Hello, everyone, and welcome to the 2023 CASE All district Conference. I'm Rob Henry, vice president for people, culture and Talent at CASE. This year, we're welcoming over 4000 people from around the world and highlighting some of our highest rated sessions from our district conferences. Over the next two days, we will feature 50 speakers representing over 30 30 education sessions covering a wide range of topics in educational advancement. We have an amazing exhibit hall where you will find our wonderful sponsors who make this event possible. And you can also attend the CASE booth where you will connect with some of our CASE experts from CASE Insights, the CASE Library, the Opportunity and Inclusion Center, and our membership team. Again, thank you all for being part of this event. And with that, we will kick off our opening keynote session. We know we have 45 minutes, so we really want to jump into this topic “Recovering after the Great Resignation” over the last few years. Advancement has witnessed the greatest turnover in our profession's history. Is the resignation over? What's the fallout? What's the byproduct of this? And here to answer those questions are our top executive search leaders, Sonja Dunphy, who's the managing director of Richmond Associates. Ron Schiller, the founding partner and senior consultant for Aspen Leadership Group. Deb Taft, chief executive officer of Lindauer. And Wendy Wilsker, managing partner of Boyden. So let's get into the questions. And Ron, I'm going to actually ask this first one to you. You know, what lessons can we learn? And I'm going to say what lessons can employers learn from the great resignation to retain their employees? And it might be helpful, if you don't mind, to define the term talent architecture for us as well. And then we'll turn it over to the panelists. So first of all, thank you, Rob, for inviting me and my colleagues here to participate in this important discussion. It's great to be with all of you. And great to be with all of our attendees. So my colleagues and I have talked a lot about this concept of great, great resignation that we have been talking about, not just across the advancement profession, but across all, all professions over the last few years. And starting about a year and a half ago, we developed a series called The Great Rethink, because while we were seeing the resignation and while there has been, as you pointed out, unprecedented turnover, we also we're hearing from both employers and employees that they were rethinking a lot, very, very deeply. And so we put forward 21 articles now, which I won't go into in any specifics. They can be found on our site at Aspen Leadership Trip.com. But from the perspectives of search professionals as well as employers in the advancement profession, as well as candidates that we were working with, all contributed to this series. And what we heard from them is that there were really three big categories of things, among others, I'm sure, but three big categories of things that they were rethinking and that needed to be rethought. One of those was the workplace. What does that mean? Employer was certainly had to rethink that and are continuing to rethink that. But employees also have had a chance to rethink that, reconsider what they mean by workplace and what they want in workplace. Inclusion was the second area. We've been talking a lot about diversity, equity and inclusion, but I think there were some very specific things around what what employers needed to do to include employees to be able to retain them given the changed circumstances. And the same thing, employees are looking to be included maybe in different ways. And they talked about that in this article. And then the third category was value. How do employers place value on their employees and what do employees expect to be valued in their contribution? A lot has changed around us. And so again, I won't go into the specific findings, but I can sum it up by saying that in hiring and retention, the world has changed. It's not going back and no one expects that you, as an employer and or an employee or a candidate have figured it all out. No one expects that. But they do expect the acknowledgment that things have changed and they do expect the conversation. I think that's another key thing. That theme that comes through in these articles is that there's much more of a sense of partnership. I mean, that really is true inclusion, right? Where we're talking together, What are my goals as an employee? What are your goals and needs as an organization? How can we come together to do something together that we couldn't do without each other? How do we partner to make that happen rather than what is this job that I apply for? Right. And hope that I might be able to get that job. Now, that leads me into your request to define talent architecture. Something that Angela Grant and I emphasized in our casebook that we that we did with you rob us the strengthening diversity, equity, equity and inclusion and advancement, something we really as a profession needed to be doing all along, which is to emphasize to put the priority on skills and abilities rather than on where someone has worked, where someone went to school, what title they've held. What we're really needing is skills and abilities and what talent architecture. And I'm glad we're talking so much more about talent architecture now. What talent architecture says is that an organization does best. To examine on a regular basis what work needs to be done. What do we need to accomplish now, this year, in the next several years, and then look at the skills and abilities of its existing workforce and identify the skills and abilities that are missing. This is a very different approach than just having boxes on a on a static org chart. And a static org chart was always, in my opinion, mind numbing. Right? But with the great resignation, the great rethink, Sonia is going to have another framing of that to share with us. But with this new world that we're in, an org chart that is static is is not