AASP Summit 2011
October 10 – October 12, 2011
Session Descriptions
October 10, 2011
Keynote Session
1:30 pm Monday
The Convergence of Social Media, Social Networks and Nonprofit Organizations
Allison Fine (Fellow and Writer)
Allison Fine, writer and researcher about social media and co-author of The Networked Nonprofit, will discuss the convergence of social media, social networks and nonprofit organizations. She will describe the hurdles nonprofits need to overcome to lose their fears of losing control and evolve to meet the informational and cultural needs of today's donor and volunteer. The Networked Nonprofit offers specific strategies for implementation, exercises, how-tos and secrets to success, drawing on in-depth interviews with current nonprofit managers that have used new social media tools effectively.
Breakout Sessions
2:30pm – 3:45pm Monday
Dashboards that Serve your Advancement Customers
Susan Vandermast
Providing a fluid reporting solution that meets the needs of Senior Academic Management,
Senior Advancement Management and Development Officers - with 24/7 access to
mission-aligned data available via a web browser is a great customer service deliverable.
Make it available on a smart phone and you are really adding benefit! Reporting that is
relevant, specific to the constituency and timely saves programming and prospect research
resources and today’s two examples show how you can send your Development Officers
out into the field and keep them easily connected and informed.
Leadership Through Collaboration
Monica Keith
This session will highlight ways that Advancement Operation units can become effective leaders meeting institutional needs through relationship building and collaborative endeavors--internally within advancement but also with other units within an institution. Examples will be discussed relating to: launching online communities and ongoing data management; building a prospect management system; establishing formal scholarship tracking and reporting procedures among various departments and with donors; and development of effective training sessions internally to build knowledge and competency with regard to how advancement services and operations can assist in meeting both specific unit goals and institutional objectives.
Hiring, Measuring, and Mentoring for Success in Gift Officers
Ellen Rohwer
Major gift and corporate / foundation officers are integral to the success of advancement programs. With a relatively long lead time before large gifts will be realized, dollars in the door are a lagging indicator of performance. How can you ensure your gift officers are on track for success? Come discuss how to identify good performers, which important performance metrics to measure and report for major gift success, how to help under-performers, and more. We will also discuss the logistics of striking the right balance between accountability and too much time behind the desk recording activity.
Learning objectives include:
- Attendees will learn which important performance metrics to measure and report for major gift success, and important actions to take to help gift officers adjust performance quickly.
- Attendees will learn about striking a balance between accountability and too much time recording activity.
- In a practical, real world discussion, attendees will learn about application of these ideas at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee and other institutions.
Volunteer Access to Data – Best Practices by 60 Peer Institutions
Terry Callaghan and Tasha Levy Pruess
Confidentiality of data continues to grow as an area of interest in the Advancement Services profession, as well as with our constituents. This session will cover a survey conducted by Rutgers University Foundation of 60 of our peer institutions. The topics in the survey included the types of data accessed by volunteers, and how that varies by volunteer role. We will also discuss some basic concepts of PII and access to data.
Breakout Sessions
4:15pm – 5:30pm Monday
Five Biggest Trends in Higher Education Online Fundraising
Steve MacLaughlin
Online fundraising for higher education institutions is like the little engine that could. Slowly, but surely, it is creeping up the charts, quickly becoming one of the most integral parts of an institution’s fundraising strategy and a critical way to attract new and younger donors. This session will explore hot topics in online fundraising including: growth in giving; trends from thousands of higher education institutions; the role of social media in online fundraising; the emerging channel of mobile giving; and the importance of building a multichannel strategy. At the conclusion of this session, participants will:
- Understand how other higher education institutions compare to your organization’s fundraising performance.
- Learn ways to improve and diversify your online fundraising strategies
- Discover how to leverage social and mobile technologies to grow online fundraising.
Redefining the Advancement Services Organization Structure- Part 2
Caroline Chang
A follow up to 2009's presentation on "Redefining the Advancement Services Organization Structure." Find out what decisions were made, what information was used to make those decisions, what was implemented and the current status.
