ALADN 2024
Transforming Tales into Treasure

Welcome and Check-In

Opening Remarks

Crafting Multi-Year Fundraising Strategies to Enhance Donor Engagement and Increase Gifts
Erik Mitchell, PhD & Jennifer Brown

Follow one donor's journey through our pipeline in an engaging discussion led by University Librarian Erik Mitchell and Director of Development Jennifer Brown. Learn how strategic collaboration within the UC San Diego library nurtured a long-term partnership, leading to sustained support from top donors. Explore personalized multi-year strategies, culminating in a success story where a donor generously contributed gifts from $10,000 to $10 million over five years. Uncover communication strategies and engagement opportunities that kept the donor involved, transforming them into an advocate who amplifies our impact and inspires others to join our cause.

Tid Bits of Tech Library
Chelsea Knott

Discover how the "Tid Bits of Tech Library" podcast series revolutionizes fundraising at Georgia Tech Library. As the inaugural development director, I share insights on collaborating with regional and international development officers for fundraising success. Learn how narrative-based approaches and innovative mediums like podcasts empower colleagues to advocate effectively for library initiatives beyond traditional methods.

Break

Transforming Lives into Legacy: Sharing the Stories of Underrepresented Community Members to Improve Awareness and Spark Donor Engagement
Ashley Todd-Diaz & Suzanna Yaukey

Presenters will highlight a cross-departmental oral history program that brings the underrepresented voices of our community to light and details how this program has increased donor engagement with the library and the campus. Through this project, we’ve attempted to build or re-build a sense of belonging on our campus and value lived experience as expertise, while engaging current and potential donors on a personal level. We will share our challenges and successes, including the telling of previously suppressed stories alongside the seeding of much larger advancement campaigns and the renewed connection to many of our alumni and retired faculty.

Uniting for Impact: A Journey of Partnerships - Chapman University Case Study
Essraa Nawar & Taylor J. Greene

This presentation highlights a decade-long collaboration between the Assistant Dean for Development and the Performing Arts Librarian at Chapman University's Leatherby Libraries, resulting in over $3 million in transformative contributions. Central to their success is the acquisition of the Henri Temianka Archives, a treasure trove of 20th-century classical music history. Through strategic stewardship, they secured this significant gift, enhancing research and cultural exchange. Additional achievements include the Ronald B. Broadwell Antique Musical Instruments collection, a Legacy gift, and an Endowed Fund for Music Collections. This partnership exemplifies the strategic impact of librarian-fundraiser collaborations, bridging divides and yielding enduring benefits for libraries.

Uniting for Impact: A Journey of Partnerships - San Jose State University Case Study
Virginia Wright & Michael Meth

San José State University's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library is a testament to the transformative power of collaboration, given its genesis in a partnership between the University and the City of San José. The Library has seen strong growth in donor engagement and financial support in recent years. Successes include partnerships with community-based organizations, College of Humanities and the Arts, University Advancement, and offices of the President and Mayor. We find that donors are inspired by people - inside and outside the university - working together for the common good. This talk explores how partnerships have been integral to our success.

Lunch

Turning Complaints into Possibilities: How to Turn your Biggest Critics into your Library’s Largest Supporters
Justine Zahara

Sometimes our largest potential donors are hiding in plain sight disguised as our biggest critics. Justine will explore this concept and present a case study on how listening to a donor’s passionate critique became the key to converting a critic into an enthusiastic supporter thereby unlocking a transformational gift that would become the largest in the University of Alberta Library’s history. This transformational gift led to the recent opening of a cutting edge health sciences library at the University of Alberta. Following the presentation we will have time for a Q & A session with the audience.

Strengthening Support through Storytelling – Recruiting Staff, Students, Alumni, and Faculty as Fundraisers
Michal Biletzki & Tami Back & Lisa Nickel

The academic library is traditionally the hub and heart of any campus and as such, its story is relevant and meaningful to all. Advancement and library staff at William & Mary and Northeastern University have found that by sharing the library’s story with different groups, they were able to leverage their existing communities to create a culture of philanthropy and an atmosphere in which others became allies of and advocates for the library. By telling the library’s story to students, alumni, Advancement staff, and library staff, Michal, Tami, and Lisa were able to create an “army” of fundraisers for their respective libraries.

Break

The Mission is the Message: Using Distinctive Collections and Services to Build Collaboration Supporting Library Advancement
Scott Walter

This presentation will focus on strategies that may be employed, especially within libraries with smaller advancement operations, to focus on distinctive elements of institutional mission, academic programs, or local communities to build collaboration with college or central advancement offices to extend the reach of the message around value of giving to the library. The focus for this presentation will be on recent developments in library advancement at San Diego State University, including calls to promote support for student success, enhance the range and impact of international initiatives, and support distinctive academic programs such as the Center for Comics Studies.

Closing Remarks