going to succeed for anybody. It's rather looking together for what are the skills and abilities we need, What are the skills and abilities we have? What are the skills and abilities that we can find and where are we going to find them? And finally, to recognize that the skills and abilities you need as an organization are going to change. They don't stay the same year after year, and the skills and abilities of your workforce are going to evolve. They're not going to be exactly the same person that they were six months or a year ago. So this is why talent architecture, why this kind of approach, why this partnership, why this conversation is so essential? And one of the ideas that Angelique put forward in the book was stay conversations. It's an it's an example of a tactic. But I think also we need to separate out. I hope we do a little bit in today's conversation and then in ongoing conversation tactics from strategy, from culture. As Peter Drucker said, culture eats strategy for breakfast, but tactics also don't really have impact unless they're part of a larger strategy. So we need to be thinking about stay conversation, for example, is a wonderful tactic, but not if it's not, not if it's if it's absent from a strategy that says, what is our overall conversation about the skills and abilities we need and how those are evolving and what career paths people want to plan within a culture that says that's what we do. That's how we talk with each other. We don't just do that once a year at annual review time, we have an ongoing conversation. So a larger culture that supports that kind of inclusive, collaborative conversation in partnership with a strategy, then that leads you to tactics like stay conversations, like many other things that could be done. I'm going to stop there because the interesting I'm going to turn it over to my colleagues. Turned over to Dan Bacon. Yeah. So I'll just I want to affirm, obviously, what Ron said. CNN declared the great resignation over last week, but the lasting impacts are there. Great resignation, work, recalibration, pandemic, racial recognition at racial reckonings on several continents. And it's important to have that global perspective as well. So a lot of news stories about layoffs that have made people think that there's no issue and it's going to be easy to keep and find talent. Not true. In fact, confusion of what about what it means for this resignation to be over. Still not enough talent and still a candidates market. The talent gap for advancement doubled in the ten years before the pandemic, so it's only been exacerbated. And for our case, member institutions are moving into campaigns. We're also seeing it some some really significant hiring. But employee engagement is number one. So to address a lot of the things that Ron's talking about and that showed up, burnout, mental health, general job satisfaction and child and elder care, unrealized promises of equity and inclusion and pay dynamics. It's really about communication and employee engagement. I know we're going to talk more about that in a few minutes. Thank you. Great. I'll just add a few things. And again, honoring and in total agreement with Ron and Deb, a couple of things that we're seeing, you know, that does speak to culture and inclusion. We are finding that candidates are asking questions sooner about culture roles and responsibilities they can read about, but they want to understand what is the culture of the organization. Where is an organization in their DNI journey? How will they be seen and honored and acknowledged? So we in turn, are asking our clients those questions upfront. We're asking them those hard questions so that we can be that ambassador for our clients to our candidates. The other thing that I'll say and this is a little bit on what Ron was was talking about, is that we're also encouraging our candidates to more fully share their lived experiences. Oftentimes, people give a lot of detail about their professional work and then maybe just a word or two about their volunteer experiences. If you're serving on a board of an organization, maybe you're also on the nominating and governance committee, maybe you're a campaign chair, maybe you're reunion chair. So how are we really bringing about lived experiences? We could probably have a whole conversation, and I don't want to open a can of worms, but educational requirements are a very important topic that we are exploring as well as we are looking at how to advance and inclusive and diverse workforce. We are challenging our clients when we're talking about what are those? What are those educational requirements? So I think lots of things, as Ron was talking about, what was static. I think everything is dynamic now and I think we have to be really looking at having those conversations and asking those questions and really kind of getting all pieces of the hiring process out of these very stagnant boxes. Thanks. We. The only thing I would add to what my colleagues here reported covered because it was very comprehensive, is just echoing Deb's point about this being a candidates market. It is very much a strong candidates market again. But the other thing that employers might need to remember is it's a global candidates market. There are many career opportunities all around the world, very different experiences that people might be able to develop and benefit from. So just something for employers to remember. Great. Thank you. Tanya Disengage group. This is a learning company surveyed 1200 individuals that had made the transition during the great resignation, their one year out in their transition. And they found that 30% of these individuals said that their current employer is offering a career path to growth and development. I want to give kudos to my colleague, Emily DeLong, who's a vice president of education, and she has created for Case the case learning Journey that really helps individuals move from that emerging level in terms of their development to becoming a senior or transitional leader in time. So so how I want just