Archives

Improving Your Gift-In-Kind Evaluation Process

Assess gifts-in-kind to determine their viability and benefit to your institution. Overview Gifts-in-kind, or non-cash gifts, are unique. Most are appreciated assets that offer donors the ability to give an asset, receive a tax deduction for the value, and, depending on the donor, avoid capital gains tax. Yet, there are many gifts-in-kind that aren’t so easy to accept. This may be due to unverifiable value, such as with art collections, gifts of used equipment that may prove to be hard to place or to find a means to value, illiquid privately-held securities, or non-fungible tokens that pose issues in determining both ownership and value, as examples. Donors need to be responsible for providing bona fide appraisals and bearing those costs; but the institution also needs to be able to validate the value as well as many other aspects of a non-cash gift prior to acceptance. Whatever the non-cash gift, the viability of the value and its benefit to the institution must be analyzed before accepting. To better answer the question of whether a gift-in-kind has the value the donor claims, you must have a thorough review process in place and access to the right experts who can verify both the […]

Time Management: A Disciplined Approach to Priority-Setting

Gain control of your schedule to focus on your most important work. Overview Is your endless to-do list keeping you from accomplishing what’s most important? We all have responsibilities and tasks competing for our attention, but all too often, our two or three most important efforts are reduced to just another item on the list. Join us for this essential training to learn strategies and exercises that will teach you the discipline needed to protect your time and schedule, allowing you to focus more greatly on your biggest priorities. After the training will be a discussion led by the speaker, Steve Riccio.   How This Works 11:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. ET Section 1: Assess Your ProductivityUsing the calendar sample that you brought to the webcast, you will audit the percent of time dedicated to your five focus areas. You’ll become more aware of how your choices affect the structure of your calendar and determine what is or isn’t getting the most of your time and attention.   Section 2: Build a Purposeful ScheduleUsing your focus areas and time audit, you will build daily and weekly schedules that support a sharp focus and purposeful work. We will wrap up the […]

Preparing Frontline Fundraisers to Support Academic Leaders for Campaign Success

Pullquote Overview Institutions offer myriad giving opportunities that donors might choose to support. From the unrestricted gift to the gift supporting a scholarship or program, many institutions offer dozens or even hundreds of ways donors can allocate their gifts. Unfortunately, with decentralized institutions, a multitude of giving options can lead to inconsistencies in the ways that units, programs, divisions, and schools acknowledge their gifts. For instance, some units or programs may have the resources to acknowledge their donors’ generosity promptly, while others may struggle to acknowledge them even within the recommended two-week time period. In still other instances, a gift may languish in a forgotten fund and be overlooked for months—or even forever! These kinds of delays or inconsistencies with gift acknowledgements can diminish the experiences of your donors and negatively impact your retention rate, causing you to lose contact with even your most loyal and generous donors. Join us in this online training to help you prepare to conduct a gift acknowledgement audit at your institution by learning the steps that the University of Chicago took toward ensuring that their donors receive the thanks they deserve.   Who Should Attend This training is for advancement professionals who want to […]

Developing a Strategy for Equity-Based Fundraising

Improve your engagement and fundraising results by achieving and drawing from a more diverse alumni pool. Overview Unconscious resistance is the thing that continues to prevent shops from advancing and implementing a more equity-based fundraising strategy that engages the diversity of their alumni base. With the changing demographics in student bodies and young alumni in higher education today, implementing a sound strategy will deepen engagement and increase philanthropic giving from alumni who bring new and unique lived experiences to their philanthropic choices. To improve your engagement and fundraising results from a more diverse alumni pool, a culture and infrastructure built upon equally diverse voices and input must be created. Whether you’re planning to launch a listening tour to speak to your different populations, honing in on how data is gathered, or rethinking how prospects are screened, there are many different approaches you can take to advance equity-based fundraising at your institution. Join us in this training to lean into the commitment to continue advancing equity-based fundraising by defining the problem you want to solve and leaving with a concrete next-step to progress toward your goal.   Who Should Attend This training is for alumni relations and annual giving professionals who […]

