session will address two pieces of this problem: 1) how to give your staff adequate support so that you can retain them, and 2) how to plan for leadership and staff changes that are somewhat inevitable.

Data-Driven Program Assessment (Part 1)

Strong annual giving programs are data-intensive, and you must be able to strategically employ your data to continue to gain ground in our current climate. With your SWOT results in hand, in this session you'll learn basic data analysis techniques for essential reporting and tactical decision making.

Morning break

Data-Driven Program Assessment (Part 2)

The session will close with a discussion of the key metrics and benchmarking figures for your overall program as well as for various solicitation tools.

Lunch (included in registration)

Analyzing Your Solicitation Tools

Depending on your shop, you may be using each of your solicitation tools (phone, mail, online, and personal visitation) to increase engagement, loyalty, unrestricted support, or even pipeline building. But how do you know each one is accomplishing its goal? With your data analysis in hand, you will examine the solicitation tools you call on in your daily work and learn methods to assess and improve their results.

Taking Your Solicitation Tools to the Next Level

Building on the previous session, this session will provide more in-depth guidance around each of your solicitation tools. You will learn how to apply population level, response rate, and return-on-investment analysis to take your tool deployment to its next evolutionary stage.

Afternoon break

Breakout Groups: Using Your Data to Enhance Your Annual Giving Performance

In the pre-conference webcast (included with your registration), key data inputs will be defined and you will receive a template to record your annual giving results. During this small-group session, you will work with a faculty member to apply the techniques learned in the previous sessions to see where your annual giving program can be strengthened and how to use your solicitation tools more efficiently.

Working Session: Solicitation Tool Redesign

Here you will focus on improving the (re)deployment of your solicitation tools. Working with your colleagues and faculty,you will identify key areas of improvement from your data analysis and determine how your resource allocations may need to be shifted.

Day 2 wrap-up and closing Q&A

Continental breakfast (included in registration)

Budgeting Strategies

Doing more with the same is the reality for many annual giving directors. You can have a new plan, but how do you actualize that plan if your budget is flat or - more likely - decreasing? In this session, you will learn best practices for:

• Structuring your budget
• Identifying areas where you may be over- or under-spending
• Building internal support designed to inhibit further budget cuts

Morning break and hotel check-out

Deploying Your Strategic Plan

Having a strategy for the next year is vital to your annual giving success, but equally important is the know-how to complete that plan with strong internal support. In this session, you will learn what systems you need to ensure your plan is executed and the techniques for making mid-course revisions to your plan.

Breakout Groups: Annual Giving in Context

Institution and shop size can deeply influence your strategic decisions. During this time, you will:

• Divide into groups based on those size differentials
• Address the implications of your resource availability
• Gain insight on size considerations from your faculty and colleagues

Conference wrap-up and closing Q&A