to ask this group, how do we create career paths and opportunities for advancement professionals today? And why don't we start with you on this one? Yeah, I say enormously important topic, and I think for everyone today who's here with us, I think Wendy is going to talk a little bit about the people first strategy later. So opposed to questions for the other 70%. Rob talked about the 30%, but the other 70% here or if you believe you're in one side or the other, who might not believe that they have a represented in the positive responses, do you have a path to growth and development in your organization? And are you communicating all that you do and offer? So I am hearing frustration from advancement leaders about staff members wanting career advancement too much, much too fast. If we're hearing it, your team members are feeling it. So first of all, try to manage that for the managers on the phone. Try to manage that outside your workplace sometimes about some of your emotions around that. But the real point I want to make is that most of you have lots of opportunities and support for your team members, but I cannot stress enough the need to communicate it. So here's an example. We hear employee share share stories that they're leaving because a competitor is offering me $5,000 or 20 $500 in professional development funds. A year later, they circle back to, say, the grass wasn't greener over there. In retrospect, their prior employer had more than five K in value on professional development, but the employee couldn't see it or feel it. So for hiring managers and leaders, share your competency model. If you don't have a competency model, then we spent years developing the case Competency model. So adapt it for your organization. It's a phenomenal tool. Use case resources this career journey. Share growth paths and discuss those with on timing with your employees. So found we I found that time team members are very willing to engage over a longer timeframe than you suspect if they feel that they're growing and then enumerate and repeat full time professional development opportunities, small group assignments or teams that give them work experience one on one mentoring time with a manager. This is in many ways management 1 to 1, and for staff and team members today, take an inventory across a year of the kind of professional development you're getting. Ask your manager for clarity, clarity and for where the other opportunities are. Yeah. I'll just add on that. And you know, it's June 20th, so if you haven't already written your plan for your next fiscal year, you're probably in the midst of writing it. And you know, every organization we know has is, is at some phase of their strategic plan. A couple of years ago, a good friend and colleague of mine, Elizabeth Abel, who's a senior vice president at CST fundraising, wrote a really important article that we're going to put in the chart. It is called What's Your People Strategic Plan Why Nonprofit Leaders Should Invest in Talent and Culture. And, you know, she she posits something that's so basic that it got me thinking like, why didn't I do that when I was writing my plan? But it talks about nonprofit leaders needing to have a people strategic plan, a clear and consistent framework, and set of measurable actions to invest in their people and culture. I think that we're so focused on our allies, right? How are we retaining donors? How are we bringing in new donors? How are we stewarding our current donors? We can be applying all of those tactics to our talent. So I am going to encourage everyone, please read the article and think about how you can be implementing a strategy. We're also seeing and many of you, you know, online might be part of a growing talent management team within your own institution, which is so important and significant. So hiring managers, if you have those colleagues and talent management work together to create these strategic plans, but don't forget about your people as you're working on your plans for your next fiscal year and beyond. Thanks. And I would just add, as a VP for development, I was known for constantly saying ask the donor when people were fighting about how much to ask, when to ask what to ask for, etc. I would always be the one saying, Did you talk to the donor? Do you know? Did we ask the donor donors often have you know better ideas than we do as staff members? Let's at least have that conversation and I would say apply the same thing here. We do it all the time as advancement professionals. We talk with our donors. We try to build strong partnerships. We try to help them realize their dreams. But why don't we do the same thing with our employees, right? Ask the employee. And Deb has pointed out that sometimes employees are looking for too much, too fast, but I think they often are doing so in a context of not really knowing when they should ask, what they should ask for, etc.. So to have that conversation about here's where we're going as a company, here are the kinds of things that might be possible for you. But what are you looking for? What? How are you looking to grow? How could I help you? And to work from that place, especially with your best performers, they may wind up asking for something completely, completely different than what you were expecting. Why do we sit in a room and try to figure it out for them rather than starting with asking them and asking them regularly, not just once a year. Thanks. One. I agree with that great time, Rob. I'd completely agree with that. It's a conversation these people in your staff are people. So are you. And you're not going to know if you're sitting in a room all by yourself trying to figure it all out and map out everybody's careers. Maybe that's not the way they want to go. So as you say, you spend so much time developing really wonderful cases for support for your institutions. It's sort of flipping it around to say, well, why should somebody spend the majority of their waking hours working with me, working with us, contributing to this institution? Some tactical