Aspire Award Winners 2024
Aspire Awards recognize and acknowledge the contributions to and achievements of advancement services professionals, and teams who are trailblazing in search of solutions that will resolve some of the most complex challenges facing the advancement services industry. Winners were announced and recognized at the 2024 Summit Conference in New Orleans LA, on November 13, 2024.
Categories & Award Winners
TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATIONProgram or project must demonstrate an innovative solution utilizing today's technology to answer the profession's most complex problems.
Sapphire Awards:Seattle University – Streamlining Gift Processing: Leveraging Importacular for Efficiency and Accuracy Gift Processing for Seattle University’s day of giving campaign faced a manual and time consuming process. Implementing an integration tool between our day of giving platform and CRM involved three key components:
Processing time dropped from 10 days to 3, and overall workload was reduced by 63%. The success of the streamlined process lays the groundwork for future enhancements. Learn More
University of Arizona Foundation – Generating Value and Measuring Impact through the creation of a Donor Engagement Score Finding successful solutions to leverage data to inform constituent pipelines and donor engagement is a common yet persistent challenge plaguing advancement services and the philanthropic sector. At the University of Arizona Foundation, we tackled this problem by developing and utilizing a constituent engagement score, implementing data quality initiatives, and measuring the output and impact of targeted segmentation through two use cases. Learn More
University of Nebraska Foundation – University of Nebraska Foundation Funds Management System and Process Enhancements Project The UNF Funds Management Systems and Process Enhancements project is a multi-year review, analysis, and redesign of critical funds management functions. The project focuses on the lifetime of a fund, from inception to closure or perpetual endowment. While primarily concentrating on tool and system upgrades to execute key funds management tasks, it also emphasizes redesigning fund management processes and standards. As the project approaches completion, the UNF funds management team has witnessed significant transformation, enhancing its capacity to serve internal partners, university affiliates, and donors through new technologies and systems, enabling increased efficiency and effectiveness. Learn More
ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENTProgram or project conceived of and implemented for a specific need, problem or challenge, and/or initiated to help meet institutional fundraising or campaign goals.
Sapphire Awards:American University – Advancement Operations and MicroStrategy Reporting Suite to support successful close of $500M campaign at American University AU’s University Advancement office was facing a unique challenge as it marked the start of an ambitious campaign following a recent CRM migration. In the absence of a robust reporting platform and any baseline reports, the Advancement Operations team worked to implement a solution while simultaneously supporting the operational and campaign related needs of the division. The business intelligence platform and subsequent adoption which resulted from this work was foundational to the successful completion of AU’s $500M campaign and in transforming University Advancement to a data-driven fundraising operation. Learn More
University of California-Davis – Project Purple: An Advancement Services Staff Engagement Story Project Purple is a theme-based, hour-long, peer-led seminar series. A new theme is introduced each quarter, starting with two team meetings of practical how-tos and work hacks (a “red” topic and a “blue” topic), followed by the all-hands meeting that features a round up topic that both serves as a recap of the two previous topics, and an investigation into the theory behind the practical tips; red and blue make purple! Learn MorePROSPECT DEVELOPMENTProgram or project conceived of and implemented for a specific need, problem or challenge.
Sapphire Awards:Chautauqua Institution – Using Data & Process to Drive a Public-Phase Campaign Prospect Pipeline This project was developed to bring a public-phase campaign pipeline to life by using data to generate clear and robust discussions with leadership and fundraisers. Using business intelligence tools, we layered organization-specific data on top of a wealth screening to aid in prioritization of travel planning, suspect qualification, outreach, and campaign events. We analyzed capacity and giving in relation to recency and duration of on-site attendance; in addition, we excluded constituents who had previously been disqualified from major gift cultivation by a fundraiser. The remaining data was presented visually in dashboards to focus future outreach and engagement. Learn More
Fundraising best practice is to consider an individual’s Link, Inclination, and Ability (LIA) (their Link to a cause, their philanthropic Inclination to support, and financial Ability) when identifying and prioritizing potential donors. Working in tandem with all front-line fundraising business teams and Learn More
Diamond Award:University of California, Davis – Pipeline to Success: How UC Davis Automated Contact Report Updates The solution that we developed consists of three elements:
Learn More
Program or project conceived of and implemented for a specific need, problem or challenge.
Sapphire Awards:California Institute of Technology – Data Discovery Workshops In 2023, Caltech launched a series of Data Discovery Workshops to engage with 11 teams within Advancement and Alumni Relations (AAR) whose data is critical to their success. The purpose was to obtain a holistic view of data movement and usage in AAR and better understand each function’s processes, goals, pain points, data gaps, and reporting and analytics needs. The sessions resulted in an informed data strategy, many opportunities for easy wins that have already started improving users’ interactions with data, and stronger partnerships with data stakeholders across the department. Learn More
University of Alaska – Fund Spending across multiple platforms The New Fund Balances report combines foundation fundraising, foundation finance, and university finance data for the first time allowing departments to spend easily from donor-created funds. The New Fund Balances Report aggregates all four data sources and produces this coherent vision; for the first time in history, at a glance, the university departments that manage the spending can see the purposes and limits of the fund, the balance being held by the university, and the remaining portion of the fund at the Foundation. All data is live and up to date. The New Fund Balances Report is a collaborative approach between the University of Alaska Foundation, the University of Alaska System Office, and the finance offices of the University of Alaska Anchorage, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and the University of Alaska Southeast. Learn More
University of Central Florida – Procedures, Processes & Tasks: Oh My! The UCF Foundation is growing! In preparation for the campaign, and with the addition of new team members and roles in the gifts services department and across the foundation, there was a need to review all tasks conducted by the gift services team. Conducting this review process provided insights for opportunities to cross train team members, create or update operating materials for tasks, and realignment of tasks with specific team members, etc. All in all, it was a project that provided value and clarity for the team to charge on for the upcoming campaign season! Learn More
Diamond Award:North Carolina State University - Launching An Automated Gift Agreements System to Streamline Gift Agreements Approvals and Increase Compliance NC State operates a decentralized development setup with nine affiliated foundations and multiple colleges/units. Previously, development officers in various colleges/units used templates to draft gift agreements, emailing them to Donor Services for review. This method often resulted in inconsistencies, missing information, errors, and delays, risking donor relations. To address this, Donor Services implemented an automated gift agreement generated system and workflow approval, streamlining the gift agreement approval process. This aims to simplify processes, enhance transparency, ensure consistency, improve compliance, establish metrics, and centralize reviewers’ notes on agreements. Learn More DONOR RELATIONS & STEWARDSHIP
Program or project conceived of and implemented for a specific need, problem or challenge. Sapphire Award:University of Nevada, Reno – University of Nevada, Reno New Endowment Welcome Package Donors who establish a new endowment at the University of Nevada, Reno make a tremendous impact on the institution and its faculty, staff, students, and programs. Each year approximately 50 new endowments are established with minimum endowment levels of $30,000 to $1.5 million. The importance of recognizing these individuals is a high priority. The Donor Relations team sought to develop something specific and distinctive to celebrate and welcome new endowment donors. With limited staff and financial resources, the team developed the New Endowment Welcome Package, a special presentation package to recognize, inform, and appreciate those donors who establish new endowments. Learn MoreAward DeterminationDetermination for the Sapphire Award is made based on Jury selection using criteria evaluating achievement and/or excellence to the program/project submitted as well as contributions to the profession. Determination for the Diamond Award is made based on Jury selection using criteria evaluating the program or project submitted that exhibited the highest level of excellence. |
