Event Category: Workshop

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.  

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 […]

Executive-Level Leadership: An Institute for Advanced Women Leaders in Higher Education

While women make up nearly half of the higher education workforce, they continue to be underrepresented in organizational leadership roles. The goal of this program is to bring current and aspiring executive leaders in higher education together to co-create knowledge and deepen your leadership skillset. This program is intentionally built upon Academic Impressions’ leadership model, which takes a holistic approach to leadership across four key dimensions: self-awareness and personal development, interpersonal leadership skills, team development, and leading at the organizational level.    If you identify as a woman, are leading at a strategic level in higher education, and you are looking to deepen your leadership skillset in community with other women leaders, this experience is for you.   Highlights of the program include: 

Executive-Level Leadership: An Institute for Advanced Women Leaders in Higher Education

Join our intensive institute to co-create knowledge and deepen your leadership skillset. This institute will combine tangible takeaways with Academic Impressions’ leadership model, a holistic approach to leadership across four key dimensions: self-awareness and personal development, interpersonal leadership skills, team development, and leading at the organizational level.     Highlights of the program include:  To preserve an intimate and productive experience, this workshop is capped at 30 attendees. 

Creating a Sustainable Culture of Service Excellence (Cancelled)

Many institutions seek to enhance service excellence on campus as a means of improving student and employee retention, however creating a sustained culture change in any setting can be challenging. This conference is designed to review the principles of service excellence and provide you with tools and strategies for making lasting long-term change on your campus or in your unit. You will also spend time individually with subject matter experts to discuss and strategize your specific needs, and to plan for implementation. 

Building a Culture of Mentoring at Your Institution

Increasingly, higher ed understands the institutional benefits of mentoring to students, staff, and faculty, but creating the conditions for mentoring to flourish remains challenging. Join us for a unique in-person experience where you will learn:   Whether attending individually or as a team, you will have the opportunity to directly engage with our experts, connect with higher education professionals across the country doing similar work, and apply your learning to kickstart your work after the conference.