Breakout Sessions D

Day One | Wednesday, November 13, 2024

1D: Right-Sizing Your CRM Change Management Program

Organizational Change Management (OCM) approaches may vary by methodology, institution, or even department. One thing is consistent: having a structured OCM plan or program will increase the odds of organizational readiness and your team’s ability to adapt to major technology changes and adopt new ways of doing business.

In this session, hear from leadership at two large public higher education institutions and how their approaches to change management supported their organizations as they implemented new CRMs.

Learn how the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association and Auburn Advancement approached change management as a critical component of implementation success. Discover which activities they viewed as critical for their success and the components they believe are must haves for any program. Learn how they right-sized their OCM programs to get started quickly, adapted to fit their cultures, and how their different approaches led to success.

Anida Ho is the Director of Advancement Business Solutions at the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association. As a UW-Madison graduate, she is passionate about supporting her alma mater. Anida leads CRM strategy and training, overseeing a recent Salesforce implementation. With a diverse background spanning product development, marketing, sales operations, and CRM management, she excels in fundraising and engagement initiatives. Anida enjoys travel, reading, and chasing around her children and dogs in Madison, WI.

Sarah Cleveland is a technology and change management enthusiast with almost 10 years of experience in community college and consulting. She is passionate about leveraging technology and communication to connect and enable student recruitment, student success, donors, and institutions. Sarah has a proven track record of using technology strategically to develop efficient and effective processes that drive positive outcomes for institutions and their communities. Prior to joining Huron, Sarah was the Assistant Vice President for Enrollment Strategy at Ivy Tech Community College, where she led the institution's Salesforce CRM product ownership and business process changes. Additionally, she oversaw the development and implementation of Strategic Enrollment Management plans across all campuses in the Ivy Tech system, providing data-driven strategic guidance to allocate resources and develop campus strategies.

Tim Jones is a knowledgeable technology leader with over 25 years of experience in IT, with over 15 of those years focused on higher education. He helped build the first project management office at Auburn University, implemented numerous enterprise systems, supported several senior administrators (President, Provost, CIO, and VP of Advancement), and is now serving as the Chief Technology Officer for the Clemson University Foundation. Tim has successful experience with strategic planning, project management, data & IT governance, technical architecture, development, and IT operations. Tim believes strongly in the “People, Process, and Technology” pillars with people being the most important.

Jeffrey Wat is a consultant on Huron’s Higher Education and Research Strategy & Operations practice. He brings more than 25 years of experience in the nonprofit and higher education arenas, including leadership in the areas of Advancement Services, constituent record management, gift administration, and Organizational Change Management. Jeffrey approaches each of his client partnerships as a strategic change initiative, ensuring he is supporting the organization in achieving their vision and engaging stakeholders in support of organizational transformation. As a project manager, he has led teams through enterprise and advancement CRM strategy development, business process redesigns, and technology business case development.

2D: Don't Get Comfortable - Innovating in Higher Education Advancement

As one of the earliest adopters of CRM for advancement, Northeastern University continues to push boundaries, evolving their technology landscape and driving discovery and innovation around the world through philanthropy. Hear from Samira Malik, about Northeastern's journey migrating to a new advancement-focused Salesforce org while remaining focused on pushing boundaries with their technology roadmap, accommodating institutional acquisitions, building efficiencies, adopting new skills and perspectives, and preparing for a shifting culture for both internal teams and constituents.

Maggie Farrell is a Higher Education Consultant at Huron Consulting Group with a focus on advancement strategy. Maggie specializes in advancement operational assessments, strategic planning and its alignment with technology, and implementation project management. Prior to joining Huron, Maggie worked for the Office of University Advancement at Boston College in a number of alumni engagement and frontline fundraising roles. She also served on the design team for BC’s Blackbaud CRM implementation.

