All times eastern

 

Welcome and Introductions
11:00 – 11:30 a.m.

 

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Identifying Your Story
11:30 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Knowing which stories resonate with your alumni will enable you to be grounded in a strong premise that can be built upon and expanded out, depending on the audience and the channel you choose to focus on. By identifying the right message to focus on for your next engagement effort, you will be able to begin developing your communications plan.

 

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Break
12:15 – 12:30 p.m.

 

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Integrating Story into Your Strategy
12:30 – 1:30 p.m.
Learn what it means to integrate an impactful story into your annual giving strategy and how visuals can effectively communicate your story to the right audience.

 

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Long Break
1:30 – 2:00 p.m.

 

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Crafting and Delivering Empathetic Messaging
2:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Once you know your story, you must communicate it empathetically to avoid sounding tone deaf given any current events. This is essential to preserve relationships with alumni, while also establishing new donor relationships by connecting with them more sincerely. Here you will learn how to capture, and hold, the attention of your alumni within the first sentences of your communication in order to effectively deliver your message.

 

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Break
3:00 – 3:15 p.m.

 

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Sharing Your Communications
3:15 – 3:45 p.m.
In this activity, you will connect with fellow attendees to share the challenges and successes you’ve had over the past year. Please bring samples of what’s worked and what hasn’t.

 

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Storyboarding Your Next Communication
3:45 – 5:00 p.m.
Designing a storyboard by drawing out its purpose and defining the structure of the story to incorporate into your annual giving strategy, whether it’s for a one-off email or for a more comprehensive messaging campaign, is the focus of this session. After a discussion on how to apply this approach to your upcoming communications, you will have individual working time to develop a storyboard.

 

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All times eastern

 

Platforms Discussion
11:00 – 11:45 a.m.
With the ever-proliferating number of options that allow you to manage your annual giving communications, understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the platforms may help you decide where to invest in the right software for your shop. We will have a discussion that covers the variety of annual giving management tools that are available to you.

 

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Break
11:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

 

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Crowdfunding and Micro-Campaigns
12:00 – 1:00 p.m.
As institutions shift to more short-term fundraising campaigns as part of their larger annual giving strategy, ensuring that your messaging within these campaigns is on target is essential to success. In this session, we will cover key principles from examples that show how you can apply an effective communication strategy to crowdfunding and micro-campaigns.

 

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Long Break
1:00 – 1:30 p.m.

 

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Segmenting Your Communications
1:30 – 2:15 p.m.
The right segmentation will help you maximize your outreach by tailoring your messaging, ask amounts, and communication strategy. This is a key component in understanding what type of alumni have been most affected by a recent societal event.

 

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Break
2:15 – 2:30 p.m.

 

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Scheduling Your Communications
2:30 – 3:00 p.m.
Now that you know how to develop the storyline behind your empathetic communication strategy, we will discuss how the duration of annual giving campaigns have shifted over the previous year and what this looks like for your shop as you optimize the schedule for your next campaign.

 

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Revisiting Your Storyboard and Final Q&A
3:00 – 3:30 p.m.
In our last session, you will review your storyboard from day one with the context of segmenting and scheduling. You will reflect on how your message might change based on the audience you’re segmenting and/or the length of the campaign.