Breathe new life into your annual giving program.
Many annual giving shops struggle with stagnant or underperforming annual giving programs. We’ve put together a program to help you breathe new life into your efforts. We invite you to join us for a three-day conference that will showcase the most successful tactics in annual giving and help you develop a comprehensive plan to improve your shop’s efforts.
Through a unique blend of learning and activity, our expert faculty will share key strategies that underpin the strongest annual giving programs and provide innovative solutions to your most difficult challenges. We’ll cover the most effective solicitations, channel integration, and segmentation. This conference will encourage you to group with like institutions to make the most of your sessions, and you will have the opportunity to browse the best solicitations submitted by our faculty and your peers.
Wondering how the annual giving landscape will shift next year? Our expert faculty weighs in with some fresh perspectives in our new article, Looking at 2020: How is Annual Giving Changing.
Pre-Conference Workshop: Annual Giving Primer
We welcome newcomers to the field to join us as we walk through the fundamentals of a successful annual giving program, including a thorough overview of channels.
Post-Conference Workshop: Front-Line Fundraising for Leadership Annual Giving
Annual giving programs are seeing a greater reliance on relationship-based fundraising. This workshop will teach you the skills necessary to ramp up your front-line effort, including:
- Planning calls based on prospect data, anchor appointments, and budget pressures
- Tips for securing an initial appointment, including moving through gatekeepers
- How to use the cultivation process to naturally build to the ask
- The pros and cons of using a proposal or white paper during your solicitation process
- Creating a conducive environment for a successful ask
- Role-playing difficult scenarios
Who Should Attend
This event is ideal for annual giving managers, directors, and their team members who want to learn how to more efficiently target giving populations. This conference assumes a general level of annual giving knowledge. Newcomers to fundraising are encouraged to add the pre-conference workshop to their conference experience.
Bring your team and save!
Save over 15% when you register three or more colleagues.
Follow Through With Success Coaching
Have you ever gone to a training only to find that you came back with great ideas but don’t have the time, support, or skills needed to make the changes?
Academic Impressions has produced thousands of trainings and we have learned that utilizing a coach after attending a conference helps provide accountability and bridges the training with the on-the-ground work of getting the job done.
As a result, we are now offering success coaching on select conferences.
- Purchase this training + 3 one hour follow up success coaching calls
- Work with an assigned coach who has extensive experience in higher ed.
- Get individualized support to help you follow through on what you’ve learned.
- Workshop your plans, run your ideas by someone and get additional help/practice.
To learn more, contact Patricia Sandler at patricia@academicimpressions.com or purchase the Premium Pass with success coaching below.
Agenda
8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Your registration fee includes the pre-conference workshop and materials, breakfast and lunch on Wednesday, as well as refreshments.
We welcome newcomers to the field to join us as we walk through the fundamentals of a successful annual giving fund, including a thorough overview of channels.
Your registration fee includes full access to all conference sessions and materials, access to the networking reception on Wednesday, breakfast and lunch on Thursday, and breakfast on Friday, as well as refreshments and snacks throughout the conference.
12:30 – 5:30 p.m.
Setting the stage for the conference, this session will provide context for the annual giving landscape as it stands currently, including giving trends and donor behavior.
To have a strong annual giving program, you must be able to strategically analyze your data to continue to increase funds raised in the current fundraising climate. With your SWOT results in hand, you will learn basic data analysis techniques for essential reporting, segmenting, and tactical decision making. You will also discuss the key metrics and benchmarking figures for your program as well as for various solicitation tools.
This informal reception is your chance to decompress, have some refreshments on us, and expand your network of connections. Our programs are intentionally designed for smaller groups, so this is a great time to catch-up with attendees and speakers whom you may not have connected with yet.
8:00 – 4:45 p.m.
We will discuss how to leverage annual giving as an intentional communications tool, demonstrate how to reinforce key messages, and leverage your voice to position your shop for future resources and support.
Most institutions are leveraging digital media for solicitations, but some of us are finding that the most innovative solicitations are not necessarily those that move the needle. We will cover the most productive digital strategies.
This session will cover best practices of crowdfunding and micro-campaigns and how to best integrate these modern fundraising tools into your overall strategy.
What strategies create maximum impact on giving days? Learn how to harness urgency, apply innovative techniques, and follow best practices to unite and engage your donors in 24 hours of fast-paced philanthropy.
As contact rates continue to decline, we are striving to leverage our calling programs in more strategic ways. Are you adjusting your scripts by segment? Are your calls planned in tandem with solicitation schedules? Are you using your call space to build partnerships on campus? Join us for a facilitated discussion on the future of phonathons led by our expert faculty.
Network and gather new ideas as you browse a gallery of your peers’ solicitations.
8:00 a.m. – 3:45 p.m.
This session will cover how to leverage your metrics to make decisions, course correct, and report results to leadership.
Stewarding annual fund donors is notoriously difficult but vital for retention of this population. We will show you how to use existing resources and opportunities to maximize your time, budget, and stewardship efforts.
Using the template provided, you will now have time to put together your preliminary strategy to take action once returning to campus.
1:00 – 3:45 p.m.
Your registration fee includes the post-conference workshop and materials, lunch on Friday, as well as refreshments.
Annual giving programs are seeing a greater reliance on relationship-based fundraising. This workshop will teach you the skills necessary to ramp up your front-line effort, including:
- Planning calls based on prospect data, anchor appointments, and budget pressures
- Tips for securing an initial appointment, including moving through gatekeepers
- How to use the cultivation process to naturally build to the ask
- The pros and cons of using a proposal or white paper during your solicitation process
- Creating a conducive environment for a successful ask
- Role-playing difficult scenarios
Speakers
Brian Daugherty
Senior Vice President & Chief Philanthropy Officer, San Diego Humane Society
With more than twenty years of experience in development with a focus on annual giving and major gifts, Brian has worked for a variety of organizations in the nonprofit arena, including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, the University of Baltimore, the University of California, San Diego San Diego State University and the University of San Diego.
Dan Frezza
Associate Vice President for Lifetime Philanthropic Engagement & Annual at William & Mary
In his current role, Dan Frezza oversees the strategic leadership and execution of a comprehensive annual giving approach that includes fundraising priorities for 13 school and units.
Molly Robbins
Director, Institutional Advancement, Gladwyne Montessori School
Molly oversees the design and execution of a comprehensive annual giving strategy. She has over a decade of experience working with leadership giving programs, Telefund, volunteer programs, direct marketing, social media, and events.
Melissa Rowan
Assistant Vice President – Strategic Initiatives, Iowa State University
Melissa staffs the ISU Foundation’s board of directors, oversees operational implementation of the Foundation’s strategic plan and serves as the public information officer. Melissa has nearly twenty years in annual giving, with fifteen of those years in director, senior director, and executive director roles.
Can't Attend? Buy the Conference Binder
$295Purchase the conference binder, which includes all presentation slides, worksheets, action plans, and additional resources.
Note: Conference attendees do not need to purchase materials separately.
Sponsor
Questions About the Event?
Nick Pettet
Program Manager, Academic Impressions