Course Category: Webcast Recording

Anticipating and Overcoming Objections in Frontline Fundraising

Anticipating and Overcoming Objections in Frontline Fundraising An objection is not always a no. Learn how to anticipate concerns, listen to donors, and respond with confidence. Agenda This webcast will prepare you to respond to prospect objections with confidence by demonstrating how to: Use probing questions to better understand objections Recognize objection “trends” at your institution Prepare responses to common objections throughout the cultivation cycle, including: No time or resources Concerns about a current campus issue The people or experience at the institution The mission or campaign objective Objections to gift details such as fees or purpose Build the comfort and confidence to respond and further the conversation

Establishing a Culture of Talent Development in Frontline Fundraising

Frontline fundraising is a demanding job that leaves many major gifts officers emotionally and physically drained. Dealing with rejection and adjusting to life on the road are just two of the stressors that help explain why gift officer retention is at an all-time low. By engaging fundraisers in career planning conversations early in their tenure, you can help address these root causes of gift officer churn and develop a more stable operation. Join us online to learn options for having more individualized talent development conversations with your frontline fundraisers to reinvigorate them and help them raise more money for the institution. Audra Brickner, Vice President of Advancement for Semester at Sea, will share how conversations with your fundraisers can progress from career mapping to individual needs assessment to unique job crafting.

Building a Faculty and Staff Giving Campaign

Enthusiastic partners can help you persuade faculty and staff of the value of philanthropic giving. Merrimack College was able to use giving ambassadors in a targeted campaign to increase their faculty participation rate from 20% to 59% in just one year. By recruiting the right leader to kick start the program, and by onboarding and supporting the right ambassadors, you can grow interest and convey authenticity to your institution’s ask. Join us online to learn how to create a similar movement on your campus that engages your faculty and staff in philanthropy and demonstrates the impact of their gifts. What You Will Get As part of your registration, you will receive a Campaign Ambassador Toolkit from Merrimack College that offers sample emails, meeting agendas, tracking tools, and campaign FAQs.

Supporting DACA Students in Uncertain Times: Preparing for a Supreme Court Ruling

Supporting DACA Students in Uncertain Times: Preparing for a Supreme Court Ruling As you wait for a Supreme Court decision around DACA, are you preparing for all possible outcomes on your campus? Agenda In the three legislative scenarios below, our expert instructor will help you identify the key considerations around DACA / undocumented student support that you should discuss with your team before the Supreme Court’s decision happens. No matter the legislative outcome:  Since most DACA / undocumented students are people of color and / or first-generation, we’ll share considerations you should discuss with your team to achieve baseline equity and inclusion regardless of what the Supreme Court decides, including: Evaluating overall campus climate Being transparent around financial aid and other supports on campus If DACA remains in place:  If there are no significant legislative updates, you can focus on enhancing the support you already have in place for DACA / undocumented students.  We’ll share options you should discuss with your team, such as:  Appointing employee allies Increasing cultural competency across faculty and staff Learning more about your state political landscape to consider enrollment strategies inclusive of undocumented students If DACA is terminated:  If DACA is disbanded, students will experience tremendous fear and anxiety.  We’ll offer key pieces your team should get prepared for, including: Coordinating campus health, wellness, BIT, and law enforcement teams to ensure student rights and safety Brainstorming […]

Using Video Effectively in Recruitment Marketing

Learn to reach prospective students more effectively by choosing the right video channel. Agenda During this webcast, we will address how to best use both live and pre-produced video that is specifically positioned for prospective and admitted students. We will explore each of the following questions as they relate to Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat: How much new content should I be creating? What kinds of videos are other institutions creating and sharing with prospective students? Which channels should be prioritized for both the creation and the sharing of video? What results have other institutions seen from using video in their recruitment marketing efforts? You will also leave with brief suggestions for TikTok. Resources Presentation Materials Additional Resources

Career Services: Fostering Meaningful Connections Between Diverse Students and Employers

You know it’s important to put your employer partners in front of your diverse students. But events that reach the most students, such as panels and info sessions, may not resonate with your students as they have in the past. Join us online to hear how UNC Charlotte has created a targeted approach to matching employers with diverse students – one focused on sustainability and quality, not quantity. You will learn how UNC Charlotte: Created and uses a survey to assess their employer partners’ needs, so they can match students with intention Retooled an existing program (Career Treks), which brings students to employers so the students can witness the work involved, and as a result, better meets the needs of its diverse students and employer partners while also managing its own resources effectively Built a referral system with the student diversity groups on campus to make finding diverse students on campus quicker and easier for employers

Tailoring Programming for Unengaged Professional and Graduate School Alumni

Graduate and professional alumni typically aren’t as engaged with their alma mater as their undergraduate counterparts. But graduate alumni are often highly career-focused with strong connections to classmates, faculty, and mentors. How you can leverage these traits to increase engagement with this population? Join us online to hear from Mario Peraza at the University of California San Francisco, a graduate-only institution leading the way in health sciences. He’ll show you how he’s used meaningful programming and volunteer opportunities to increase alumni engagement, and you’ll leave with sample programs you can adapt to make your professional and graduate school alumni feel more connected: Alumni Weekend: Centering robust 5-year reunion programming around scientific content UCSF Connect: Providing virtual networking and mentoring in partnership with the university career center UCSF Alumni Advocates: Mobilizing the alumni community as advocates for university priorities at local, state, and federal levels

15 Tips to Engage Gen Z in Your Communications

Marketing can be expensive and time-consuming, so you need to connect with your students and alumni as effectively and efficiently as possible. Maybe you’re finding that the strategies you’ve been using with previous generations are not resonating with Gen Z. Or perhaps you’re uncertain whether your current practices are the best practices to reach Gen Z. Join us online to learn 15 easy-to-implement tips that can help you better connect and communicate with Gen Z without excluding others. Our expert will teach you how to think through: Using Influencers Prioritizing Mobile Leveraging Direct Mail Showcasing Philanthropy You’ll also review many examples of marketing pieces and discuss how the 15 tips can be used to improve those communications.

Develop a Plan to Address Sexual Harassment from Alumni, Donors, and Prospects

Most institutions mandate sexual harassment training for all individual team members. But when was the last time your advancement team met as a group to plan for the difficult issues surrounding sexual harassment in advancement? Join us online to further these critical conversations on your campus. We will help you assess whether you have clear, effective processes for dealing with sexual harassment from alumni, prospects, and donors. You’ll have a chance to create a plan for various scenarios throughout the webcast. Both frontline staff and managers will learn how to prevent and respond to harassment.

Leading with Social-First: An Innovative Approach to Content Creation

Join us for a webcast highlighting a successful model that “flips the script” and puts social media at the forefront of content marketing. Tony Dobies from West Virginia University will discuss: The challenges WVU previously faced How they initiated conversations about taking a more audience-centric and social-first approach to content creation How social media grew to occupy a central strategic place in both marketing and communications Examples and data that show what the results of this social-first approach have been for the university You will see numerous examples of “social-first content” to help illustrate the concept and will learn how this approach helped enhance the brand and personality of West Virginia University as social media leaders in higher education.