All times are Pacific Time. If you’re a member of an institution that’s registered for the MOTM Conference, use this page to RSVP for the sessions you’d like to attend. You must use your institution credentials (email address, etc.) to be approved and checked in. Your institution’s registration contact has been repeatedly advised to have you sign up no later than the night before the session(s) you’d like to attend – “day of” registrations will be accommodated as best as possible. Note that recordings for all sessions will be available after the conference. Do not register for more than one session scheduled at the same time. You’ll receive an email confirmation with joining instructions for each session.
1:00-2:15 p.m. Breakout Sessions
Smart Fundraising Videos We Love, and the People Who Made Them
Bob Burdenski
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Personal videos, funny videos, tear-jerker videos. They entertained and inspired, but did they accomplish their objectives? Bob shares some favorite fundraising videos from the past year, and will chat live with some of the people who made them happen. See where
strategic and smart meets cute and clever, and learn about how they happened and why they happened. We’ll also discuss tips and tools for making videos yourself with a limited budget. It’s a very first Meeting of the Minds film festival. Do you have a video you’re proud of? Send a note to Bob and come and tell the story behind it yourself!
Senior Class Giving and Student Philanthropy: Strategies and Ideas From the Past Year, and Every Year
Andre Khachaturians, CSU Dominguez Hills
and Torrey Hood, UNR
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Join Andre and Torrey for a student philanthropy forum Forging collaboration to strengthen senior class gift participation was key to increasing class giving at CSU Dominguez Hills. This session will cover what they did right, resulting in the desired class giving increases. But the road is not always smooth. So, we will review those aspects we feel could have gone better. The session will provide you with several key takeaways that will hopefully lead you to a successful class giving program.
What Does it Take to Succeed in Advancement Services?
Valerie Nguyen, California State University, Dominguez Hills
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“It’s not an end goal, but a process that needs to be tweaked as you go.” We will explore the small things that make big differences. Further, we will review ways to prioritize the things on our to-do list effectively, key elements to cultivate a culture of success, and words that we often say to remind us to have confidence that leads to success. We will also pose the question (and will appreciate your replies!), “Why did you choose Advancement Services? Or did Advancement Services Choose you?” We tend to get bogged down with all our responsibilities and day-to-day operations and end up forgetting the passion, excitement, reason, and our decision to be in Advancement Services. Re-visiting this question will help to bring us back and help us to re-focus, to see the values in our work.
Direct Mail Appeal Share With BCG Connect
Dan Noonan, BCG Connect, moderator with Jessica Jordan and Sophia De Quattro, Dominican University of California, Jenn Morehead, Hendrix College, and Elizabeth Burns Frey, York College
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BCG Connect’s Dan Noonan presents a practitioner panel that will share some favorite (and successful) direct mail appeals.
2:30-3:45 p.m. Breakout Sessions
The LA ZOOm Story and Other Online Engagement
and Prospecting Strategies
Robin Savoian, LA Zoo, and Eliza McNulty, Stanford University
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Like many other California zoos and aquariums, the Los Angeles Zoo was closed for nearly 200 days in 2020. To keep people informed of the important work happening at the Zoo, the Zoo began offering monthly web chats with staff this past July. Hosted by Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association (GLAZA) President Tom Jacobson and CEO & L.A. Zoo Director Denise Verret, these interactive discussions featured field conservation programs and showcased important behind-the-scenes work going on every day at the Zoo. What began as an appreciation event to thank upper-level annual donors grew into a series of topics that extended outreach to particular donor and prospect affinities around other funding needs. These online events have become a great way to identify interests among lower-level members and engage donors previously unable to participate in on-site events. “L.A. ZOOm to You” talks have featured conversations about the Western lowland gorilla, Masai giraffe, California condor, and broader topics such as wildlife trafficking. Learn about the program’s success, and share ideas from others for keeping leadership donors connected, identifying and cultivating new members and moving them all up the donor pipeline during the global pandemic.