areas, I think that might be valuable, especially perhaps for those who are either early in their careers or stepping into roles with increased responsibilities around leadership and management, for example, and where we've seen things work quite well, both from a retention perspective, but also helping employees feel really deeply engaged and wanting to essentially give back to their employers is coaching. So whether that is, you know, somebody who's early on in their career and, you know, could do with a little bit of career coaching. On what kind of experiences might you need to consolidate before you take that next step or maybe more post to executive coaching where that person might be stepping into their first leadership role and they need to know how to manage up sideways, diagonally or all across the sphere. So there's a coaching does seem to be quite popular, particularly over here in the UK. The other thing that we've heard quite has worked quite well with some institutions is secondments and exposure to other parts of your institution because it reminds you why you do what you do. And in fact, I've heard a couple of university clients tell me that they actually get approached by staff of other departments of the university. So sometimes it does mean some other departments might be cross with you, but people see just how much fun advancement looks. Not just, you know, the glitzy parties and the opportunities to celebrate the gifts, etc., but the work culture of the team. It looks attractive and people want to know more and they want to understand, well, what do you do in advancement? What do you do in development alumni relations? And they want to be part of that. So actually giving people within your team exposure the other way could work quite well as well. Right. So some things that I heard in this conversation, I just want to highlight some of these. One, it's important that you understand and share your core competency model. Again, Case has a great example of that. Also understanding the people strategic plan. Have you created that within your organization? Are you thinking about and this is for managers and I think it's for individuals as well, What is your career plan? And in some cases you might need some coaching. And I think one of the things you said, Ryan, was we need to ask and then we also need to listen. So again, it's just some great pointers as we go into this next question. When you and I were having lunch a few months ago after the Strategic Talent Management Conference and talking about diversity and diversity, equity, inclusion and focus, you know, we believe in belonging and often when we think about age. Age is part of debate, but we have a tendency to think about age of those who are, I'm to say, my age, right. Those who are are 60 and over or I'm not 60, but 55 and over. But we really need to spend a little more time really thinking about our Gen Z, about our younger or our emerging professionals. And it's interesting, Gallup did a study called The Workplace has gotten worse for younger employees, and they're finding that there is a decline in engagement and employee satisfaction amongst Gen Z and our emerging professionals. So my question for you is how do we engage our emerging professionals in the life of our organizations? And how do we hear them and truly value their thoughts and opinions? It's such a good question, Rob. And, you know, I think back a little bit and it was, you know, 30 years ago when I was starting in my career, we were all in-person. We were all on site. You know, as a young development professional, I had the opportunity to learn by osmosis, to be observing people. I think in in a remote and hybrid workforce that becomes a little bit more challenging and I think takes a bit more of intentionality. So I think that managers need to think about how and what they are doing when their workforce is on site. What are those opportunities to engage older and younger professionals? I've been learning a bit about reverse mentoring and it's really fascinating to me because I think that everyone can be teaching people things, right? And so I would encourage organizations to think about mentorship, not just from the top down, but to really think where are those areas that younger professionals can also be adding some meaningful value to the organization work? Where are their voices making a difference? I don't know any nonprofit that isn't struggling today with this puzzle of engaging younger alumni, younger donors, younger board members. So as Ron said, let's talk, let's ask the questions and let's ensure that our younger colleagues do feel that value. I think also picking up on something that Deb said is professional opportunities. They come at a cost and they're also invaluable not only for retention but for creating a community. And, you know, every case conference that I go to, it's like a reunion. And you see people who have grown up together. And I think we have to ensure that younger professionals are finding their people and have their people that they will be growing up with in this field. So I think I think at the heart of it is a lot of intentionality. Yeah. I mean, there's so much to say here. I just think that we all need to remember that I currently a lot of younger workers are not buying the workplace that we're selling. So there's real data on the loyalty dynamics. No longer can there be an expectation that that our workers will be loyal to the workplace. It's super clear we didn't have loyalty to them or necessarily to their parents. They don't have it to us. But it doesn't mean they're not willing to work hard. I hear people all the time say that younger people are not willing to work hard. Not true. They actually are incredibly hard workers willing to work, but they want a 24 seven. They live 24 seven. They want the flexibility to work around that. So think through that as you're as you're engaging your employees. I agree with those points. And I think another area that might be an area to consider as you're thinking about how to engage your