Archives

Inspire Timely Giving: Create Urgency and Accelerate Results

Learn new ways to inspire donors and encourage timely giving. Overview Have you or another development officer had a donor who is interested in a gift, but you can’t seem to move it forward? Donor engagement and gift conversations can often get stuck and lose momentum without timing that encourages donors to give. But if we are prepared to listen closely and strategize, we can better understand donor intent and share university happenings that encourage gift closures.   Join us online to learn how to engage in conversations that allow you to learn from donors, deepen relationships with them, and create urgency around closing gifts. In this session, Zack Smith will demonstrate practical tips for how to effectively strategize gift conversations in a way that includes a timeline for giving.    Who Should Attend This webcast will prepare frontline fundraisers to listen and support donors in ways that will move conversations forward and accelerate gifts. Managers of frontline fundraisers should invite their teams to participate.  AGENDA October 12, 2021 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. Eastern In order to develop gift timelines that align with both donor and institutional priorities, you’ll learn how to:   Ask the right questions to understand your donor’s intentions and match those to your organizations priorities so that you can align the two and create a sense of urgency   Leverage institutional timelines to encourage giving  […]

Creating an Engagement Plan for Volunteers in Women’s Philanthropy

Align the interests and capacities of your volunteers with your women’s philanthropy goals. Overview Effectively engaging your women volunteers can lead to greater giving and larger networks of women who want to share their time with your institution. However, without a formal engagement plan in place outlining how the interests and skill sets of your volunteers can be best aligned with your institution’s goals, the quality of their commitments can become a barrier to deeper and long-term relationships.   Join us in this online training to learn an effective approach to creating a volunteer engagement plan that focuses on communal decisions and working together to achieve larger institutional goals. By building this approach into your volunteer management, you may be able to better respond to challenges you face when your women philanthropist volunteers bring ideas that your team doesn’t have the capacity to manage or when a volunteer becomes disengaged from their agreed-upon commitment.    Who Should Attend If you and your team want to improve the efficacy of your volunteer community for your women’s philanthropy program, this webcast is for you. If you’re managing volunteers within student philanthropy, young alumni, or as part of a business or law school, this program will help you increase the quality of the time spent by the volunteers dedicated to help your institution.   AGENDA November 3, 2021 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Eastern   Developing a Volunteer Compact   At a high-level, a volunteer […]

Actualize Your Purpose and Legacy: Workshop on Improving Your Well-Being

Get clear on what success looks like for you. Overview The pandemic has required all of us to pivot in new ways. We’ve taken on additional responsibilities that may not align with our strengths and interests. We’ve managed our relationships almost exclusively through virtual means Our success is often measured in immediate gains, and it’s unclear how to plan for the future. Amongst all of this, you may be feeling more disconnected and depleted than ever before. Now is the time to reconnect with the priorities that bring you joy and improve your well-being—those that fulfill you long-term and contribute to the legacy you want to create. Join us online for an interactive workshop that will help you refocus your time, energy, and future work in ways that help you realize your purpose and legacy. You’ll begin the workshop by assessing the current state of your well-being and reflecting on the factors that most contribute to it. You’ll then explore to what extent inherited norms shape your definition of success. You will also shift your focus to create and adopt your own definition of success based on your values and the impact you want to have in the world. Finally, […]

Planning Your Hybrid Homecoming

Walk away with strategies to help your hybrid homecoming make a big impact. Overview Homecoming is every institution’s largest event bringing together current students, alumni, and donors. Last year, many institutions canceled or postponed homecoming due to COVID-19. This year, many institutions are not only planning on having them, but for the first time, they will be hybrid. Join us online to learn, discuss, and share best practices for planning and executing a hybrid homecoming so that your events this year are the most inclusive yet.  During this training, you’ll get tips for how to: Identify the technical and personnel requirements needed for a successful hybrid homecoming Identify resources and best practices you already have in place Prepare your staff and volunteers Pivot your plans in the moment to be responsive to any change in plans   Who Should Attend Alumni relations teams that are involved with the planning and execution of homecoming will greatly benefit from this training. Come prepared to share your best practices and ask questions in small group breakouts. The Academic Impressions Online Learning Experience Intentionally Designed Online Learning Our virtual trainings go far beyond just replicating PowerPoint presentations online: these experiences are intentionally designed to give you the kind of robust and dynamic learning experience you’ve […]

Improving Promotion and Tenure Reviews by Using a Deliberative Decision-Making Model

Break the cycle of inconsistent promotion and tenure reviews by implementing an objective decision-making process. Overview By participating in promotion and tenure reviews, faculty make the most consequential decisions they will ever have to engage in on behalf of their colleagues. Without adequate training and preparation, departments often have a reputation of unfair decisions, power dynamics, and lack of transparency that taint the process going forward and impact culture and morale. Among the many challenges in re-envisioning what this process could look like is that expectations are often vague. Women and people of color tend to go up for P&T less and at slower rates than their white, male colleagues, and what is considered “satisfactory” or “unsatisfactory” in one unit could mean something different in another. As part of a broader largescale initiative aimed at improving department culture and climate, The University of Denver sought to change how they deliberated on key decisions, and in doing so, had the opportunity to influence climate, perception of colleagues, and overall satisfaction. Their approach was to utilize deliberative decision making (DDM) as a tool by which to train their faculty at large on their role as reviewers to ensure that everyone had an […]

Growing Women’s Engagement and Philanthropic Interest

Integrate women-focused strategies into your fundraising efforts. Overview Over 100 researched data points show gender matters in giving; a key one is that women are now influencing or making over 75% of all household charitable decisions. With women’s education, leadership, and wealth rising, it is natural that they are more actively engaged in philanthropy too. Are you preparing for this next decade of giving when women will become even more powerful philanthropists in our society?  It might be time to join the dramatically increasing number of fundraising teams who understand this demographic shift and are now paying more attention to women. Join us online to hear success stories from institutions of all sizes that have gained significant results by changing their approach to resonate more deeply with women.  Led by expert Kathleen Loehr, author of Gender Matters: A Guide to Growing Women’s Philanthropy, this training will focus on actions you can take to drive your individual and team strategic planning processes to more appropriately – and successfully – engage donors who identify as women.  You will walk away with ideas for translating research about women’s philanthropy and your own donor data into practical fundraising behaviors that will help you grow your support of women donors.   Who Should Attend If you and your advancement team—from annual giving to major gifts—engage women donors and alumnae and want to learn […]

Leading from a First-generation or Immigrant Background in Higher Ed: A Discussion Forum

Explore how your identity as an immigrant or first-generation American has shaped your own experience and perceptions of self as a leader. Overview All too often, first-generation and immigrant leaders in higher education feel they must assimilate to “standard” forms of leadership, which are historically grounded in white, heteronormative, male-centric experiences and stereotypes. But leading from a first-generation or immigrant background carries with it unique insights and perspectives that are advantages to be celebrated and leveraged in leadership. Join us online for a conversation about the interplay between cultural heritage and leadership. Our subject matter expert, a first-generation Asian-American woman leader currently serving as a community college President, will share some of the barriers she has come up against in her journey and how she eventually came to embrace them as advantages in her leadership. You’ll be given intentional space to discuss your own experiences and self-perceptions with others who identify as first-generation or immigrant leaders and will come away with specific strategies for how you can in turn leverage your unique cultural heritage to lead more authentically and effectively.   Who Should Attend This discussion is designed for higher ed leaders across functional areas and at all levels. If […]