Improving Your Donor Pipeline Through Academic Leader and Advancement Collaboration

Last updated March 16, 2023

Course Length

1h 32m

Last Updated

March 16, 2023

Improving Your Donor Pipeline Through Academic Leader and Advancement Collaboration

Last updated March 16, 2023

Identify shared opportunities to strengthen constituent engagement and academic fundraising efforts.

Overview

Enhancing collaboration among alumni engagement, annual giving, and academic leaders is a strategic priority for many institutions. By engaging deans and academic leaders intentionally and early in the fundraising cycle, advancement professionals can help their academic colleagues see themselves within philanthropic work. Perhaps more importantly, this partnership can also provide alumni and donors with clear opportunities to realize the impact of their relationship investments.

In this virtual training, you will learn how to determine what meaningful engagement by academic leaders can look like to support building your pipeline and improve alumni and donor engagement. You will analyze your institutional culture and context to effectively establish a partnership between your advancement shop and academic leaders. Participants will walk away with useful ideas to strategically engage alumni and donors.

Who should attend?

Academic leaders and advancement professionals looking to strategically collaborate and add value to the academic enterprise will benefit from this training. This training is also for academic-based development officers and alumni engagement and annual giving staff focused on building their pipeline to advance the priorities of an academic unit.Additionally, deans and academic leaders such as department chairs and center directors can benefit from this training by learning how they can directly contribute to these efforts.

Agenda

June 8, 2023

12:00 – 2:00 p.m. ET

In this virtual training, our expert instructors will cover the following:

Understanding Your Institutional Culture and Context

Each institution has a unique culture and context in which the work of alumni engagement and fundraising operate. Developing an understanding of shared goals that are in alignment with institutional mission can create a partnership between academic leaders and advancement staff. In this section, you will consider why it is important for academic leaders and advancement professionals to work together to improve pipeline development while also learning about a specific approach to this process.

 


Laying the Foundation for Collaboration

Advancement and academic leaders all have individual needs and strengths that must be recognized and discussed to establish a solid foundation of collaboration. In this section, you will consider what each unit needs to hear from the other to move forward successfully in developing or enhancing specific initiatives—whether they are for alumni engagement, annual giving, or other fundraising efforts.

 


Establishing Strategic Engagement Opportunities

Advancement and academic leaders must create opportunities that will resonate with prospective donors and alumni. To do this, engagement opportunities must advance the goals of both the advancement shop and academic needs. In this session, you will answer questions such as:

  • Where will alumni and donors benefit from connecting with a dean or leader?
  • How can academic leaders engage in discovery, solicitation, and stewardship work?
  • What are other opportunities to highlight the academic unit and engage donors in new and different ways?

You will also hear examples of specific initiatives led by our expert instructors that successfully incorporated academic leaders and resulted in positive outcomes for the institution and alumni.

Extend Your Learning

Deans and development officers who are looking to secure funding for academic priorities must understand how to effectively collaborate and communicate with one another. Our Fundraising for Deans conference gives you the tools and confidence to achieve your fundraising goals.

If you’re looking to establish or strengthen the relationships between your deans and academic development officers, we recommend that you register for this virtual training included free with membership.