workforce and we talked about the EIB and also thinking about the ESG is, you know, your environmental, social and governance initiatives as an institution. How does your institution stand up for the world and how do your workforce contribute to that? So they may feel on a day to day basis, they're sat at a desk, they are working with a portfolio of people they need to get to know in some form or other at their gift officers. But what does that really mean? What's the wider impact of that? And I think that then builds that trust and also helps you come across more authentic, I would think, as an employer. And I just add that I don't think we've yet seen the impact of having been so virtual for so long, and particularly for those who came into the workforce at a time when it was mostly virtual or entirely virtual. How that is going to play out, as Wendy was talking about, you know, what are the ways that we're going to connect with each other? I think we're all seeing that. I'll just use our team as an example. Aspen Leadership Group just got together in person for the first time in four years. All the whole team together, the whole team together from all across the country and all we really needed to do, needed to do is eat together and walk together and talk together and enjoy each other's company and learn from each other. And what I observed, I think, was especially across the generations, some something about that didn't convey in Zoom in the way that it did in person and sharing life stories from different stages in life was I heard from older team members and younger team members, so much fun for them. So the question I throw out there is how are we going to recreate that? I think a lot of asking, not assuming that it's going to go back to the way it was and we're going to, you know, replace that with just an event or a lunch or whatever it might be. There may be entirely new ways to do it, but there's something about that in-person connecting, mentoring, etc. that still is really important to our profession. And we're going to have to figure out how to rethink it. There's a good word how to rethink going forward. We can't just we can't just let that go by the unrecognized, a whole a whole generation is coming into this workforce in a very new way. Right. A couple of points I heard here is let's let's not make the assumption that they're not working hard. They're just working differently, understanding that their expectations are different. And we still need to spend time on connection, on connecting our colleagues and our staff members. One of the things I struggle with, and I'm guilty of this sometimes as well, is language. I think the term younger employees is also a challenge. I think when we label someone as a younger employee, that means that they don't have the same experience, that we don't have to listen to their thoughts. You know, there is a there's a value that we take from them because we believe we've been in this position for 30 years. Therefore, we know more. And again, I think we need to change not only our language, but the way we're thinking about our emerging, emerging professionals. Again, we want to be sensitive to time, but we're hoping to we want to leave about 10 minutes for questions. So, again, if you have any questions for the panel, please enter those. A real quick question I just want to touch on with Sonia and with Deb. As we know, the term the great resignation actually generated from the UK. I'm just curious if for Sonia and Deb, are you seeing the same trends in the UK and Asia-Pacific? I know you have some some thoughts on that as well as Sonia. So why don't we start with you? Thank you. It's an interesting point because I suppose after the phrase was coined and when people were looking back at the data, they realized actually it just seemed like there was an even bigger wave of resignations because there was a pause in between when actually this is a long term thing that's been underway for a while. I think there was a Harvard Business Review article published some point last year about this. You know, this is actually part of a longer term issue. But the point I did want to share and this is a reflection from my colleagues in Australia, they didn't actually see something like a great resignation. What they saw, although they're now talking about a late resignation. And so maybe they're seeing sort of the end of the infighting now. But what they did see was the great burnout. And I think that's a really interesting piece to put out there because we've been talking about strategies of how to retain people, but these are real people. And there was an interesting report that I read through that was published in March this year by a research and interdisciplinary research group at the University of Melbourne in Australia, and they worked with a market research and data analytics firm and they ran a survey. They took a nationally representative sample of about 1400 Australians. The majority were in employment and majority also educated to tertiary level. And one of the key findings that came out of that was about half of the respondents reported feeling exhausted and in a poorer physical and mental health since the pandemic. And I think that is something that is going to continue to grow and it's something that as managers, as employers, as employees, we need to keep an eye on. It also, unfortunately, further widened the gap. It increased discrimination in the workplace, it increased disadvantage for people in the workplace. So these are very big issues that are just getting worse and worse. And it's not just restricted to Australia. This is going to be a global impact. There's just something for us all to be thinking about and doing something about. Yeah, I would just add Sonia and I have the joy to be a case clerk at the Case Europe Conference last fall and be back there again late August, September this year. And it is really true there was a sense in the in the pandemic that the world shut down and the borders shut down. And the truth is that candidates want