Bits and bytes

By Cheyenne Litt, Data Stewardship Specialist, and Corrine Beckner, Associate Director, Data Governance and Data Quality   

We have created The Advancement Data Literacy Series as an avenue to share information, context, and meaning behind Advancement data while helping to educate our peers and cultivate organizational data literacy.  

Data literacy refers to the ability to read, write, understand, interpret, and communicate with data in a meaningful way. In Advancement, this means knowing what data is appropriate to use for a particular purpose, such as soliciting a specific group of constituents, interpreting the data in an Advance report or visualization, and using data effectively to drive business strategies to foster relationships between Queen's and its constituents.

To kick things off, we've prepared a deep dive on the "Friend" record type, which is accessible on the I:Drive (ADV Common\Data Governance and Data Quality\05 - Data Literacy and ADEC\Data Literacy Series). To learn more about other record types and common Advancement terms, please access the Advancement Glossary (please log into the Queen’s VPN to access links).

Operational Data Literacy is also a core objective of the Advancement Data Enrichment Committee, which will hold its inaugural meeting this fall. This cross-functional, collaborative group will identify opportunities and develop co-ordinated solutions related to data acquisition, quality, and security. Watch for details on the data enrichment committee coming soon!

We look forward to sharing further data insights through this series in the coming weeks, and we would love to hear from you. Don't hesitate to contact us directly with questions, feedback, or suggestions!

Homecoming memories

We asked staff to share their favourite #QueensHomecoming memories. Here are three favourites from Ben Seewald, Student and Young Alumni Officer.

1. Seeing my seven-year-old daughter playing lawn Jenga with some Queen’s Law Students at the Fall Harvest Festival after getting her face painted (her most favourite thing!). I really hope to see this program continue in the future!

2. Queen’s holding space for the Black, Indigenous, and Queer alumni communities through events (Black Alumni Cookout and Queer Alumni Happy Hour) and promotion (Meet & Greet and Fall Harvest Gathering). IMO, this needs to be an annual tradition if relationships with these groups are expected to be a priority.

3. Watching Tess run (like FULL-OUT SPRINT) from Summerhill to Grant Hall with a registration list (or some other important info) on Saturday. It made my heart smile that even the newer employees were SO INVESTED in Queen’s Homecoming that she would put in that kind of effort to provide the highest level of service to our alumni.

Thank you for sharing, Ben! And thank you to all the staff and volunteers that made this year's Homecoming one to remember.

APRA Canada Conference

By Jaclyn O’Hearn-Jeffrey, Prospect Research Analyst 

In October, the Prospect Research Management Team had the opportunity to virtually attend the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement (APRA) Canada 2022 conference. The sessions were timely, informative, and sparked many conversations within our group on exploring new approaches and testing new tools.  
 
Two prominent themes that surfaced throughout the conference included:
 
1.  Leveraging data to find transformational donors and diversify the prospect pool. In one session, Steve Grimes, Associate Director, Data Insight at The Helen Brown Group, discussed diversifying a prospect pool by utilizing public data sources such as the Emerging Business Enterprise Certification Program (NYC). Similar programs and data sources in Canada include the Toronto Enterprise Fund and Vancouver’s Special Enterprise Program.  

2.  Using technology to add value for end-users. A team from Sunnybrook Foundation discussed the use of technology to “put the end users in the driver seat.” The Foundation showcased a few of their automated research products, such as a “Research Highlights” report and a “Research Snapshot” report.   

Other conference highlights included sessions on identifying transformational prospects, using strategic prospect research to drive fundraising strategy, using analytics tools to support reporting, surviving a database transition, coding/software development in prospect research and management, and finding balance after a pandemic. 

View these presentations and discover other sessions on the I:Drive (Workgroups\ADV Common\APRA 2022 Conference Sessions).

Updated LiveAlumni online training

By Rachel Deir, Director, Information Technology Management, and Corrine Beckner, Associate Director, Data Governance and Data Quality 

LiveAlumni is a valuable tool in our suite of supporting Advancement technologies as it leverages a live feed of LinkedIn employment, location, interest, and volunteer data to fuel reporting and insights. If you haven't recently logged into LiveAlumni, it is a great time to do so, with new features, dashboards, and filters to help us better segment our alumni and donors. Check out LiveAlumni’s free online training sessions to learn about the latest features and how to leverage the application while engaging with peers and experts from other higher-ed institutions. 

