This community, led by Jen Oliver and Kim Haggart is charged with engaging UVA alumni, parents, and friends through a recurring and structured platform to:

• Create collaborations for efficient use of resources and an improved alumni experience
• Network with colleagues to harness the collective experience and intellectual resources of engagement professionals across Grounds
• Propose solutions to address community-wide challenges
• Learn from industry experts, both internal and external

Alumni relations and engagement staff across the University are encouraged to participate. Submit a ticket to the Help Desk to join.

Upcoming Meetings

TBD

Past Meetings

September 17, 2021

June 16, 2021

August 6, 2020

May 7, 2020

February 27, 2020: Alumni Engagement Score at UVA

October 22, 2019: Volunteer engagement and management at UVA

May 20, 2019: Maggie Walsh, Director of Events for the College Foundation, and Jen Boler, Director of Strategic Engagement for McIntire, shared information about their respective engagement programs.

This community, led by Allison Reed and Erin Perry, shares and discusses best practices on a wide array of annual giving topics, including direct mail, donor acknowledgment, and leadership annual giving.

Annual giving staff across the University are encouraged to participate. Submit a ticket to the Help Desk to join.

Upcoming Meetings

TBD

Past Meetings

January 23, 2023: Giving Days

• Presentation

November 10, 2021

• Access Zoom Recording
• PowerPoint Presentation
• USPS Informed Delivery - Image Requirements
• USPS Informed Delivery - Campaign Guide

May 5, 2021 

• Access Zoom Recording

February 10, 2021

• Access Zoom Recording

November 11, 2020

• Access Zoom Recording
• Presentation

August 18, 2020: Week of Planning

• Agenda Slides
• FY20 Direct Marketing Update
• How to Generate a Scanline for Direct Mail
• FY21 pan-UVA Direct Marketing Plan

May 20, 2020

Access Zoom Recording

April 17, 2020

Access Zoom Recording

This community, led by Ellie Myers, aims to increase corporate and foundation giving across Grounds by:

• Sharing best practices for soliciting and stewarding foundations and corporations
• Solving common problems
• Creating partnerships between the University Advancement Corporate and Foundation Relations team and schools and units
• Collaboration

Fundraisers and others working to solicit gifts from corporations and foundations are encouraged to participate. Contact Ellie Myers to join.

Upcoming Meetings

• TBD

Past Meetings

August 19, 2021: Day of Learning+

Is It a Gift or a Grant?

August 18, 2020: Week of Planning

• Slides
• Chat
• Additional Resources

In order to make data-driven decisions, units across Grounds rely on informative analyses communicated through innovative tools. This group, led by Joe Mathers and Sarah Sawtelle, provides a forum for analysts to dive into the nuts and bolts of the data. By sharing data practitioners’ combined knowledge, ideas and expertise, the Data Community of Practice aims to iteratively shepherd new resources into production and foster successful analysts to best serve the Advancement Community. 

Understanding that Advancement Professionals who consume data have a vested interest in new information and tools at their disposal, this group will convene special sessions to share newly incubated resources and provide training opportunities with the broader Advancement Community.

Meetings are aimed at a technical audience, and interested parties should contact Joe Mathers or Sarah Sawtelle to join or for information regarding future meetings.

Past Meetings

August 17, 2021

• Meeting Notes
• Pipeline Tracking And You slides
• Proposal Field Definitions
• Campaign Hierarchy Code Snippets

March 11, 2021

• Meeting Notes

August 25, 2020

• Meeting Notes

May 19, 2020

• Meeting Notes
• Presentation

March 31, 2020

• Meeting Notes

January 21, 2020

• Slides
• Meeting Notes
• Data Loader Overview

Other Resources

The University offers a number of on-Grounds, data-oriented workshops and events throughout the year. Most, if not all, are free and open to members of the UVA community, including those of us in Advancement. For those looking to broaden skillsets or brush up on some rusty toolsets, these are ideal ways to do so.

With the Fall semester underway, most of the organizing groups posted their fall schedules – the links to each are below.

University Library Research Services – 1-2 hour workshops with Tableau, R, Python and Excel.

Health Sciences Library – While some sessions are focused on health-related topics, 1-3 hour workshops on wrangling and analyzing data (with R and Excel) or basic statistics are more general.

Research Computing – 2-hour sessions in R and Matlab. More focused on computing at scale.

Humanities Informatics – Weekly meetings presenting new research around data ethics and application.

Scholar’s’ Lab – These sessions are more focused around GIS and makerspace (and Sewing Basics!).

The UVaR R Users Group, UVA Tableau Users Group, R-Ladies Charlottesville, PyCho,  and Charlottesville Data Science meetups hold sporadic events throughout the year as well.

The Data Science Institute hosted this year’s Datapalooza on November 1.  If you missed it, you can view the recorded live stream here.