to pursue roles across continents. Overwhelming response for our global searches. I know we both see that searches and searches for which placements can live anywhere in the world. West Coast Americans especially love going to Australia because of the time zone difference and the actually the policies of of Australia around workplace maternity leave for a year and people who are willing to do interim maternity gigs, things like that. Visa dynamics has to pay attention to that. That is shifting all the time. It's better between the British Commonwealth countries, surprisingly good for Australians who want to come to the US, but not vice versa. Difficult. Our our client, Australian National University also I think Sonia's that we've had to work with them to, to they used basically all of their visas they could have used for faculty or professors on advancement staff. So that's the kind of investment institutions are making. Hiring differences. So for the for the listeners on the phone who are thinking about a move, an ability to adjust to another culture, critically important, when people were failing, it was about that cultural adjustment. And unfortunately and I'm sorry to say it, but still that Americans, we bring a desired fundraising set of fundraising skills and expertise. But unfortunately, we're still perceived to also be obnoxious and challenging as U.S. employees. I don't mean that all the way across, but we do need to sometimes see American behaviors and how they land compensation less so. Some really innovative pay dynamics happening pays off and tailored to where you reside or paid through a501c3 at least some portion in the US that fills a gap and incentives are not common. So lots more there. I would only I would also say Sonia would not do this. Public transportation transportation in the USA, in the in the UK and in Europe becomes a massive issue as strikes disrupt transportation. So we hear about it in the US. I think it is severe across the European continent. We have more questions, but again, we want to get your voice in here as well. Christiane, any questions you would like to share with the panel? Yeah, we have a lot of questions coming in, so I will go ahead and ask the one right now that has the most upvotes a lot of people are looking to know, Do you have any advice for employees for how employees can take up these conversations with their employers? Who would like to kick us off? I mean, I'll I'll say because I've had this conversation with some folks, I call it courageous conversations. But the biggest piece of courage is to say to your boss, I'd like to have a state conversation. You know, I would like to talk about my goals I'd like to talk about my career and putting it in a way that is not threatening to leave or a recruiter has called, but really talking about what their goals are and seeing their boss as as a partner to them. But I think sometimes you know that that first I want to have the conversation is the hardest piece of it and hopefully there is a space that you can have that. And I also say to employers, please create that safe space for your employees to engage in a conversation like that so that it doesn't feel so scary. And the only thing I would add is for the manager, and I think you're spot on in terms of making space with this during your evaluation time. This should just be standard, right, to talk through what is it your need? What what are you looking at for in terms of your own professional development and really making it part of the system of the organization. And I would say four times a year at it added in. So not even just at the annual or the semiannual, but just build it into an agenda, a quarterly minimum for times. And don't assume that you are I mean, you know, sadly, some hiring managers or some managers are not open to these conversations. But don't assume that they're not. And also especially don't assume that they won't be open to what seems to you perhaps a crazy idea or an outside of that box on the organization chart idea. If they know that that's something you're interested in, they may well be able to help you get there. But if you don't tell them, they won't know that that's you want to do. A quick point to add to that on the courageous conversation side on the managers and I think also being ready for actually we may not be able to meet what you really want to achieve here and being open and having those conversations, helping that individual find their feet wherever may be and make sure that they live well and have a good experience because they may come back. There are boomerang employees. Right. Thank you. So a lot of people are asking also, how do we convey the value of candidates with strong potential and or transferable skills, with university stakeholders to broaden our pool and move away from hiring for pedigree? A great question. Well, this this goes back to that skills and abilities. I think the door is wider open than it has been my whole career to explaining why we need to focus on skills and abilities. First of all, our our nationwide global conversation around diversity, equity and inclusion that was and belonging that was that was bolstered by some, you know, very unfortunate events, but but at least got people talking more about inclusion that helped the pandemic. Also, as terrible as it was, helped push along these conversations and I think pushed those doors open to those conversations. So it's, you know, take advantage of this moment, I think, to to to to push those conversations further. I think we're also all doing a lot of work with managers and leaders to understand the systemic dynamics underneath it. Right. I as a white advancement leader, was given a very different portfolio over the years. So I you know, the data on my resume may look different in terms of the number of six or seven or eight figure gifts closed. And yet many extraordinary I've met them through case programs and Minority Advancement Institute and so many graduate trainees and fellows programs. The talent is extraordinary, but you have to