The Covid-19 pandemic laid bare issues with retention, psychological safety, and a sense of belonging that leaders in higher education must face on their own teams. Faculty and staff thrive on strong teams with a positive, productive culture, and leaders who are empathic and humble create a team culture where it is possible to undo toxic traits, bridge cultural divides, and increase employee retention. Join us for an interactive, 3-hour virtual training to help leaders learn how to build practical skills and better demonstrate humility and empathy toward their team members. During the training, we will cover: What is humility, and how can you use a humble mindset to build empathy? Why should you want to have humility and empathy as a leader? Practical applications of empathetic, humble leadership
Many institutions are already using proactive advising to help students in danger of failing or dropping out. But are you effectively communicating with both staff and academically at-risk students to maximize your impact? Proactive advising techniques can help you to increase student retention and completion rates through improving interdepartmental communication and creating a better understanding of which students to prioritize at certain points during the year. Join us for a 90-minute virtual training to learn how advisors of undergraduate students can use proactive advising in order to improve students’ motivation and academic success. Here, industry expert Joseph Connell will share tips around timing and key messages for outreach, and how to get other departments onboard with your communication plan. We’ll also discuss how to empower students to be an active part of the advising process.
As students, faculty, and staff return to campus life, the impromptu conversations that characterize in-person interactions are naturally more likely to resume. Data shows that the rate of students reporting a sense of disconnection from campus, anxiety, and depression has increased during the pandemic. Students returning to campus will need more support than ever. Front-line faculty and staff without a counseling background may feel detached, confused, or anxious interacting with students experiencing these challenges, and they may also have additional trouble setting boundaries with students and practicing their own self-care. Join us for an interactive training to learn and practice six simple ways to support students who are exhibiting signs of a mental health condition. Small shifts in communication can go a long way toward making a difference in the lives of students. Additionally, we will discuss how to care for yourself through those conversations—and how to set appropriate boundaries with students around mental health.
A new generation of frontline fundraisers who have different values and needs, combined with a rapidly changing social environment and labor market, are making the task of selecting, developing, and retaining fundraising teams more difficult than ever. Yet we know that our ability to sustainably raise fundraising revenue year after year depends on having skilled and high-performing fundraising talent. By fostering committed teams as well as supporting the growth and development of individual employees, you can improve overall fundraising performance and create the type of impact that our institutions, donors and employees all aspire to. Join us for this one-day virtual conference that will focus on how you can increase fundraising capacity by focusing on how to build, lead, and retain a high-performing frontline fundraising team. Through a blend of individual and group activities, our expert faculty will share key strategies on how to develop a healthy team culture and establish career paths for your early pipeline fundraisers. Best practices in performance management consulting and how to partner with academic leaders in their fundraising efforts will also be explored and discussed during this live event. For additional training on how you can improve your fundraising capacity by building an effective […]
When prospect and donor values around diversity, equity, and inclusion do not align with your institutional values, tension can develop in the relationship, leading to difficult conversations that can have a negative impact on frontline fundraising goals. Knowing how to effectively communicate and interact with your prospects and donors can lead to deeper relationships with mutually beneficial goals. Join us in this workshop to understand how your frontline fundraising team can navigate conversations that foster inclusion by: Assessing and analyzing your team’s current knowledge and competence when engaging in diversity-related conversations. Adequately preparing your frontline fundraisers for the conversations they’re having with donors, and about their own personal alignment with the values of your institution. Implementing approaches to prospect and donor conversations that can lead to deeper and more sustainable long-term relationships. Build upon these practices for a more effective fundraising team by registering for Building, Leading, and Retaining a High-Performance Frontline Fundraising Team on Tuesday, June 28 from 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. ET.
Students of color, first-generation students, and low-income students are typically the most at risk of falling through the cracks in college. In addition to academic barriers, these students often lack financial resources to make it through emergencies or breaks in the academic year. As institutions look to increase retention and completion rates for students from minoritized groups, it is important to focus on what student support partnerships look like both on and off campus. Thinking creatively about who to partner with can extend an institution’s resources to many more students. Join us for a one hour facilitated discussion on creating connections both on and off campus to help support students through emergencies and times of need. Here, our expert Kristin Daiber will share an example of a creative student support partnership on her campus. Additionally, you will have the opportunity to network with other professionals providing support for students in times of need and to also share useful resources with one another.
Institutions offer myriad giving opportunities that donors might choose to support. From the unrestricted gift to the gift supporting a scholarship or program, many institutions offer dozens or even hundreds of ways donors can allocate their gifts. Unfortunately, with decentralized institutions, a multitude of giving options can lead to inconsistencies in the ways that units, programs, divisions, and schools acknowledge their gifts. For instance, some units or programs may have the resources to acknowledge their donors’ generosity promptly, while others may struggle to acknowledge them even within the recommended two-week time period. In still other instances, a gift may languish in a forgotten fund and be overlooked for months—or even forever! These kinds of delays or inconsistencies with gift acknowledgements can diminish the experiences of your donors and negatively impact your retention rate, causing you to lose contact with even your most loyal and generous donors. Join us in this online training to help you prepare to conduct a gift acknowledgement audit at your institution by learning the steps that the University of Chicago took toward ensuring that their donors receive the thanks they deserve.
It is no surprise that in the United States, racial tensions—especially between Black and White Americans—are alive and well and continue to do harm. For example, those who are Black-presenting do not get to choose or operate from the historically privileged social identities such as class, age, or ableism that White-presenting people do. In this session, therefore, you will learn how race dynamics between these two groups play out in European countries versus the United States. You will also examine how you communicate subconsciously to avoid or shut down conversations, either as a defense mechanism or to prohibit critical dialogue about racial inequity. Finally, you will learn strategies that will help us, as a collective, to move forward while simultaneously embracing the new challenges that are sure to come our way.
A separate training in this educational series on racial inequity dialogue explored why conversations about racial inequity and bias can be so challenging, and now this session will help you to identify the root source of your discomfort and understand why a wide range of emotions in such moments is natural. In this workshop series, we will therefore examine historic and current roadblocks to true connection, barriers that can lead to distrust, and how we engage unconsciously with individuals based on their visible or assumed social identities. We will also explore how racial power dynamics influence everyday interactions and identify ways to challenge entrenched norms that influence how we choose to communicate and engage with each other.
For years, there has been an increasingly dominant narrative in our society about the importance of being kind or “politically correct.” While these are important principles, we must nevertheless unpack and examine how this narrative often gets in the way of difficult yet essential conversations about race and racial inequity. The truth is, if we are unwilling to engage with well-intentioned or well-meaning colleagues in critical conversations when bias appears, we are therefore consciously allowing for ignorance and harm to perpetuate. This means that conversations like these are not only critical, but also necessary for healing ourselves as individuals and as a collective. This first session will give you an opportunity to reflect on the messages you have learned over time about how to engage in conversations about race. We will explore how these messages have influenced your daily decisions to engage or disengage in difficult conversations over time. You will practice intentional engagement versus moving past uncomfortable scenarios and arrive at a place where you are more actively willing to take part in the conversation.
