Archives

Identifying Funding Sources to Achieve Your Academic Unit’s Strategic Plan

Develop your unit leaders to think strategically about aligning funding sources with strategic goals. Overview Academic deans, center directors, and their leadership teams can spend a considerable amount of time developing a detailed and action-oriented strategic plan for their college or academic unit. Identifying and implementing achievable goals not only requires the appropriate stakeholders, accountability measures, and communication plans, but also a clear understanding of the funding sources available to actualize a strategic vision. Aligning funding sources to strategic goals requires knowing the relationship between funding and strategic planning, your role as a “doer” vs. “guide,” and methods for building that knowledge in others through worksheets and reporting. Join us for this online training to develop skills in establishing a strategic planning and budget alignment process and supporting the development of your leadership team to achieve their strategic goals by allocating funding. This process will provide leaders with a tactical approach to guide strategic thinking and budget alignment.   Who Should Attend This training is designed to help academic deans focus on strengthening budget alignment and decision-making related to the execution of a college or unit-level strategic plan. Members of your leadership team, including associate and assistant deans or center […]

Developing a Principal Gifts Program that Supports Transformational Priorities

Advance your institutional priorities by building out a more effective principal gifts program. Overview Principal gifts, defined differently at different institutions, can bring high-level success to your institutional priorities—especially those advocated by your president and academic leaders. By building out a disciplined principal gifts program, regardless of its current maturity, you can bring clarity to how your team and institutional stakeholders advance transformational ideas in partnership with your top donors. Challenges to this endeavor, however, can prevent teams from building out the program they want. Whether it’s lack of confidence speaking to and managing prospect relationships, managing donor fatigue, or having budget shortfalls with capital projects without donors in your pipeline to finish the job, developing an effective principal gifts program can help you prepare viable prospects who are poised and ready to give when the moment is right. Join us for this conversation on developing a disciplined principal gifts program, and preparing your institution for sustained success both now and into the future.   Who Should Attend This program is for advancement leaders who want to increase the capacity and effectiveness of their principal gifts program. Whether you already have a principal gifts program in place or would like […]

Leading Change From Where You Are: Strategies for Faculty

Lead with your strengths and leverage your agency for sustainable and collaborative change. Overview Many faculty feel overwhelmed by the overlapping crises in higher education, and that they have little agency for making change. But faculty can take action to make change right where they are by leveraging their strengths and preferences as leaders and building effective networks of colleagues with complementary abilities. By identifying opportunities for meaningful change through service and committees, campus and community engagements, and fieldwork and research, you can make the kind of difference that creates impact and moves culture change across the academy. This workshop is your first step in understanding how to best align your leadership strengths with opportunities for impact. In this virtual training, we will begin by examining leadership myths that often inhibit effective leadership by and for faculty. We will then explore how you as a faculty member can leverage your leadership strengths and preferences to harness your power in sustainable and collaborative ways for grassroots change. By the end of this workshop, you will have identified strategies, next steps, and an action plan to initiate the change you want to see.   Who Should Attend This training is designed for […]

Encore: Strategies to Confidently Communicate with Students Experiencing Mental Health Challenges

Learn best practices for more effective interactions with students experiencing mental health issues, even if you’re not a counselor.    Overview As students, faculty, and staff return to campus life, the impromptu conversations that characterize in-person interactions are naturally more likely to resume. Data shows that the rate of students reporting a sense of disconnection from campus, anxiety, and depression has increased during the pandemic.  Students returning to campus will need more support than ever. Front-line faculty and staff without a counseling background may feel detached, confused, or anxious interacting with students experiencing these challenges, and they may also have additional trouble setting boundaries with students and practicing their own self-care.    Join us for a re-airing of this training from June 2022 to learn six simple ways to support students who are exhibiting signs of a mental health condition. Small shifts in communication can go a long way toward making a difference in the lives of students. Additionally, we will discuss how to care for yourself through those conversations—and how to set appropriate boundaries with students around mental health.      Who Should Attend Faculty and staff in higher education from non-counseling backgrounds who interact with students will benefit most from this […]