Prospect Pipeline:
Leveraging LinkedIn, Predictive Models & Engagement Ecosystems
Laurent “Lo” DeJanvry, University of California at Berkeley
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Developing a healthy pipeline of new donor prospects is an essential component of your institution’s fundraising success in your current and next campaign. Come to this session to hear how to identify new prospects leveraging LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Predictive Modeling, how to initiate contact and qualify new potential prospects at scale, and how to create meaningful engagement opportunities for leadership and major gift prospects leveraging Zoom. Don’t rely on luck and chance to make your fundraising campaign a success — start investing in developing your prospect pipeline today!
Don’t Shoot the Messenger – Dealing with IRS Issues and Staff-Created Conundrums
Natalie Graff, Cal Poly-Pomona and John Taylor
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Natalie will pose real-world IRS situations created by both donors and staff to John. We will discuss the legal problems associated with these issues, including reviewing IRS doctrine on the subject. As we are often involved in these puzzles after-the-fact, John will offer suggestions on how best to resolve the problem while helping our donors and saving embarrassment for our staff. Attendees are encouraged to email scenarios to John in advance of the session and live during the presentation.
What’s Next for Text? Lessons Learned From 2020, and Texting Strategies for the Year Ahead
Christian Perry and Rachel Cleary, GetThru
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2020 was a year of challenges to be sure, but also of innovations. Whether your fundraising gala went digital, your giving day goal shifted, or you simply tried out a new strategy to reach your alumni and donors, we all felt the effects (and rolled with the punches) during an unprecedented year. While peer-to-peer texting (P2P) has been on the scene for a few years now, last year really provided an opportunity to lean into all P2P texting can offer. In this session, we’ll cover the basics of peer-to-peer texting: what it is, how it works, and use cases for educational institutions. But we’ll also dig deep on lessons learned in P2P texting in 2020, how those lessons can inform strategies for the year ahead, and how texting can enhance traditional outreach methods. Lastly, we’ll share case studies from current GetThru clients, focusing on how they use P2P texting to level up their annual giving and alumni relations programs. Lastly, we’ll chat about how to make P2P texting work for your school—whether you’re a team of one or a large, complex organization.
4:00-5:15 p.m. Breakout Sessions
Understanding Cultural Differences in Fundraising
Marina Tan Harper PhD, University of California, Davis
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Cultural diversity, ecosystems of philanthropy, traditions of giving, and the nuances in communicating the value of philanthropy may be vastly different regionally and globally. As you go about with your work in annual giving segmentations, copy writing, design, and solicitations, are you thinking about these from the eyes and minds of the non-traditional potential donor? In this session, you learn about presenting your institutional priorities and areas of excellence in the context of what’s on the ground, i.e., telling the story from the donor/prospects’ eyes. You will also learn how to show respect for norms in a different cultural heritage, including the nuances that bridge the “heart” over “head” in your solicitations to constituencies where relationship before business.
Swag in a Zoom World
Brian and Amy Williams, AB Unlimited
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How to use SWAG to create that emotional connection between your brand and your donor in a virtual world. In this session, come learn about fun engagement, new products and successful case studies: a University $6 Billion Donor Campaign, a College Homecoming Alumni Engagement, and Giving Day Recognition.
The “New and Improved” (?!) CASE Guidelines
John Taylor
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This very month, CASE is releasing the latest edition of its renowned counting guidelines. This version is both the 5th and 1st edition – John will explain how that’s possible! Our session will explore the many changes that clear up confusion from past versions, including counting bequest expectancies and sponsored research. But he will also tackle some of the new areas of confusion created in this edition, including priority seating and alumni participation. We will discuss some of the ongoing gray areas in counting and that which is cut and dried – well, cut and dried from a CASE perspective but not always followed!
Student Engagement & Philanthropy:
The Keys to Unlocking “The Next Generation”
Seth Newman, GiveCampus
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Young alumni and student philanthropy programs don’t always take priority in Advancement shops—but they are the best ways to build a pipeline for future giving, and they reflect an institution’s ability to develop lifelong relationships with alumni. This session will focus on the power of advocating for young alumni and student philanthropy programs, with specific recommendations to help Advancement professionals make space for these programs, invest in them year-over-year, and approach them as core to the institution’s overall giving strategy. We’ll share how important it is to treat students like any other constituency—and how much the principles of respect and flexibility can make a difference. This session will also include specific ideas for empowering student leaders, staying attune to their concerns and priorities, and designing outreach and engagement strategies that are creative and of-the-moment.