Virtual Offering | March 5–6, 2025
Professional Fundraising for Deans and Academic Leaders empowers academic leaders to build a culture for philanthropy within their institutions. It provides interactive sessions, hands on group work, and actionable frameworks to enhance fundraising efforts. Participants will gain confidence in presenting donor opportunities and develop a clear plan to align and strengthen their institution’s philanthropic goals and academic vision.
Designed as a shared experience for both academic leaders and their development colleagues, this training demystifies the fundraising process by focusing on the essential roles that leadership plays in helping donors and potential donors make significant contributions.
Why Philanthropy Matters in Academia
Innovation
Philanthropy fuels innovative projects and initiatives that push the boundaries of academic research and education.
Program Enhancement
Donations help enhance existing academic programs, providing resources for cutting-edge equipment and materials.
Research Support
Philanthropic contributions support groundbreaking research that can lead to significant advancements in various fields.
Student Success
Funds from donors can directly impact student success through scholarships, improved facilities, and enhanced learning opportunities.
Why Attend This Workshop?
You will walk away with:
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A clear, actionable plan to propel your institution’s fundraising efforts forwards
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Deeper alignment between academic and development leaders
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Confidence in creating and communicating compelling donor opportunities
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Enhanced leadership skills to help guide your institution’s philanthropic vision
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Practical help to get to the heart of how to balance academic vision with philanthropic and institutional priorities
What You Will Get
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What Our Attendees Say 
In over 1000 evaluations since 2020, here are the top 5 things that our attendees say are the most valuable aspects of this workshop:
Collaborative Environment
Sharing insights and fostering deeper relationships—dedicated time to hear best practice fundraising concepts and then immediately work through what that can mean together with your partners in the room with you.
“Devoted time with my Dean to talk about fundraising and being able to meet peers from other units.”
—Advancement Leader
“I think the most valuable portion was the feedback we all got from each other, as we were putting our plans into action.”
—Director of Development
Actionable Frameworks and Tools
Gain practical tools and structured frameworks that you can immediately implement to enhance your fundraising strategies.
“Hearing not only strategies but also being given direct tools to implement them. Hearing the strategies of other Dean’s and Advancement Teams. Bonding more with my Advancement Director.”
—Interim Dean of Human Environmental Sciences
“The workshop provided a framework I will use to organize my approach to development. It helped me coalesce my unconnected thoughts into a coherent plan.”
—Curator
Engaging Breakout Sessions
Participate in interactive breakout sessions designed to help you apply key concepts to your institution’s unique challenges.
“The breakout sessions were extremely useful in figuring out how to apply the methods to my own department and institution. This workshop really helped me focus on my fundraising priorities.”
—Archivist
“The breakout sessions and testimonials were incredibly helpful to me.”
—Dean, College of Fine Arts
Guided Critical Conversations
A key part of the workshop is to work through a guided conversation, that has been structured in such a way to get to the heart of your most pressing issues and truly helps you to align fundraising goals between academic vision and institutional priorities, often leading to new strategies for success.
“The facilitation of critical conversations with our academic leaders, which have ignited a new fire for this work.”
—Sr. Director of Advancement
“Having strategic conversations with both the academic and development leaders helped us build alignment and a clearer path forward.”
—Senior University Administrator
“Critical conversations with leadership were extremely valuable in solidifying our strategy.”
—Director of Development
Practical Application and Role-Playing
Bringing it all together, the workshop gives you time to test and refine your approach with role-playing exercises and actionable plans that you can take back to your team.
“Role-playing and drafting content with my leadership team provided us with concrete deliverables we could take back and implement.”
—Senior Advancement Officer
“Having an opportunity story that we worked on throughout gave us a great way to test out and refine our ideas.”
—Dean, College of Fine Arts
“The time spent role-playing with the group made the concepts stick and prepared me to apply them in real situations.”
—Director of Advancement
Ready to Transform Your Fundraising?
Can’t make it to this training? Check out our other dates or let us know and we will keep you updated as we add new workshops.
We run workshops in major airport cities around the USA several times a year. These workshops are open to all, and we recommend attending with at least one team member to get the most out of the experience. You’ll have the chance to meet and learn from others across North America, the UK, and Australia.
We also run workshops internally at larger institutions that can benefit from their entire advancement team gaining shared language and approach to donor-centric fundraising. This also has the benefit of customization as our instructional design team can reflect your institution’s preferred terms and select the most relevant video examples and anecdotes to share.
Fill out the form below to talk to a training advisor to find out more!
Contact Us!