NCEA 2010

Advancement Partners will be at NCEA 2010 at booth 747

Minneapolis April 6-8 2010

Come by our booth, #747, at the NCEA conference in Minneapolis April 6-8, 2010. It would be great to meet you and hear about your institutional advancement challenges! I will be there most of the week and will be "manning the booth".

We chose "Responding to the Challenge" as our theme for 2010 because we know how important it will be to rebound from a difficult year and show real progress. To provide the funding required to fulfill the mission of Catholic schools, philanthropic support must be consistent and somewhat predictable. That means we must have a fundamentally sound and assertive annual fund, a comprehensive major gift program, meaningful, strategic special events, a planned giving program and a total commitment to development by institutional leaders.

Based on our experience working with Catholic high schools around the country this year, we have found that there is closer attention being given to the finer details of development and what is required to be successful in obtaining philanthropic support. Simple items (can be done quickly at a very reasonable price) like electronically screening the database or re-engineering the annual fund to more complex items like creating an institutional strategic plan, a comprehensive development plan and financial model are representative of some the projects we have been working on. Of course, we have spent most of our time managing and executing capital campaigns - and that landscape has changed!

If you're planning to attend this year's NCEA conference in Minneapolis, drop by our booth - #747 - and tell me how it's going for you at your school. We can continue this conversation. I'd love to meet you and hear about your efforts.