Improving and Strengthening Community

This community, led by Cate Liverman (Director of Constituent Relations, Medical Alumni Association) and Tiffany Morris (Assistant Director of Strategic Stewardship, University Advancement), is a key animating force for implementing and evolving DEI efforts over time and in every aspect of our work

• Join this group to add your experience, voice, and action in support of our shared goals
• Meetings will include:
  • Profiles of DEI best practices at UVA
  • Historical highlights from UVA's BIPOC community
  • Opportunities to learn and share how we can all infuse our work with DEI principles

All Advancement Community members are encouraged to participate. Contact Ashley Privott to join. 

UPCOMING MEETINGS

• January 2022

PAST MEETINGS

• September 21, 2021
  • Recording Link
  • Idea Board reflecting what DEI Community of Practice members hope to learn and plan to contribute

RELATED INFORMATION

• Visit the DEI Resources page for Advancement Community DEI updates, learning resources, organizations, and to read about diverse perspectives from across Grounds.
• Request copy of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Advancement by Angelique Grant

Maximizing Future Gifts

This community, led by Heather Engel, is focused on increasing planned giving performance by helping others learn more about planned giving as it relates to prospecting, blended gift conversations, gift vehicles and assets, legal issues, tax considerations and successful current gift discussions.  In addition to leading this community of practice, the University Gift Planning team provides training and is building a resource page for the Hub. Until the resource page is available, gift planning resources and job aids can be found on this page. See the Community Learning Calendar for upcoming training opportunities. 

Fundraisers from across the University interested in learning more about planned giving are encouraged to participate.

Upcoming Meetings

TBD

Past Meetings & Resources

January 24, 2023: Gift Planning Strategies in Times of Uncertainty

• Slides

August 17, 2020: Tangible Personal Property

• Slides

• Chat

• Additional Resources

April 20, 2020: Gift Planning in 2020: What the Bear Market, CARES Act, and SECURE Act Mean for Our Donors

• The SECURE and CARES Acts: Impact in 2020 and Beyond

• Slides
• Video Recording
• CARES Act Sample Email
• CARES Act Language for Annual Giving Appeals

October 2019: Spotlight on the University of Virginia Investment Management Company (UVIMCO), the UVA Foundation (UVAF) and the Office of the Treasurer

• UVIMCO 2019 Annual Report

• Video Recording 

September 2019:  Gifts of Real Estate

• Gifts of Real Estate overview, workflow, checklist

• Video Recording

April 2019

• Changes in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) and their impact on charitable deductions

• Explaining the Adjusted Gross Income deduction limitations for contributions of cash and appreciated securities

• Recommending charitable strategies in light of the TCJA

Make the Most of Your Portfolio

Led by Rob Allen and Robin Mitchell, this group provides a welcoming intellectual environment for front-line fundraisers to discuss and share best practices for effective and efficient major gift fundraising, develop meaningful professional relationships with partners across Grounds, harness and have access to the collective intellectual capital of the front-line fundraising community at UVA, and propose solutions to community-wide challenges. This group is open to all fundraisers who carry a portfolio.

Previous Meetings

Monday, January 23, 2023 

Leti McNeil Light, Executive Director of Principal Gifts & Strategic Initiatives at UC Berkley, and Matt Hutter, Assistant VP of Development for Duke Science & Technology, brought their expertise in securing transformational support for large-scale institutional priorities, interdisciplinary research initiatives, institutes and centers to UVA. Leti and Matt focused on creating the conditions where transformational gifts can happen.

Improving the Donor Experience

This community, led by Sasha Monty and Sarah Mullen, is focused on

• Collaborating for efficient use of resources and an improved donor experience
• Networking with colleagues to harness the collective experience and intellectual resources of donor relations professionals across Grounds
• Proposing solutions to address community-wide challenges
• Learning from industry experts

Development staff across Grounds with an interest in donor relations and stewardship activities are encouraged to participate. Submit a ticket to the Help Desk to join.

Stewardship During COVID-19

In April and May of 2020, the University of Virginia reached out to peer institutions to investigate their responses to the current COVID-19 pandemic. Research was conducted via email, personal phone conversations, and Zoom meetings with stewardship colleagues to understand developing stewardship practices in response to the current pandemic. Read the report.

Upcoming Meetings 

TBD

Past Meetings

• November 9, 2022 (Access presentation and other resources)
• June 29, 2021: (Access the Recording)
• August 18, 2020: Week of Planning (Webinar Recording)
• June 11, 2020 (Access the Recording)
• February 18, 2020: Designing Individual Stewardship Plans (Access the Slide Deck)
• October 8, 2019: The group participated in a webinar on "Redesigning Recognition Experiences Donors Want" (Access the Slide Deck)
• September 10, 2019: The group participated in a webinar on "Custom Donor Engagement Plans" (Access the Recording) (Access just the Slide Deck)
• May 22, 2019: This meeting focused on a panel discussion on multiple topics including student engagement in stewardship activities, first-time donor stewardship, and acknowledgment letter systems and practices. Time was also set aside for school and unit updates as well as an update on campaign launch events.