Event Category: Workshop

Optimizing Your Fundraising Strategy: A Summit for Presidents and Advancement Vice Presidents

As a president, you play a critical role in creating the institutional conditions that attract significant and sustained philanthropic investments. Some of the questions you may be asking as you seek to define your unique institutional narrative for donors are:  It’s easiest to answer these questions when you have established a clear delineation of responsibilities with other key leaders at your institution, so that you can work toward achieving both long-term and short-term advancement objectives even in the face of competing, persistent responsibilities.  Join us at this summit with your board chair and chief advancement officer to understand how changing philanthropic realities are impacting your alumni and donor engagement. You will learn how to use this information to articulate priorities that resonate with donors, improve your interactions with them, and engage your campus community in generating projects that solve critical problems—and in which philanthropically inclined donors will be keen to invest.  Whether you, your board chair, or your chief advancement officer are new to your roles, or whether you are an established team thinking about developing an institutional strategic plan or comprehensive campaign, this summit will give you the tools to optimize your fundraising potential and create a lasting philanthropic […]

Fundraising for Deans and Academic Leaders 

As a dean, you hold numerous responsibilities, and fundraising is likely a critical part of your portfolio. You are probably also finding the philanthropic landscape more competitive than ever, as donors are becoming more selective with their giving. To be a successful fundraiser, it is important to understand how to align your interests with those of donors seeking to make significant societal differences.  Join us for this one-and-a-half-day interactive conference, led by renowned university advancement consultant Jim Langley. Jim will help you to learn how to more effectively listen to prospective donors and align their personal values with the goals of your academic unit. Through group discussions and activities, you will:  Join us at this conference to unlock new philanthropic strategies within your academic unit! 

Customer Service Skills Training: Certification for Higher Education Professionals

Instilling a culture of service excellence at all levels of an institution is more important than ever. It creates a sense of community amongst faculty, staff, and students, which makes your campus a great place to be. Join us for this in-person conference where you will start taking steps to create or improve the culture of customer service in your unit. Whether you’re a frontline staff member wanting to make a positive difference with customers directly or a team leader trying to change the service culture in your unit, you’ll benefit from this conference as you: About the CertificationAcademic Impressions is the only provider of customer service certification in the higher education industry. Whether you’re seeking certification for yourself, or you want to get your entire team certified, you’ll be setting yourself apart from the rest. Being certified in customer service means that you’re the gold standard in service excellence, which improves your institution’s reputation and instills confidence in students and parents alike. To obtain the certification, you or your team will need to attend the conference and complete an online exam post-conference. 

Maximize the Success of Your Next Campaign: A Workshop for Campaign Leaders

As a campaign leader, you may have felt pressure to skip some of the front-end planning necessary to evaluate the feasibility of your campaign, create the infrastructure of support, ensure buy-in and commitment from critical stakeholders, prepare your staff, and garner volunteer leaders.  However, in today’s competitive fundraising landscape, that is no longer an option.  In this comprehensive two-day workshop, our expert panel, whose members all offer extensive years of overseeing campaigns large and small at campuses of varying sizes, will take you on a deep dive into preparing the front-end planning of your next campaign. You will zoom out to see the full scope of what a front-end campaign analysis entails and gain practical tools and resources on the following topics.  

Maximize the Success of Your Next Campaign: A Conference for Campaign Leaders

As the campaign leader, you must be thoughtful and organized in your approach to campaign planning to pull off this large-scale initiative for your campus community. This front-end planning phase requires you to evaluate the feasibility of your campaign, create the infrastructure of support, ensure buy-in and commitment from critical stakeholders, prepare your staff, and garner volunteer leaders, to name a few. Historically, you may have felt pressure to skip some of these steps since this work takes a lot of time and effort. However, in today’s competitive fundraising landscape, that is no longer an option.  In this conference, we’ve designed an experience where you, as a campaign leader, get to take a deep dive into preparing the front-end planning of your next campaign. You will learn all the critical components of this analysis, including:  This comprehensive two-day conference will not only give you the opportunity to zoom out and see the big picture of what a front-end campaign analysis entails, you will also walk away with practical tools, strategies, and resources that you can use right away in your planning efforts.  Our content has been carefully curated by our expert panel, who all offer extensive years of overseeing campaigns […]

