Course Category: Free for All-Inclusive Members

Frequently Asked Questions for Alumni Magazine Professionals

As a professional working to improve your alumni magazine, you don’t have as many choices for professional development. Choices for in-person and online learning that include the sharing of best practices are often very limited. That’s why we’re bringing you a webcast session covering a variety of questions and issues with an expert in the higher education and consumer magazine publishing sector. Sarah Marshall Elliott of Capstone Brand Partners has executed two successful relaunches of alumni magazines. Join us online to connect with other alumni magazine professionals and get tips and examples from our expert ranging from reader research to design tips to digital strategy. You will have the chance to submit your most pressing questions before the session airs.

Helping Students Tackle Complex Problems: An Educational Model at James Madison University

Higher education is working to prepare students to deal with complex problems and unending disruption. But courses with lengthy syllabi and reading lists may do the opposite. How do you develop courses that truly teach students to be innovative? Enter X-Labs at James Madison University, a model of education that offers transdisciplinary, project-based academic courses where students learn design thinking and work directly with client partners in government, industry, and nonprofit organizations to solve real world problems. Students might tackle homelessness with the United Way or foreign policy challenges with the Department of Homeland Security. They prototype a solution in just 15 weeks – experiencing failure and frustration along the way. Join us online in this two-session webcast series to get a taste of an X-Labs course from both the student and faculty perspectives. You will leave with advice on how to implement similar techniques in a single classroom or on a broader institutional level.

Networking Fundamentals for Research Development Professionals

Whether you’re a new research development professional (RDP) or an RDP new to your institution, you need to orient to your institution’s structure and research landscape. Where can you gather tools and intel that will further your institution’s research mission, and how can you share them widely? Join us online to learn the fundamentals of communicating across institutional silos to connect the people and resources needed for high-quality research – especially interdisciplinary research. You will leave with concrete tips on how to gather and share useful information, including: Publications you should read Meetings you should attend Key people you should connect with

Crafting Personalized Stewardship Plans for Top Donors

Learn a process for developing creative and customized stewardship plans for your highest-level donors. How can you learn unique information about your donors and use it to form stewardship plans that create meaningful moments and encourage subsequent gifts? Join us online to get a collection of creative ideas for your top donor stewardship plans – ranging from campus visits to speaking opportunities to meetings with gift beneficiaries. Since not every idea is appropriate for every donor, we’ll help you map the ideas to important donor preferences so that your plans have maximum impact.

Managing Difficult Faculty

If you are in an academic leadership position, you’ve encountered challenging faculty who exhibit unprofessional, unproductive, and even destructive behavior. When faculty decline in productivity, stop attending meetings, or criticize their junior colleagues, how can you deal with these inevitable and uncomfortable situations? In this two-part webcast series, our expert instructor will guide you through a four-stage process for dealing with difficult faculty personalities. You will learn to: Identify and address problematic behaviors early Use appropriate strategies for different behavior types Learn how and when to escalate your intervention Create written agreements that establish conduct expectations and consequences Minimize the impact of problematic behavior in your department

Identifying and Applying Metrics that Matter in Annual Giving (Both Webcasts)

The metrics you gather, track, and report to leadership can differ based on the focus of your annual giving program. Are your shop’s goals focused on donors or dollars? Do you want to explore either option? We’ve created a comprehensive approach in this two-part metrics series that will give your shop the tactics it needs, whether your focus is on increasing alumni participation/donors or dollars. As a result, you will be able to more effectively report your results to leadership. Session 1 is Donor-Focused Session 2 is Dollar-Focused We welcome you to tune in to both parts for the most comprehensive approach to metrics or choose the webcast that best aligns with your program’s most pressing goals.

Reengage Your Black Alumni

When black students have negative experiences on campus, even as part of official black affinity groups, they often create their own connections outside of the institution – running their own programming and initiatives apart from the advancement office. Your office needs to be very thoughtful when working to reintegrate these disengaged alums – first by hearing and then recognizing their stories. Join us online and learn how Georgia Southern University (GSU) reincorporated their disengaged black alumni into their existing alumni engagement and giving efforts. You’ll hear how they: grew their black alumni network endowed a scholarship that exceeded their goal for three consecutive years increased engagement and giving from previously disengaged alumni

Scaling Experiential Learning Across Campus

Whether at the unit, college, or university-wide level, many institutions today are striving to scale experiential learning across the curriculum. But given the highly decentralized nature of current efforts around experiential learning, standardizing and scaling is no small feat. Join us for a webcast that will show you how the University of New Brunswick is working to scale experiential learning across the entire institution. Sarah King, Director of Experiential Education, will walk you through some ways you can get started with this effort on your own campus, including: How to audit where experiential learning is already happening within your institution How to identify champions early on to gain buy-in for larger initiatives How to prioritize different types of experiential learning (curricular vs. co-curricular)

Best Practices in Designing Mentoring Programs for Early Career Faculty

To see high rates of productivity, retention, and satisfaction in your early career faculty, you’ll need a well-defined mentoring program. How should you structure your program for success? What services should you provide, and how should you customize for your department, school, or campus? Join us online to rethink your current faculty mentoring program or start building an intentional mentoring program from scratch. You will learn from Dr. David Kiel, who has helped create mentoring programs at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in professional school units and Arts and Sciences departments. Drawing on his study of exemplary programs nationwide, he will share a comprehensive overview of effective mentoring programs – ones that resolve conflict and decrease faculty turnover.

Communicate with Young Alumni Across Multiple Channels

While research about Millennials seems to suggest a focus on online giving platforms, direct mail and phone outreach are not dead. Your team needs to deliver consistent, integrated messages across multiple channels in order to cultivate this segment of young donors. Join us online to learn how to: Synthesize national research with your own young alumni giving trends to identify the best channels and messages for different solicitations Deploy messaging across all channels for a young alumni campaign Align stewardship responses with corresponding giving campaigns and channels

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