Pre-Conference Sessions

All pre-conference sessions will take place on Tuesday, November 12, 2024.

Navigate

1:30 - 4:00 PM | Cost: Free

Get the most out of your Summit 2024 experience The Navigate Pre-conference session will brief attendees on Summit 2024 content and session offerings, ensuring participants choose the presentations and events most aligned with their professional interests and career goals. Network with aasp leadership, as they explain more about the benefits and resources included with membership. Join us at the top of the session to hear from aasp board members on getting involved and networking tips. Then prepare for your post-conference experience by learning more about the volunteer, mentorship, and networking opportunities available year-round to members of the aasp community.

Navigate Schedule:
1:30 PM: Join us in Chemin Royale and hear from the aasp Board of Directors on getting involved and networking tips
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM: Chat with the Summit Buddies and learn about their program. Take tours of the Summit space, connect with other first-time attendees, and visit the “ask aasp” with any questions.

Elevate

2:00 - 5:00 PM  | Cost: $150

aasp Summit Elevate is an interactive workshop intended for leaders across all philanthropy verticals, to explore the topics most impactful and actionable for our organizations. Facilitated conversations will allow leaders to share perspectives and propose questions that are relevant right now. aasp has invited industry experts to guide the conversations toward valuable outcomes. Please be prepared to come and talk among and with your industry leadership peers about: How to talk about AI: How to answer your organization’s call for AI with practical applications and realistic strategies.

This panel discussion will supplement the many conversations already happening across the industry, intended to help leaders in their organizations plan for realistic applications of AI. Topics will include:

• How to talk to leadership
• Developing a Business Case and identifying practical applications – touching on generative (for things like targeted solicitation and donor relations outreach) and predictive (for things like prospect identification and rating), how those applications make sense to solve particular problems in the organization, and what’s the impact of early investment leading to later ROI
• How to implement solutions
• Data considerations – are we ready? Understanding the existing biases within the data, what we don’t yet capture that we should in order to teach the AI model
• Security considerations – when teaching an AI model outside of our organization, what does sharing data mean and is it appropriate for us?
• How and when to measure ROI
• Other applicable topics that will help organizations prioritize and implement AI in their organizations in a practical and useful way

View Schedule

Josh Birkholz is the CEO of BWF, the nonprofit service and technology company known for its innovations in elevating philanthropy around the world.  Josh is a leader in big philanthropy and an architect of the business of fundraising. He is the author of the books Fundraising Analytics (Wiley, 2008) and Benefactors (Wiley, 2022). Josh is the Chair of the Board of the Giving USA Foundation and an instructor at the Rice University Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership.

Char Harner is the director of development services at University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio, and has led a 15-person team in prospect development, gift processing, information management, and systems at UH for more than 10 years. Her particular interest areas range from development services employee engagement to data governance to prospect movement and goal setting. Char has worked to build a culture of data-supported decision-making within the development department by applying new data and analytics assets and partnering with fundraisers. Char previously held major gift officer and annual fund positions at UH's cancer center and Case Western Reserve University, among others. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Management and a Masters in nonprofit management from Case Western Reserve University.

Dr. Wayne Combs is leader in campaign and advancement management with 30 years of experience supporting higher education and healthcare. He serves as Associate Vice President of Operations and Administrative Services for CHOC Children's Foundation. At USC Rossier School of Education, Dr. Combs teaches courses in Creativity and Innovation, Strategic Communications and Change Management, and Economics and Finance in the Organizational Change and Leadership doctoral program. In support of philanthropy, Dr. Combs delivers presentations on emerging trends while serving as Past-President for the Association of Advancement Services Professionals, Faculty for AHP Madison Institute and Chair/Faculty for the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

Ben Storck is the AVP, Advancement Services at the University of Nebraska Foundation, where he is a member of the Executive Leadership Team and oversees information technology, gift processing and biographical records, prospect management and research, advancement reporting, and the advancement CRM. Ben has worked for the Foundation for eleven years, and lives in Lincoln, NE with his wife, Katie, and their two children; Sam (5) and Addy (3).

 Prospect Management

Transforming Prospect Management with Innovative Tools

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM | Cost: $150

Join us for an immersive Pre-Conference session and workshop designed to revolutionize your approach to Prospect Management! In this dynamic session, we’ll kick things off with an insightful presentation featuring Carrick Davis, who will highlight common pain points in managing proposal assignments. You’ll learn how UC Davis tackled these challenges head-on, leveraging cutting-edge solutions that streamlined their processes and enhanced efficiency.

Following the presentation, we'll dive into a live demo showcasing UC Davis's innovative approach. But this isn't just a show-and-tell—it's a hands-on experience! Bring your laptops and get ready to connect to your data sources (Excel documents work perfectly). We'll guide you step-by-step in building your own tools using the powerful Microsoft ecosystem: Power Automate and Power Apps.

