NCICU Development Conference Held at Meredith

The North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities (NCICU) held their annual development conference at Meredith College on Tuesday, January 7. A total of 115 fundraisers from 27 institutions attended to listen to a variety of interactive sessions and network with colleagues. 

Tom West, vice president for government relations and general counsel with NCICU, gave an update to the group and Lennie Barton, vice president of institutional advancement for Meredith College, welcomed all attendees. Barton noted that Meredith College was pleased to host the event once again.

The opening session featured a panel of major gift donors from various institutions. Tom Mann from Wingate University, Betsy Best Phillips, ’71, ’86, ’89 (MBA), from Meredith College, and Nancy Taylor Sumner from Salem College all provided insights on what motivates them to give generously. Chris Dudley, founder of AdvancementEDU, was the moderator. Before founding AdvancementEDU a year ago, Dudley held various leadership positions at High Point University from 1999-2023. Topics discussed included advice for development officers, what they need to know from fundraisers, and why they give to their institutions. 

Phillips said, “Long-term and larger donors like experiences. I love hands-on experiences and when this world of international studies opened up, I became more involved. Being both a business major and an MBA graduate from Meredith, I was tied to that community and did a lot of mentoring with that group of students, and that was very exciting. These things allowed me to stay connected to Meredith.”

Three different tracks of topics were held during three sessions throughout the day, giving the attendees many options for what they wanted to learn at the conference. Representing Meredith, Barton presented “Obstacles Major Gift Offices Face and How to Overcome Them.” Linda Carter, senior director of gift planning, and Erin Cleghorn, director of fundraising research, presented “Predictive Modeling and Planned Giving – Uncovering Prospects with the data you have.” 

Each session was led by a member of an NCICU school and included topics such as navigating staff transitions, roles of community foundations and donor-advised funds in higher education, parent engagement, forming a good relationship with board members and development offices, strengths-based leadership in philanthropy, engaging local and young alumni, athletic fundraising, and a special session for vice presidents to discuss issues they have experienced and solutions they’ve found.