Encore: Navigate Challenging Conversations with Donors

Gain confidence in your ability to engage with donors around polarizing topics. Overview Your donors’ views of current events may not always align with your personal or institutional values and mission, which can create tension when cultivating the relationship. How do you navigate through those conversations in a way that sustains or even builds the connection? Join us online to hear from our expert facilitator on how the University of Utah is approaching challenging conversations with prospects and donors. You will hear stories and examples of how the university has responded to some of the most challenging situations on their campus and walk away with guidance for how to facilitate dialogue that aligns your internal stakeholders, prospects, and donors around these often difficult-to-talk-about topics: Racial Justice and Student Activism Politics Leadership Transitions The Value of Higher Education Who Should Attend Frontline fundraisers that work in leadership annual, major, principal, or planned giving, along with folks in donor relations and alumni relations, who need practice in navigating challenging conversations with alumni and donors, will benefit most from this training. Those who want to train others on becoming more comfortable with challenging donor conversations will also find this training valuable. Extend your learning – Register […]

Encore and Live Q&A: Structuring Scholarships for Women and Students of Color in a Shifting Legal Landscape

Protect the reputation of your institution and the donor against legal or political scrutiny. Overview When donors want to establish a scholarship for the two federally protected class groups that receive the most legal scrutiny–women and students of color–your advancement shop must navigate risk in a way that doesn’t scare away donors or distract from their intent. It’s necessary to understand the shifting legal landscape affecting scholarships for these protected class groups. Join us online to learn how to establish scholarships for women and students of color that abide by federal guidelines. In this training, you’ll learn how to conduct a thorough review process of your current gift agreements to help protect the reputation of your institution and donors against legal or political scrutiny. To apply these strategies to your context, you will have the opportunity to share your own examples of scholarships for women and students of color ahead of time. Some examples will be showcased during the training to highlight what language to include or exclude to mitigate risk best.   Who Should Attend If you are responsible for developing and maintaining gift agreements for scholarships and want to assess or reassess your current contracts with the latest […]

Identifying Big Ideas to Secure Transformational Gifts

Pursue transformational gifts with confidence using institutional collaboration. Overview The maxim big ideas lead to big gifts has defined fundraising, and—by extension—most of academia over the last 20 or more years. The acceptance of this adage is evident not only by where the most generous gifts to academia are being targeted but also by the rapid expansion of advancement organizations across higher education globally. Institutions are often eager for transformational gifts, but the creation of the big idea to secure one remains elusive. In this virtual training, we will define the big ideas and big gifts while taking a deep dive into the processes that can generate those ideas that attract big gifts while not compromising the core mission of the institution. You will learn frameworks for sourcing ideas—who in academic, volunteer, and administrative leadership needs to be involved in the big-idea generation process, approaches to gift solicitation, and a review of funding models that could create an incentive for major donors.   Who Should Attend This training is for advancement leaders and academic leaders who are interested in understanding how to collaborate to develop the big ideas that serve their institutional mission. Specifically, current or aspiring principal gift officers, […]

Privilege and Its Role in Enhancing Equity

Join us to become more comfortable recognizing and harnessing your privilege in order to use it to make a positive impact on your students, colleagues, and teams. Overview All of us enjoy privilege on some level, which means that all of us have an opportunity to use our privilege in support of those who experience marginalization. But how does one establish credibility and acceptance as an ally when there are so many opportunities to get it wrong? This training aims to remove the stigma from accepting our own privilege while identifying the nuances between performative and authentic connection. This session will identify both traditional as well as less recognizable forms of privilege and provide the tools to engage, create space for, and include communities where we do not hold membership.    Who Should Attend This program is ideal for anyone who is interested in learning about privilege, microaggressions, and effective allyship as a leader in higher education. This course is most beneficial to faculty, staff, and senior administrators who are unfamiliar or uncomfortable with communicating across difference with colleagues, administrative leaders, and students. Recording available 10 business days after the live training. The Academic Impressions Online Learning Experience Intentionally Designed Online Learning Our virtual […]

Incorporating Trauma-Informed Practices into the Classroom

Equip yourself with the tools to address trauma and mental health in your classroom. Overview The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study in the nineties taught us the prevalence of traumatic experience in society, as well as how trauma influences lifelong learning, health, and behavior. Researchers have found correlations between high ACEs scores (indicating more traumatic experience) and learning or behavior problems, lower grades, and a higher rate of academic failure. While mental health is not a new issue to higher education, the COVID-19 pandemic and other unprecedented events have significantly impacted college student mental health and stress levels. It has therefore become increasingly vital for faculty to understand the effects of trauma and stress on the minds and behaviors of students so that they can tailor their pedagogical approach to better meet their students’ needs. Join us for a virtual training where our expert speaker Heather Rist will walk you through the effect of trauma, how it presents in the classroom, and how to implement classroom management techniques to reduce the risk of re-traumatization. You will learn to identify the signs and symptoms of trauma, as well as how to calm someone experiencing heightened trauma symptoms and to then connect […]