look at the transferable skills and understand the skills are there. We need to pull it forward and we haven't done a great job of that in higher education or across the advancement industry. Frankly. I mean, I think it's probably five open jobs for every qualified major gift officer out there. So if you want to fill your team, you have to start paying attention. What are those skills and abilities and frankly, also mission alignment, you know, paying much more attention where those people who attended your your university or your independence school or, you know, whatever institution who has a reason to care about you. And then I think that, you know, mission alignment is one of the hardest things to teach. And passion for the mission and so on. Some of these skills and abilities, I mean, yes, I'm pleased to be part of a wonderful profession, but honestly, some of these skills and abilities are not that hard to teach. So we can take people with all of the other stuff that's harder to teach and give them these these extra skills. If we just think a little bit more creatively. And as I was saying, we have no choice really. Right? And I would just say that I think also that dollars are one metrics, but the how the engagement, you know, I've always said, you know, it's just as hard to raise $1,000 in some institutions as it is a million. What the story how did someone turn the dial? What was the dial that needed to be turned? What were the activities that led to the results? Because then that could be the equalizer. The activities are the activities, right? How did you identify and cultivate and steward so it doesn't become was someone's largest gift, 50 million or, you know, 500,000 or even 50,000. Right. So I think it's really centering on that. But I think a lot of that work are also internal conversations and understanding where are you, where do you need to go? And also really understanding where your growth opportunities are if it's with different constituencies or different stakeholders, as Ron was saying before, really understanding right? What are the skills? Who are the types of people that you need to advance your organization. And on your resume? Don't make the assumption that the the hiring manager is going to understand what a large gift is in your institution. So don't just say I was responsible for raising $10,000 gifts if those are the largest gifts your institution raised that year, say I was responsible for raising the largest gifts that my institution raised because they can translate that into, okay, you've got how to write to put all the pieces together to raise this organization's largest gifts, even though they might be much larger in actual dollar size. All right. We are almost out of time. So I think we just have time for one more question. And so I will give you this one that got a lot of upvotes in the Q&A box. I thank you for mentioning it or generational mentoring. Please speak to career paths or opportunities for mid-level managers and older professionals. Much conversation focuses on the younger professional, but ageism exists, and older workers are often left out of the diversity consideration. Absolutely agreed. And you know, we're seeing it. We were very proud in our own company to have a number of people who have retired from the profession who are working with us. I think we as a profession need to create more career paths, recognize that, yes, some of these individuals now, my friends who've been in the profession for 30 or 40 years, are at the top of their abilities and skills, and yet if they retire, they just sort of fall off the radar screen altogether. So how do we bring those individuals, including retired people, from professions who might want to volunteer for our organizations? How do we give them meaningful work to do to to optimize, to maximize the the the impact that they can have given that they're at the height of their their skills and abilities? Does anyone else want to jump in there? I just think this is a this is an amazing time. There are many, many in this talent lack of talent moment. I think there are a lot of amazing older professionals. And again, it's complicated. We are doing a bad job of labeling and shouldn't be labeling, but the way that the question was asked, I want to address it because there are extraordinary opportunities and individuals, older individuals being hired because you have an experience, people need right now. But I think it goes back to what Wendy was talking about, about that cross mentoring and understanding. I'm seeing some older professionals who also haven't done the work they needed to do on design language, on equity and inclusion language, and don't interview well in that, and also laughingly say I'm not as strong as technology. That's not true. Technology users at all ages very, very strong. So think about how you're managing your messages on that because you don't need to. There's so much opportunity for you. Yeah, well, I know we're at the end of our time. I'm looking at Christiana. You have some announcements that you need to make, but again, I just want to give a big thanks to Sonja, to Ron, to Wendy, and to Deb for doing this this afternoon. And I think this has been a healthy conversation. And part of what the four of us, five of us have talked about is we want to continue this conversation and other forms. It's really hard to do this 45 minutes. One of the big topics we wanted to talk about was quiet equity. So that's a topic we will make sure we bring back and have a as a conversation with the group. So with that big and big, thanks for doing this today. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Kristi. Thank you so much, Rob. Thank you. All of you guys were wonderful. It was a great conversation for all of our attendees. So you can return it to the agenda and find your next session. From there, we will be kicking off at the top of the hour in about 15 minutes.

Great Resignation

advancement profession

retaining employees

career paths

workplace culture

inclusion

value

people strategic plan