Building Relationships Between Fundraisers and Data
Angie Peterson
A report can bridge the gap between frontline fundraisers or communications staff and the development services professionals that support them. By providing a common framework and a starting point for discussions and fostering relationships focused on collecting and maintaining the best possible data, we can create more comprehensive and personal communications plans for our donors.
Working with Clear Ethical Guidelines Encourages Stronger Relationships
Lynne Becker, Lisette Clem and Wendy Gasparri
With the AASP Ethics Statement, the AFP Code of Ethics, CASE's Donor Bill of Rights and a Decision Making Tool for addressing ethical dilemmas as guides, we will present twenty questions that Advancement Services professionals are likely to have. We will attempt to answer these questions through interactive discussion while referencing the ethical precepts in these reference guides. When scenarios of the "What If" genre are explored, we will attempt to come to consensus about the optimum courses of action through lively audience participation.
October 11, 2011
Breakout Sessions
9:00 am – 10:15 am Tuesday
The Realities of Real Time Data
David Lawson (workingphilanthropy.com)
The long promised 360 degree view of your organization and it’s constituents is finally becoming a reality, and that reality is dramatically changing how data is collected, analyzed and disseminated. This session will explore the challenges and opportunities confronting Advancement Service professionals as they seek to harness the power of this 24/7 real-time torrent of information, and turn it into organizational intelligence.
Partnership & Perception: An Important Balancing Act
Chris Cannon and Cassie Hunt
This interactive session will engage participants to explore, understand and improve their relationships with their colleagues. Balancing partnership and perception starts with aligning services with advancement programs and processes. Partnership between services, major and annual giving, alumni or constituent groups and other advancement and institutional departments is essential. However, such partnership can be hard to develop and maintain. This session presents data on perceptions about services, identifies gaps between different groups, and shares strategies designed to improve and strengthen relationships--and advancement service--through stronger partnership.
Prospecting in a Campaign
David Lamb
Death and taxes . . . and campaigns. You can’t avoid them. A capital campaign can bring unique demands and pressures on a prospect researcher. Effective prospect research is a vital component of any successful campaign. This session will cover how a campaign should affect the activities of prospect researchers, the systems required to manage prospect information in a campaign, and the resources available for helping identify the prospects needed for the campaign.
Project Management Optimized
Lynne Becker
Managing our initiatives and projects is always a management best practice. Finding ways to apply this practice at all stages of a project’s life cycle-–and with every unique requirements in each area of Advancement Services--can be a challenge. In this session, we will discuss ways to increase the impact of Advancement Services by identifying opportunities to increase the effectiveness of project management.
Breakout Sessions
10:30 am – 11:45 am Tuesday
Going Mobile Fueling the Changing Pace of the Advancement Office
Bill Kavan
Students, alumni, donors, faculty and staff are moving faster than ever before because of the immediacy provided through mobile devices. Smartphones and other mobile devices provide the convenience and opportunity for the Advancement Office to improve access, enhance productivity and foster stronger connections with key constituents.
Moving your Gift Processing Operation into the 21st Century
Debbie Charron and Mary Ehart
Over the past two decades, the gift processing/data team has evolved into what is likely one of the most undefinedif not “the” most undefined, crucial area of our organizations. No other area “touches” as many people and processes as do our data center staff. With job duties and expectations continually expanding, it is essential for us to periodically evaluate fit vs. function, in order to achieve maximum efficiency and effectiveness. Join us as we share the plan that enabled us to meet the demands of our ever-increasing operations, while simultaneously improving upon industry standard metrics.
Numbers and Sense- The Finance Department and You!
Allison Lewis and Lynne Wester
At one time or another in our organizations, we run into a question that only one department can help us with (insert Beethoven’s 5th here)... FINANCE. This office has more people with abbreviations behind their names than a hospital or law firm, at times it doesn’t seem like they’re speaking English and they LIKE Math! How can we work together to bridge the gaps and form strategic partnerships with those in the finance department to help ensure the success and ease of our co-mingled operations? Together we will identify key partners, learn how to speak “their language” and cultivate the relationships that ensure our success and that make the most “numbers and sense.”