Honoring Names: A Simple Way to Promote Belonging

Learn how to properly pronounce and honor the assigned or preferred names of your students and colleagues. Overview When you pronounce names incorrectly, you have an impact. People with non-Anglo or non-European names, which are perceived as being more difficult to pronounce, may feel anxious and excluded. When power dynamics are at play, students and perhaps even those you supervise, advise, or teach often avoid the conflict and resist making corrections or discussing the issue, which may leave them feeling as if they matter less. Join us for re-airing of this training to learn simple strategies for honoring the names of all those you encounter. Immediately after the re-airing, you will have the opportunity to engage in a live Q&A and discussion with the speaker, Zaragosa “Mito” Diaz-Espinoza, Ph.D. We will discuss a brief history and negative impact that mispronouncing names has on people–international students and individuals who are given names that are not common in North America. You will be provided with easy-to-use tools and strategies that will help you learn and retain the correct pronunciation of names. If you’re interested in creating a more inclusive environment by preventing and/or repairing harm to your students and colleagues, this training […]

Inclusive Retention Strategies for Underrepresented Faculty

Retain your talented, underrepresented faculty by identifying and creating more inclusive experiences for all faculty members Overview Establishing retention efforts for underrepresented faculty is just as important as recruiting, hiring, or onboarding them. We will discuss ways campuses may unintentionally fail at retaining talented faculty due to a lack of thorough and meaningful planning, including the absence of high-quality mentoring programs for underrepresented faculty. Our guest speaker, Dr. Bridget Turner Kelly, will highlight key findings from her recent book, Building Mentorship Networks to Support Black Women: A Guide to Succeeding in the Academy, during the live event. Additionally, we’ll share and discuss findings from our speaker’s study on Recruitment without Retention: A Critical Case of Black Faculty Unrest, followed by recommendations for assessing and improving current retention efforts for underrepresented faculty. Using what you learned, you will identify at least two strategies for improving retention efforts for underrepresented faculty on your campus.   Who Should Attend This event will benefit faculty, faculty hiring managers or department chairs, academic leaders, diversity leaders, and human resources managers who provide direct oversight of the faculty recruitment and retention process. Individuals who have indirect involvement with hiring and retaining underrepresented faculty, such as chairs or members […]

Articulate Your Value as Associate Dean

Pullquote Overview Institutions offer myriad giving opportunities that donors might choose to support. From the unrestricted gift to the gift supporting a scholarship or program, many institutions offer dozens or even hundreds of ways donors can allocate their gifts. Unfortunately, with decentralized institutions, a multitude of giving options can lead to inconsistencies in the ways that units, programs, divisions, and schools acknowledge their gifts. For instance, some units or programs may have the resources to acknowledge their donors’ generosity promptly, while others may struggle to acknowledge them even within the recommended two-week time period. In still other instances, a gift may languish in a forgotten fund and be overlooked for months—or even forever! These kinds of delays or inconsistencies with gift acknowledgements can diminish the experiences of your donors and negatively impact your retention rate, causing you to lose contact with even your most loyal and generous donors. Join us in this online training to help you prepare to conduct a gift acknowledgement audit at your institution by learning the steps that the University of Chicago took toward ensuring that their donors receive the thanks they deserve.   Who Should Attend This training is for advancement professionals who want to […]

Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable: Engaging in Dialogue About Race and Bias

Gain confidence in entering conversations about race and inequity. Overview Feelings of defensiveness and discomfort are common when engaging in conversations around race and bias. Even those who have done extensive reading on these emotionally-charged topics can find themselves fumbling if they haven’t yet reflected on how their own identities and biases impact the way they show up in the world—and in these difficult conversations. To get more comfortable engaging in these dialogues, we must first lean into the discomfort of individual reflection and actions that prepare us to enter them in an open and effective way. Join us for a two-hour virtual training followed by a one-hour Q&A where we will explore four key concepts and how they come into play during conversations around race and bias: Sources of Bias Intersectionality Triggers of Bias Unpacking Bias You will be given a workbook of activities, tools, and resources to help you move beyond simply understanding the definitions of these key concepts. Throughout the workshop, you will begin the hard work of making meaning of how race and bias play out in your life and any conversation you enter.     Agenda Sources of Racial Bias Where does racial bias come […]