Samira Malik has more than 20 years of experience managing advancement business operations for both Fortune 500 companies, educational institutions and non-profit organizations. Samira is focused on increasing profitability and productivity through continuous process improvement. She has expertise in fund management, prospect development, donor engagement and stewardship, project management and championing the advancement of analytical tools, systems, and controls to enhance data management for business decision-making. She is currently the Assistant Vice President of Donor Strategy and Special Initiatives with Northeastern University where she leads core administrative functions for the Division of University Advancement that include Prospect Development, Fund Management and Donor Relations & Stewardship.

3D: "I Want To Be a Consultant When I Grow Up!" Said No One, Ever - A Panel Discussion with Consultants

We never planned to grow up to be consultants, yet here we are: arbiters of truth, able to solve problems organizations cannot solve on their own. With the current state of the nonprofit sector, more and more organizations rely on consultants to get their work done, but who are these consultants? How did they become consultants? How did their career paths lead them to becoming consultants? What's so special about being a consultant anyway? Join us to learn the secrets of consulting, from current and former consultants in Advancement Services.

Vered Siegel is a senior leader in Advancement Services and fundraising operations with over 18 years of experience. She currently serves as Senior Director at CCS Fundraising on the Systems & Change Management team. Prior to CCS, she was a Senior Consultant and Program Manager at Blackbaud, where she supported RENXT implementations and enablement for the Data Intelligence suite of products. She previously worked at Children’s Home & Aid Society of Illinois (now Brightpoint), After School Matters, and the Greater Chicago Food Depository. Vered holds a B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Illinois and an M.S. in Nonprofit Management from Spertus College, with an active CFRE certification since 2011. Her volunteer work with the aasp spans 16+ years and today she co-chairs the DEI & Ethics Committee. She published "DEI in Advancement Services: Best Practices for Today's Success" in 2024.

Dr. Becky Frantz is the Executive Director of Customer Services at UC Davis Advancement Services. In this role she oversees the Business Relationship Manager team, focused on user data and system needs, as well as the Service Desk and Training team, who supports getting users access and onboarded to the division supported systems. In addition to her other responsibilities, Becky is a campus expert in data security, risk assessment, and business continuity. Becky holds a PhD in Education and Human Resources from Colorado State University and Master's degree in Higher Education Administration from Penn State University. Becky continues to champion philanthropy operations through her service on the Association of Advancement Services board of directors. She is also trained specifically in applied statistics and was a National Data Policy Fellow sponsored by the NSF and Association for Institutional Research. Before UC Davis Becky spent time in the Development and Alumni shops at Stanford and Penn State.

Jenny Jones offers over 20 years of experience in program planning and implementation, with a knack for fostering relationships with alumni, donors, and university teams. She excels in streamlining operations, possesses comprehensive knowledge of philanthropic programs, and is skilled at building high-functioning teams. Jenny has a proven track record supporting fundraising efforts at prestigious institutions like the University of Kentucky, Duke Medicine Development and Alumni Affairs, and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her diverse portfolio includes work with a wide range of institutions and active involvement in industry conferences and boards, making her a seasoned leader in the field of institutional advancement.

Liz Murray brings a wealth of fundraising technology and operations expertise to her client projects at JCA. As a member of JCA’s Leadership team, Liz drives many of the firm’s most complex enterprise Professional Services engagements. She has worked with numerous nonprofits on system implementation, system selection, and business process improvement projects. Liz received a Master of Information from the University of Toronto in 2016, specializing in Information Systems & Design and Knowledge & Information Management, and earned her Project Management Professional (PMP) certification in 2022.

4D: Tagging Interests and Initiatives Across CRM Contexts

We created a flexible hierarchical structure to manage interests and University initiatives, and apply them to various contexts within our CRM. The current hierarchy contains 95 unique values, which we have used to tag designations, events, opportunities, interactions, emails, or constituents. From here we can target outreach to constituents' interests, identify prospects based on University or Campaign priorities, or report fundraising and engagement results based on any levels or codes in our interest hierarchy. The hierarchical structure gives us the option to "roll up" to broader categories to expand or contract inclusion into lists and reports based on individual data needs. This has turned out to be a great tool for us to better target engagement, and report activity from all over our CRM system.

