Learn how to create donor communications that inspire and motivate giving.
Your donor communications are all that many of your audience will ever see of you. While your hope is to inspire and motivate giving, how do your donors actually respond to your communications? Are they giving because of, or in spite of, your print and digital pieces? This conference will cover the core concepts to make sure you are communicating in the most effective way:
- The Four Pillars of Donor Communications
- How to best demonstrate impact
As part of the conference, you will have time to workshop your own pieces with your colleagues attending the conference, as well as access to the speakers to develop your own plan.
Post-Conference Workshop: Effective Campaign Communication Tools
Join us for this interactive workshop that will help you distill information learned in the main conference and make it directly applicable to the messaging of your campaign, incorporating video, and other experiential components of your communications. During this workshop, you will:
- See examples of effective campaign communications
- Conduct a review your own campaign materials and receive personalized feedback to develop more compelling messages for your own donors
- Participate in an audit of your own campaign communications in order to draft more effective communications pieces to use in the future
After this workshop, you will be equipped with tools to assess and continuously improve your campaign materials.
Who Should Attend
This conference is particularly designed for those working full-time, or a large portion of their time, on advancement communications. This assumes a solid foundation and experience in advancement writing mechanics.
Agenda
8:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
The conference will begin with a brief overview of the four pillars of donor communications:
- Information
- Persuasion
- Gratitude
- Impact
You will take a brief assessment to see if you are truly putting donors at the center of your work. We will then cover the latest research and best practices on how we can best communicate with donors, including what we can learn from nonprofits outside of higher education. Finally, how does all of this apply to your particular donor and alumni base? We will cover surveying and other methods of understanding the nuances of your audience.
The afternoon sessions will focus on the three main communication channels and will use the framework of the four pillars for each to showcase examples and takeaways you can apply to your shop.
This session will include information on direct mail, newsletters, and magazines.
Email and video will be the focus of this hour.
Commanding a session to itself, we will take a deeper dive into social media outreach and engagement for donors.
8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Troubling circumstances like a tremendous loss or student/faculty activism can affect an institution’s reputation and make it a difficult task to rally donors around the institution. You’ll see examples of where institutions have done well, and where others have misstepped, so that you can learn and prepare for a current, or future, situation of your own.
Whether it is drafting a general solicitation or developing a campaign case statement, persuasive writing can be challenging. Building on what you’ve learned, our faculty will walk you through how to best synthesize this important writing.
You will have time to gather with peers and workshop some of your own communications pieces. This time will allow you to gather feedback from other attendees, as well as the speakers, so that you’ll head back to campus with refreshed material and a case behind it to ensure its success.
Post-Conference Workshop: Effective Campaign Communication Tools
12:00 - 4:00 p.m.
This interactive workshop will help you take information that was learned over the past day and half and make it directly applicable to the messaging of your campaign as well as help you incorporate video and other experiential components. You’ll see examples of effective campaign communications, review your own campaign materials, and receive feedback to develop more compelling messages for your donors. You will then audit your own campaign communications and draft more effective communications pieces to use in the future. After this workshop, you will be equipped with tools to assess and continuously improve your campaign materials.
Speakers
Anne Botteri
Vice President, Communications, Embry-Riddle University
Anne has been in her current role since October of 2017. A member of the President’s cabinet, she oversees the news, marketing, creative, and digital teams for the University’s residential campuses in Daytona Beach, Florida; Prescott, Arizona; and for ERAU’s Worldwide locations.
Lynne Wester
Donor Relations Guru
Using her hands-on approach, Lynne works with many organizations to help them keep their focus donor driven, technology savvy, strategic, and always with a splash of good humor.
Questions About the Event?
Whitney Egstad
Program Manager, Academic Impressions