This online training is designed as an interactive workshop to enhance your advancement writing skills. We will cover a wide variety of advancement communications from solicitations to stewardship, including daily correspondence with alumni and donors, both digital and handwritten. In this two-day webcast series, both sessions will cover the six keys to effective writing and how they tie into the four pillars of donor communications. During the two 1-hr webcasts, you will have time to apply these skills to examples from your own shop.
Most career services offices assign students to advisors based on the students’ majors. But a small handful of institutions, including Rutgers University and DePaul University, have restructured into a small number of career industry clusters — which help students think more broadly about career options and mirror more closely the future world of work. Join us online to learn how both Rutgers and DePaul have implemented this new career clusters model. Rutgers has six years of experience utilizing the model and can share success stories (including a spike in student engagement), while DePaul is new to the model and can speak to transition challenges. You’ll leave with ideas for cluster-specific programming, marketing, technology, and employer relations.
With many employers claiming that college and university graduates lack skills necessary for real-world success, it’s especially important to help students build these skills starting in their first year. DePaul University is doing this through EDGE (Education and Development Grant for Employability) – an on-campus internship program for first-year students that links them to a department team for 5-10 hours per week. Students gain skills and experience that will help them in their future careers, and they also get workshops in career development and financial fitness. Join us online to start thinking about how to create a similar career development ecosystem on your campus. After describing DePaul’s EDGE program, we will share advice on how to define your own on-campus career development program – including how to identify and interact with campus partners.
Microaggressions are small, subtle moments when communication can be offensive, even when it’s not intended to be. Over time, they build up, create tension, and can have a long-lasting negative impact on the student. It can be difficult to confront these situations, for fear of making the situation worse. However, it is necessary to intervene to build community and trust and to ensure a safe space for your students. Come to this webcast to learn how to intervene the moment a microaggression impacts your student. You will be introduced to a framework that will guide you through how to: Ask the right questions to defuse the tension Respond to the microaggression in a way that creates a safe space for your students Take action to make the situation right
With mental health concerns growing on college campuses, the need for prevention and promotion work on your campus is more critical than ever. The ability to engage your students in peer education is a much-needed solution as it allows you to effectively manage your counseling case load and resources, expand your reach, engage diverse students and reduce stigma in a non-threatening way. Join us online to hear how the University of Alabama at Birmingham has integrated peer educators throughout campus to create a culture of mental health awareness and tolerance. You will get advice on how to replicate the successes of UAB’s award-winning training program, as well as their events and outreach initiatives.
According to recent studies, up to half of college students battle with food insecurity, which researchers have linked to lower graduation rates. It is increasingly common for colleges and universities to establish a food pantry to help address food insecurity among students, but many pantries are not well-integrated with campus and community partners. To positively impact the lives of more students, schools can centralize and expand upon what they are already doing. Join us for a webcast where we will explore an exceptionally well-integrated food pantry model from UMass Lowell. You will learn how staff forged strong relationships with on- and off-campus partners to: Generate incremental funds Raise visibility for the initiative Position it as a central focal point of the university’s holistic efforts to address food insecurity on campus You will leave this training with strategies to work more closely with your own campus and community partners to either create a new food pantry or increase the impact and sustainability of your existing one.
Planned giving donors are passionate about furthering their institution’s vision by leaving a significant material legacy. However, planned gifts are notoriously hard to predict as these unique donors do not have to reveal their intentions before bequeathing the gift. Planned gifts are often set up like surprises for the institution, yet they are far too significant to be left to chance. To use their resources efficiently, planned giving officers must look beyond traditional approaches (such as mass mailing) when trying to pinpoint the right kind of prospects. Join us for this webcast to learn how to make better predictions about your prospects and market to the right people. Our expert faculty will cover: How to identify donors who are mostly likely to contribute to your institution with planned gifts How to mine your database for the right prospects What are some productive questions you can ask to kickstart the planned gift conversation What clues to look out for to find your perfect prospects Case studies that help you put what you’ve just learnt into practice In this training, you’ll work through case studies with specific donor profiles and gift types to help you hone your prospecting skill set.
Finding and engaging international alumni poses a range of unique challenges advancement shops are aware of but often struggle to tackle; mitigating physical distance, gathering and maintaining contact information, and exercising cultural awareness are just few of the many obstacles they confront. Even in the face of these difficulties, alumni engagement professionals must capitalize on the potential of this historically unengaged and underserved group; from giving to promoting your university abroad, this demographic has a lot to offer to your institution. Join us for this webcast where our expert faculty will share ways to gather and maintain data and engage international alumni in a way that is intentional and cost-efficient.
Most advancement shops struggle with data governance, especially when it comes to data that is: duplicated across multiple fields or shadow databases erroneously put into one field versus another inputted in open text fields instead of predefined dropdowns These data challenges often affect the integrity of critical alumni and donor information that the entire operation depends on. You can significantly improve the quality of your data and solve problems across your shop by establishing a committee that is representative of all departments within advancement. Join us for this webcast to hear our expert walk through the steps of establishing an effective data governance committee. You will leave this training with a collection of practical resources, such as a sample committee charter, an example of written data quality standards, tips for auditing your database, and a sample agenda for a committee meeting.
When hosting potential corporate partners on-campus, it’s easy for the visit to become a tour or show and tell. If not done well, all parties involved may be drained and left without the desired outcome. If skillfully executed, the visit is the perfect opportunity to hone in on the intersection between the corporation’s and your institution’s strategic roadmap and goals. Join us for this webcast to hear from our expert faculty and learn how to strategically prepare meaningful and actionable corporate campus visits that will ultimately result in trusted, mutually beneficial relationships with your corporate partners.