Tom Scarlett has been working in advancement services for over 20 years.

Lisa Carter has been working as a Senior Business Analyst at the University of Connecticut Foundation for over 14 years. Lisa received a BS in Computer Information Systems from Bryant University and a MS in Management Information Systems from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

5D: Reshaping Fundraising Data Storage?: Changing Perspectives on Keeping Data in an Age of Breaches

It has long been a truism in CRM/fundraising data management that "we never delete anything". In fact, one of the presenters wrote a 15-page whitepaper in 2016 arguing for keeping data, despite CRM pricing schemes that charge by the record. But then the pandemic happened, along with new data privacy laws and the proliferation of data breaches and ransomware attacks targeting nonprofits and their database vendors. Sure, the fundraisers and data geeks among us might want data from 10+ years ago, but do we better serve our institutions, and our donors, by regularly purging data from our databases to limit the damage of a future breach? Or anonymizing the data? The presenters feel our field has not reached a consensus on this matter, and isn't even discussing it sufficiently. This presentation is intended as an active discussion and movement towards an industry "best practice" on the matter. Please come and share your experiences and thoughts as well.

Bill Connors, CFRE, bCRE-Pro, is an independent consultant and trainer on Raiser’s Edge. His work extends beyond the buttonology of the software, however, into the operations and fundraising contexts in which the software resides. He is the author of Fundraising with The Raiser’s Edge: A Non-Technical Guide. Until 2005, Bill was Principal Consultant for Fundraising Systems for Blackbaud, having helped found the Blackbaud consulting program in 1998. He has been providing consulting and training on Raiser’s Edge worldwide since 1995. Bill has spent his entire career in nonprofit work. He previously served as Senior Consultant for Fundraising Technology for a London fundraising consulting firm, and he worked for Junior Achievement as a director of development and for the national headquarters overseeing the roll-out of Raiser’s Edge nationwide. Bill has degrees from Yale University and Harvard Divinity School. He lives near Sacramento, CA, with his partner, and he loves sweets.

Isaac Shalev is a leading nonprofit data and strategy consultant and the founder of Sage70, a holistic, person-centric data consulting boutique. Sage70's past and current clients include the USGA, Mount Holyoke College, the Art Institute of Chicago, IEEE, and the Wilshire Boulevard Temple. Isaac lives in Cary, North Carolina with his wife, three children, and their dog. In his spare time, Isaac designs board games, and has published several games, and a book about game design.

6D: Cultivating Data Culture: Implementing Future-Proof Strategies for Lasting Impact

Is your organization struggling with manual processes to generate reports?
Are delays in delivering the analysis or information your team needs affecting your operations?
Do challenges with data quality, governance, and integration hinder your progress?
Are you missing opportunities due to a lack of real-time insights and advanced analytics capabilities?

If any of these issues resonate with you, this presentation is for you.

In today's fast-paced, data-driven world, developing a strong data culture with future-proof strategies is essential for maintaining a competitive edge and achieving your business goals. Join us to explore the critical components of an effective data strategy, including robust data governance, strategic planning, and comprehensive data management processes. Through engaging analogies and real-life examples, we will demonstrate how to transform your organization's data practices, foster a data-driven culture, and unlock the full potential of your data for lasting impact.

With over 15 years of experience in managing various aspects of operations, Reed Tyler found his passion in data, efficiency, and hospitality. He is a results-driven, seasoned leader and manager with professional roles that span multiple industries. At BWF, Reed specializes in transforming data into actionable insights. He assists clients in their ability to address complex business challenges and make data-driven decisions by utilizing platforms such as Tableau and Microsoft Power BI. He understands how philanthropy can transform lives; he is driven to further organizations’ goals to foster success. Reed loves to spend time with family (ideally outdoors) skiing and hiking. With a passion and history enveloped in music, he also enjoys composing and producing music in his spare time.