Archives: Courses

Customizing Donor Communication through Smarter Segmentation

In order to appeal to alumni and donors, you need to rethink the typical segments of age, class year, academic major, or giving status. For example, class year may not define individuals’ motivations for engagement and/or giving nearly as well as their interests or career paths. But, identifying who appreciates fine art versus who appreciates athletics could help you create segments that resonate much more. Join us as Lynne Wester, the Donor Relations Guru, discusses how this mindset shift doesn’t have to require a large investment in time or money. Through sample alumni personas, she will share segmentation and communications ideas that will help you use existing data to start small. You’ll leave with at least one new segment to target in your outreach efforts.

Increasing Emotional Intelligence by Identifying Your Triggers

When we can overcome our emotional triggers, we are able to navigate a variety of situations more effectively. But when experiencing a trigger, our emotions take over. Many of us struggle to recognize and explain our reactions. How can we take a step back to respond in the moment more thoughtfully and productively? Join us online to learn a simple, yet powerful, approach to help you regain control and respond in a more intelligent way to your next triggering event. During the session, you’ll practice using a journaling tool that will increase your awareness of your emotions and how they impact others.

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.

The Urgent Care Model as a Solution for Higher Ed Counseling Centers

Giving every student an assessment and 50-minute counseling session is no longer sustainable given the high volume of students needing mental health services. You are likely looking for new ways of delivering quality care to meet your students’ needs and manage your resources. Join us online to learn how the Urgent Care Model may be one possible solution for your counseling center. Dr. Will Meek from Brown University, creator of the model, will guide you through its key components and share tips for how you can implement the model on your campus. We will share a counselor’s typical daily schedule in the Urgent Care Model to illustrate how quality care is delivered to various students.

4 Key Components of the Stepped Care 2.0 Model in Higher Ed

Giving every student an assessment and 50-minute counseling session is no longer sustainable given the high volume of students needing mental health services. You are likely looking for new ways of delivering quality care to meet your students’ needs and manage your resources. Join us online to learn how the Stepped Care 2.0 Model may be one possible solution for your counseling center. Dr. Peter Cornish, a leader in the model, will debunk common myths and provide an overview of the key components of the model, including how to: Preserve your existing care network Train your providers Monitor outcomes Message and market new services

Shift Your Mindset to Build Resilience

When encountering professional adversity, you can easily slip into “auto pilot” — behaving in ways that are comfortable but not necessarily constructive. Do you ever find yourself repeating the same behaviors, hoping for different outcomes? Do you find yourself growing discouraged, maybe even resentful, that things aren’t going the way you’re hoping? Join us online and discover how to break those patterns of behavior and reset the way you respond to roadblocks. Our expert will introduce you to the 3-step ABC Model, which will invite you to reflect on how you can approach adversity more constructively. Resilience is not something you’re born with. It’s a skill you can build.

Stewarding Your Scholarship Donors: A Practical Approach

Develop a more efficient and impactful experience for donors by gathering accurate award information from financial aid officers and engaging with scholarship recipients. By implementing clear lines of communications early on, you can simplify the process and get what you need to create a cohesive donor experience. Join us to learn how to improve the way you receive and organize information from scholarship recipients, your financial aid team, and other partners on campus. Ultimately, you will be able to improve stewardship for your scholarship donors by: Ensuring timely and effective communication channels from the financial aid office to scholarship recipients Educating everyone involved in the process of their set timelines and expectations Building a cohesive and consistent scholarship donor experience in which they receive meaningful reporting You’ll leave this webcast with unique policies, procedures, and timelines that your shop can implement immediately.

How to Develop Programming that Re-Engages Underrepresented Alumni

Created in 2006, Cornell Mosaic is the lead advisory organization of Cornell’s diverse alumni communities. Cornell Mosaic collaborates with and serves several identity-based alumni communities under one centralized umbrella, and it’s continuing to build upon already-strong participation rates. In 2017, an exclusive evening with Cornell faculty and alumni experts at the National Museum of African American History and Culture sold out within six hours of opening online registration. One-thousand people were waitlisted! Join us for this webcast and hear from Cornell’s director of diversity alumni programs who will showcase Cornell Mosaic and give you advice on how to start similar programming on your campus. We’ll discuss how data can fuel your programming, and we’ll share sample programming and events.

Defining Your Role as Chief of Staff

The role of assistant to the president of any institution varies depending on many factors. You will learn how you can better define your presidential assistant role, decide upon the skill sets that your institution needs, and implement a successful partnership on your campus. You will leave with example models to follow, a plan of what to do during the first month of a new President/Chief of Staff partnership, and an understanding of how to manage the evolution of your role.

Facilitating Culturally Inclusive Meetings

Facilitating Culturally Inclusive Meetings Practice critical communication skills to foster inclusion and collaboration in your meetings. Agenda Our instructor will begin the webcast by helping you discover how your personal identity shapes the meetings you lead.  Then we’ll discuss: How to practice critical communication skills (e.g., deep listening, genuine question probing, and suspending assumptions and judgments) to foster inclusion and collaboration in a group setting How to choose accountability partners who will provide honest feedback about your meetings

Recruiting and Retaining Faculty and Staff Mentors for Minority Students

While many institutions have peer-to-peer mentoring programs in place, more departments are now charged with creating formal mentoring programs for minority students involving faculty and staff. Loyola University Chicago has several such faculty/staff mentoring programs to retain their students of color. Join us online to learn about one of Loyola’s minority mentoring programs – Loyola University Chicago Empowering Sisterhood (LUCES). Our expert presenter will demonstrate how LUCES recruits and retains faculty / staff mentors by: Discussing personal and professional benefits of becoming a mentor Clearly defining roles, applications, and mentor agreements Offering mentor check-ins, brown-bag trainings, and continued support Instituting mid-year assessments and an annual report for ongoing improvement You will leave with advice on how to target a specific demographic to help increase a sense of belonging and persistence.

Loading survey...