Donor-Advised Funds and Other Weird Entities
Mary Prats and John Taylor
Mary and John will show you how to best handle donor records when you're faced with processing funds from Donor-Advised Funds and other special types of constituents. Institutions should have clear policies and procedures in place, including how to properly word gift agreements, post pledges paid via these entities and and properly handle pledge payments. IRS rules and gift agreement samples will be provided.
Keystone Session
12:45 pm – 1:30 om Tuesday
Popping the Question: Moving from Engagement to Action with Social Media
Jay Frost
With roughly half of America's millionaires on Facebook, why do so many organizations still treat social media as a direct marketing channel? Fundraising veteran Jay Frost will counter the "let's just be friends" approach to social media by exploring the real financial opportunities social networks present and showcasing the growing universe of nonprofits mining this new, expansive and growing marketplace.
An industry leader with 25 years experience in the field of fundraising and philanthropy, Jay currently leads FundraisingInfo.com as its President & CEO. He previously served as Chief Strategy Officer at WealthEngine, President and CEO at Wealth ID, Director of Major Gifts at the International Rescue Committee, Editor of WFC/International Philanthropy, Development Associate at Meridian International Center, and Program Specialist in the Literature Program of the National Endowment for the Arts. Jay is a frequent presenter at conferences in the US, Europe and Asia.
Breakout Sessions
2:00 pm – 3:15 pm Tuesday
What is the Cloud and Why Should I Care?
Keith Heller
The “Cloud” seems to be everywhere these days, but is it really any different than Ye Olde Internete? Is it an evolution, or fancy marketing? Perhaps it’s a bit of each. But, there are undeniably greater opportunities for nonprofits to better build and maintain relationships, and many of these are due to Cloud-based tools. From social media and cool web apps to CRM and smoother operations, there are more-and more effective-means of reaching your constituents, and helping them reach you. All of this means more of your mission spreading further on fewer dollars. In this session we’ll spend some time with our “head in the Cloud” getting a strategic overview of the landscape, then we’ll get grounded with some real life examples from nonprofits. You will walk away with actionable next steps to determine if, or how, the Cloud can benefit your organization.
CROCO 3.0 (Centralized Repository of Cultivation Opportunities): Managing donor and internal relationships
Melissa Cox
The presentation will describe CROCO as a case study for collaboration and building relationships.
CROCO utilizes web-based project management software for organizing milestones, tracking bugs and wishlist items, as well as version control of the source code. Users can communicate with developers, access training and support materials and report bugs through a collaborative site using Sharepoint.
Attendees will learn about the iterative process that has transformed post-it notes and disjointed spreadsheets into a fully supported database application.
Easy Wins: High-Impact, Low-Effort Ways to Fix Your Database (and impress Your boss)
Vered Siegel
What happens when you inherit a database, or are charged with cleaning one up? It’s hard to know where to begin. This session takes the participant through a series of steps, using basic logic modeling, to clean up the mess. Using Raiser’s Edge as the example, these steps can translate into any constituent database to show immediate value of your position within your team. Takeaways for participants include a listing of specific queries to be run and measure to implement immediately to get a handle on your data.
Best Practices in Prospect Development
Sylvia Galen, Meredith Hancks, and Lori Hood Lawson
Prospect Research and Prospect Management are team activities. This team atmosphere necessitates best practices to keep everyone on the same page and facilitates an ongoing discussion among colleagues. This session will look at how to compile best practices as well as examine the current documentation with examples of these best practices. Participants will discuss:
· How to compile and distribute prospect management policies & procedures among your team members
· How to create a plan for prospect analytics and implement the plan to build the prospect pool
· How to define processes for building and maintaining relationships and tracking that information within the database system so it can be retrieved at any time.
Breakout Sessions
3:45 pm – 5:00 pm Tuesday
Social Media and Mini Ecosystems
Nancy Benavente
Tap into a wider set of social graphs by supporting multiple Cause Related Social Media Ecosystems by deploying a New Model. The New Model is used to build deeper relationships with donors, supporters and is part of new prospect acquisition and engagement approach. To build these deeper relationships, we will discuss creating and managing social media for multiple social ecosystems around a shared value or mission.
