Course Category: Webcast Recording

Strategic Stewardship to Improve Donor Retention

In light of an industry-wide decline in both overall giving as well as in changing donor expectations, it is more important than ever that advancement shops of all sizes take a strategic donor stewardship approach. Employing tactics like segmentation and personalized recognition and engagement touchpoints, and demonstrating impact by tying gifts to ongoing institutional priorities can help to ensure that your donors continue to give, and that you retain them over time. Join us for a live session that will help you to tie your donor retention efforts more directly to the fundraising bottom line. Our expert instructor Sarah Sims, Executive Director of Donor Engagement at the University of Houston, will share strategies like the following that lead to improved donor retention rates: Adjusting your approach by donor population Segmentation and messaging best practices How to shift organizational culture to a donor-centered retention mindset  

Anticipating and Overcoming Objections in Frontline Fundraising

The fear of objections in frontline fundraising can get in the way of productive conversations with prospects. However, objections can be the first step to receiving a donor gift if we are prepared to listen closely and share a response that encourages new discussion and conversation. Join us for this online training to learn how to anticipate objections throughout the donor cycle, and how to utilize each response as an opportunity to learn and deepen the relationship. Through the technique of probing questions, our expert Kathy Drucquer Duff will demonstrate how to address common objections as well as how to extrapolate objections unique to your institution or initiative. This session will provide you with specific language you can share and practice with your team.

The Gift Officer-Faculty Partnership in Academic Medical Fundraising

Grateful patients are often motivated to give because they are thankful for the care they received and want to advance research that may result in finding cures. An effective partnership with medical faculty and staff is one of the critical first steps in providing patients an opportunity to give back. Medical faculty primarily focus on providing the best possible care to patients; thus, they may not always have an opportunity to communicate why philanthropy matters in medicine effectively. Reluctance on the part of faculty sometimes stems from legal and ethical implications and a blurring of the lines related to the roles gift officers and faculty members should play. These issues often influence our ability to close gifts from grateful patients successfully. As a result, it is crucial to forge meaningful relationships built on trust that lead to a partnership between gift officers and faculty members to achieve success in grateful patient fundraising. Join us in this online training to deepen your capability as a gift officer in academic medicine and learn how to effectively partner with medical faculty for philanthropic success.

Inspire Timely Giving: Create Urgency and Accelerate Results

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.

Creating an Engagement Plan for Volunteers in Women’s Philanthropy

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.

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

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, you’ll document a practical and tangible plan that outlines the […]

Growing Women’s Engagement and Philanthropic Interest

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.

Building a Leadership Culture in an Academic Department

Many academic leaders aim to build a leadership culture in their departments that promotes faculty retention and creates a bench of future leaders. However, common challenges such as competitive, individualistic cultures and skepticism towards administration thwart many of these efforts. Academic leaders must take an intentional approach that blends strategy, communication, and collaboration to resolve these challenges. Join us online to learn about how a department leader from Suffolk University Law School took her program from unranked to the top five in the country in the field. You will learn how to: Take a strategic approach to building a culture of leadership in three areas: individual, department, and national field Prioritize community and collaboration Boost profile/visibility, retention, and morale

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