To wrap up, we'll dedicate time have an interactive discussion on how you can adapt these strategies to your own operations, addressing your unique pain points and improving your prospect management processes.

Prerequisites:

• A laptop
• Ability to connect to a data source (Excel documents are acceptable)
• Basic familiarity with Microsoft Power Automate and Power Apps
• Don’t miss this opportunity to transform your prospect management and build practical, impactful tools tailored to your needs!

Carrick Davis is the Executive Director for Prospect Management & Research at UC Davis. In this role, he routinely works with development leadership, translating their business needs into data questions where information can support data-informed decision making. He improves organizational data literacy by socializing the use of data when making decisions.

Data Analytics & Business Intelligence Workshop

The Future of Business Intelligence: Tools, Techniques, and Trends 

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM | Cost: $150

In the ever-evolving landscape of business intelligence (BI), staying ahead of the curve is crucial for maintaining a competitive edge. Our goal is to an overview of the latest advancements shaping the future of BI, while demystifying some of the concepts/process/terms that govern the space.

We will discuss the challenges and opportunities these trends present, and how organizations can adapt their BI strategies to stay relevant and drive business success.

Key takeaways include:

• An overview of the latest tools and technologies in business intelligence
• Practical techniques for implementing advanced BI solutions
• Insights into emerging trends and their impact on BI practices
• Strategies for integrating AI and machine learning into BI workflows
• Best practices for data visualization and storytelling to communicate insights effectively

Join us to discover how you can harness the power of modern BI tools, techniques, and trends to enhance your (large and small) organization.

Dr. Mark Walcott has over 20 years of experience in technology-related and advancement services roles focused on Data Analytics, Data Management, and technological innovation.  He serves as the Assistant Vice President of Technology and Business Intelligence within the division of Advancement and Alumni Engagement at Emory University.  Dr. Walcott actively speaks on a variety of topics and has served on Blackbaud Higher Education Executive Advisory Board, Multicultural Leadership Institute (MCLP) Board, and other organizations focused on community and technological Advancement.  As a Vice President of aasp, Dr. Walcott is focused on continuing to build the profession through the strategic growth of aasp.

Dwight D. Dozier currently serves as the CIO of the Georgia Tech Foundation. Prior to Georgia Tech, he served as senior associate vice president of advancement at the George Washington University, responsible for the areas of alumni relations, advancement services, constituent relations, and markets. Prior to his work at GWU, Dwight served as the associate vice president of university advancement and advancement services at the University of Louisville, assistant executive director of alumni services at The Pennsylvania State University, and as manager of biographical records and systems analyst at Washington State University. With more than 40 years of experience in higher education advancement, Dwight has been a faculty member, presenter, and institute and conference chairs for CASE and has served as a CASE Philanthropy Commissioner. Dwight was involved with CASE Kentucky as a board member, conference chair, and CASE KY president.

Dwight recently served on the CASE District III Board of Directors, as well as serving as a co-chair of the 2023 CASE District III Annual Conference. Additionally, he is on the board of directors of the Association of Advancement Services Professionals (aasp) and has served as the chair of the Blackbaud CRM Higher Education Product Advisory Group

Gift Administration Workshop

One Size Doesn't Fit All

2:00 PM - 5:00 PM | Cost: $150

Though the selection of tools available to support fundraising operations continues to grow in leaps and bounds, the need for solid infrastructure remains a critical factor for success. How can we best scale our information flow and processing to meet increasing demands for timely recording and reporting of gift revenue? Which paths can we explore to increase efficiency and accuracy of the critical information we add and update as part of our gift administration structure? What regulatory compliance parameters need to be maintained? Join Sabre Leek and Amy Phillips as we take a deep dive into how building strong - but flexible - core strategies for advancement operations success. Bring your questions and challenges which will be addressed in breakout sessions with peers. 

Sabre Leek is the creator of the Salesforce accelerator product QSS for Education Cloud and the founder of Sleek Consulting. Sabre has more than 25 years of direct consulting experience working with higher education institutions, non-profits, and healthcare across the country. Sabre has invested her time and energy in industry best practices and technology. Her background includes 30+ years of experience in fundraising and engagement operations including Director and Executive Director level positions. Sabre is passionate about serving nonprofits, creating technical solutions that push the common industry limits, and openly sharing on the challenges of mental health.

Early in her working life, Amy Phillips became fascinated by information management and how bits and pieces of data are brought together to complete ever larger and more complex puzzles. Now an active fundraising operations professional for more than 26 years, Amy is an active member of the Association of Advancement Services Professionals for which organization she served as a member of the inaugural Board in addition to being both a Founding and Charter member. She served as the initial Membership Chair then went on to continue service with that committee for another 7 years and is currently active with the Program committee for the annual AASP Summit conference and Summer Deep Dive Series. Amy has presented on industry standards and best practices for many professional development organizations in addition to AASP including CASE and ADRP as well as various database solution user communities.