Comparing Advancement Services Organizations- The Pro’s and Con’s of How We Are Organized to Succeed
Anita Lawson and Vicky Medlock
Advancement Services is no longer the 'back office'. We are partners at the leadership table....and we are the leadership. How we define success, and whether success has been achieved, are questions Advancement Services is uniquely qualified to answer. This session showcases the shift of our profession to what is - and what can be. Exploring advancement programs both large and small in higher education and other non-profit types we will address the management, metrics and strategic options for maximizing our contributions to our organizations
Reporting Strategies
Misty McCarty
Developing a Successful Reporting Strategy Whether starting from scratch or considering an extreme makeover, designing and implementing a reporting strategy for your advancement organization can be a daunting task. Attend this session to learn about key considerations and milestones on the critical path to success, including: determining resources (budget and staffing), gathering requirements, gaining end-user buy-in and participation, assessing delivery options and "mix", and more.
Best Practices in Donor Relations: Re-engaging the Disenchanted Donor (or How not to Tick your Donors Off!)
John Taylor
The best way to reengage donors is to avoid doing anything that will disenchant them! Learn what most frequently disenchants donors and how to identify who has become disenchanted. Then we can figure out why they became disenchanted in the first place and what we can do to win them back.
October 12, 2011
Breakout Sessions
9:00 am – 10:15am Wednesday
Positioning Advancement Services for and in the Next Campaign
Tom Chaves
As your institution/organization gets ready for a campaign, it's a great opportunity to build the case for your advancement services organization. Come and hear how Lehigh University's advancement services department grew current staff by 33% and demonstrated value of current staff. Using internal and external surveys, the business case was made to significantly invest in the information and technology area of advancement. See the approach used and how it might work for your organization.
Virtual Reality: Team Building with a Geographically Distributed Department
Meredith Winter
Increasingly, departments are finding themselves working from different locations, across a campus, across the state or across the world from each other. Can you still build strong collegial ties? Are there differences to the way you manage for success when your team members aren’t in the same building with you – or even in the same zip code?
Andrew Carnegie said that teamwork is the ability to work together towards a common vision. We’ll discuss practical ways to create and maintain a common vision in the day-to-day reality of a geographically distributed department. We’ll also explore the case study of a successful virtual team retreat that involved a team of 18 “getting together” in 15 different locations.
How Benchmarking Can Help Make Your Case: Establishing a Gift Assessment at NC State
John Taylor
Changes in the economy, and philanthropic giving patterns, are resulting in reductions in funding to support Advancement activities. Money simply does not grow on trees - nor on endowment management fees. We will compare how several dozen institutions handled this dilemma in the past, and specifically how NC State benchmarked recently to determine the best course of action - and successfully make the argument - to implement a gift assessment fee less than a year ago.
The Online Courtship of our Constituents
Stephanie Rasamny
Building online engagement among constituents is much like a prolonged courtship. It takes work. You have to catch their attention, engage them in conversation, and maintain a continuous dialogue. In the short term, we aim for higher open rates, more fans and followers, and a higher number of interactivity - clicks, posts and comments. In the long term, we aim to convert engaged online constituents into donors. Building online engagement is an effort that involves the entire advancement office. During this session we’ll look at case studies of institutions who are effectively courting their constituents and provide actionable takeaways for annual giving, alumni relations and advancement services.
Capstone Session
10:45 am -11:30 am Wednesday
AASP Staffing Survey
Amy Phillips
A primary and ongoing goal of AASP is to support the Advancement Services community through documenting best practice and benchmarking operational metrics. One of the key surveys AASP has designed to provide critical metrics is all about Advancement Services staffing. Despite advances in technology and improvements in automated efficiencies, we have not replaced the need for quality staff members who manage the technology and maintain the highest quality of information for our respective institutions. Please join us for a preview summary of survey responses for the 2011 AASP Staffing Survey – your questions and insight will help us craft the most useful analysis when all of the responses are compiled and the summary report completed.
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