Also, please take the time to review the LiveAlumni playbooks for both Alumni Relations and Fundraising, both of which are available on QUIRC today. 

Gift Services holiday schedule

This week, Christa Walsh, Director, Gift Services, will post the annual memo regarding the holiday schedule and calendar year-end cutoff dates to QUIRC. We are committed to providing our donors with timely processing and recording of all gifts that qualify for a 2022 tax receipt. While the procedures remain largely the same as last year, please take note of a few considerations related to the on-campus presence of Gift Services staff and building access. 

Please contact Christa if you have any questions.

Student Affairs updates 

By Karen Bertrand, Vice-Principal, Advancement 

University leadership regularly receives updates from Student Affairs. Updates include information about student recruitment, varsity teams, health and wellness, and a variety of information about activities within the Student Affairs portfolio.

Peggy Shanks, Development Coordinator, wisely pointed out that there is a wealth of information in these updates that Advancement staff may appreciate. And she is – as you would expect – absolutely correct. Therefore, moving forward, these updates will be posted on QUIRC when they are received.

Peggy will post the Student Affairs update received on Wednesday, Nov. 9 on QUIRC. We hope you find these updates informative and potentially helpful to your own work but the credit for this belongs exclusively to Peggy. 

ALT Q&A

This is a friendly reminder that the next Advancement Leadership Team Q&A session will be at 11 am ET on Thursday, Nov. 24.

For those who are new to Queen’s Advancement, the rules for these open Q&A sessions are as follows: attendance is optional; anyone can ask any member of the ALT any question on any topic; and there will be no pre-set agendas so the Q&A session will last as long as attendees have questions (the optional Zoom meeting already in your calendar is booked for up to 45 minutes). Please come prepared with the questions you would like to personally pose to ALT.

We understand that some people may not be comfortable asking questions in front of a group. If you would prefer to submit your question(s) via an anonymous survey, we are happy to provide that option. Peggy Shanks will manage these anonymous questions, submitters will not be identified to Peggy through the survey, and she will ask the questions on your behalf at the ALT Q&A. 

Please consider questions you would like the ALT to answer and either come prepared to ask them Thursday, Nov. 24 or submit them via the anonymous survey by 4 pm Tuesday, Nov. 22. Members of the ALT look forward to the discussion, and we will do our best to answer your questions.

Invitation from Coco

By: Coco Doré, Senior Advisor, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Indigenization 

Dear Colleagues, 

I am nearing the six-month mark in my role, and I am excited to return to campus in early December. I have had the opportunity to work with some of you on special projects and met a fair number of you in one-on-ones when I first started. Thank you for the overwhelmingly positive welcome. I am really enjoying my role in Advancement. I wanted to take a moment to invite you to chat in person to get to know me a little better, learn about my approaches to EDII and what drew me to this purpose. I know this work can be challenging, but if we work together to uplift and support one another, I believe many things are possible. 

If available and interested during the upcoming in person week, please join me in Humphrey room 131 on Wednesday, Dec. 7, from 10-10:45 am, where we will also enjoy some lovely refreshments. I have been reassured that the building and room are fully accessible. Please let me know if you have any specific or additional needs. 

My goals are for everyone to feel safe and comfortable in the space. 

See you there!

Employee spotlight

The Employee Spotlight celebrates the arrival of our new and existing staff by profiling responses they share through a fun and informal survey that will help us get to know them better. Be sure to review these profiles and use these fun facts and tidbits to find commonalities, embrace differences, and spark a conversation. 

Melisa Ngan in the position of Development Officer, Leadership Giving, AR&AG. Learn more about Melisa and what song she would sing at karaoke night! 

Jobs with Advancement

We need your recruitment help. Know great talent that would be a good addition to our team? If so, please promote the vacancies below with your networks and let’s find some amazing new team members.

Applications (including a cover letter and résumé) must be submitted through CareerQ. For additional information on this posting, please reach out to either Carla Ferreira Rodrigues or the hiring manager for the position you are interested in.