Intentional and Strategic Management of Alumni Volunteers

Alumni volunteers are valuable to institutions in both their service and their giving power, as they tend to give 10 times more than non-volunteers over their lifetimes. Yet, however crucial their efforts are in advancement shops, managing volunteers also poses unique challenges—like dealing with volunteer motivations and aligning volunteer efforts with your mission.  Our three-day workshop is specifically designed for volunteer managers in higher education who want practical takeaways to help them to intentionally and strategically manage volunteers throughout the six phases of the volunteer engagement cycle, covering:   This hands-on workshop will prepare you to return to your campus with a comprehensive toolkit, strategy, and a new level of intention when working with your volunteers. 

Intentional and Strategic Management of Alumni Volunteers

Alumni volunteers are valuable to institutions in both their service and giving power, as they tend to give 10 times more than non-volunteers over their lifetimes. Their generous contributions of both time and treasure are often indispensable to institutions, and they can play a pivotal role in fostering a culture of philanthropy for your campus community.  However crucial their efforts are in advancement shops, managing volunteers also poses unique challenges. First, it can be difficult, at times, to manage people who are not officially employed by the institution and who have their own motivations. Secondly, it’s an ambitious undertaking to align volunteer efforts with the mission of the institution while also creating a cohesive experience across different types of volunteers to ensure that everyone is working towards a shared goal.  For volunteer managers like yourself, you are likely aware of the volunteer engagement cycle, which includes six important phases: planning, recruiting, onboarding/training, managing relationships/information, evaluating, and recognizing your volunteers. Our three-day conference is specifically designed for volunteer managers in higher education who want practical takeaways to help them to intentionally and strategically manage volunteers throughout the six phases of the volunteer engagement cycle. This hands-on conference will prepare you to […]

CANCELED: Developing Staff and Shaping Team Culture: A Summit for Advancement Talent Development Leaders

Unlock your team’s leadership potential with the Advancement Talent Development Leader Summit. This hands-on program will equip you with the tools to build effective leadership pathways, enhance team performance, and cultivate future leaders in Advancement.  Key benefits include:  Designed for talent development leaders in Advancement, this summit offers a unique opportunity to connect with peers and develop strategies that drive impactful results.  Limited to 30 participants—secure your spot today! 

Provost Summit: Leading for Innovation and Growth

In today’s rapidly changing world, innovation has become a critical driver of success for individual leaders and their organizations. However, fostering a culture of innovation is not easy—especially in academia, where traditions and hierarchy often prevail.   This unique event aims to bring Provosts together to connect with peers, develop their own leadership, and learn proven strategies for fostering an innovative mindset and culture at their institutions. Participants will learn about key elements of an innovative culture such as openness, experimentation, collaboration, and risk-taking and hear translatable examples of how other institutions have successfully cultivated them, such as:   This Summit is designed to be interactive and engaging, with plenty of opportunities for discussion, reflection, and practical exercises. You’ll leave with an expanded network of other Provosts across the nation who are equally invested in thinking outside the box to move their institutions forward.   To preserve an intimate and productive experience, this conference is capped at 30 attendees.  Optional Executive Coaching: For those who choose to add on our Executive Coaching package, you will receive 6 sessions of executive coaching and will be paired with a coach who has extensive experience in higher education. With a range of expert coaches, we can […]

Essential Leadership Skills for Department Chairs

Leading as an academic department chair is difficult under the best of circumstances. You must balance the competing interests of faculty and administration and stretch limited resources, all while maintaining your own scholarship and teaching loads. Add to this the uncertainty and complexity of leading through an ever-changing higher ed landscape, and it becomes clear that the current environment can test even the most seasoned leaders.  Join us in person for this essential two-day conference designed specifically to help academic department chairs discover or reconnect with the most effective ways to lead in a variety of situations and circumstances. These are the themes for each day of the conference:   Day One: You’ll begin by reflecting on your approach to leadership, where you’ll explore ways to enhance your overall leadership effectiveness. You’ll also examine how your position of influence can support and enable the engagement, collaboration, and, ultimately, the success of your faculty and staff.   Day Two: You will be asked to explore one of the trickiest topics a leader must face—conflict— and you’ll practice tools and strategies that will allow you to navigate that conflict with greater confidence and ease.  We’ve trained thousands of department chairs over the last […]