Amplify Your Impact: GCPC 2025 Highlights

From new payment methods to AI Agents, here’s what had the crowd buzzing in D.C.—and online

Our 9th annual GiveCampus Partners Conference (GCPC) was our biggest—and boldest—yet. Back in February of 2016, just 37 attendees joined us for the very first GCPC. Fast forward to 2025 and more than 450 advancement professionals gathered in Washington, D.C., with another 1,100+ tuning in online. Even after moving the event to a much larger venue this year, we still managed to sell out a full five weeks in advance.

Advancement leaders and practitioners from colleges, universities, and K-12 schools across the country came together to learn, network, and get inspired. Over the course of two days, attendees could choose from more than 45 sessions designed for every corner of the advancement world: frontline fundraisers, annual giving teams, advancement services pros, marketing and communications staff, alumni relations leaders, prospect researchers, and more. From hands-on tactical workshops to strategic thought leadership sessions, GCPC 2025 delivered inspiration and practical know-how at every turn—including a special Executive Track for advancement leaders.

At the heart of it all was the fast-paced, future-focused Product Plenary, where GiveCampus CEO Kestrel Linder and Head of Product Jennn Schilling presented What’s New and What’s Next. In just 45 minutes, they pulled back the curtain on how our $100M investment in product development is transforming educational advancement for institutions of every size.

Session highlights included:

• Four new payment methods: Link, DAFpay, BitPay, and Cash App—making it easier than ever for donors to give the way they want.
• A major glow-up for GC Events: fresh page designs, conversion-optimized registration flows, and a sneak peek at Sequences, our upcoming automated event communications tool.
• Smart Ask Amounts: sophisticated machine learning models that predict the ideal gift amount for each donor, driving bigger gifts and higher conversion rates.
• Next-gen list building in GC Outreach: blending CRM data, GC Intelligence predictions, and real-time event/transaction activity to create hyper-targeted appeals in minutes.
• Advancement Services upgrades: Smart Field Mapping for easy data imports and plans for a fully expanded API and deeper Raiser’s Edge NXT integrations across the platform by next summer.
• Fundraiser productivity hacks: cadence-driven outreach, smart prospect prioritization, enhanced trip-planning, and AI-powered meeting prep to help gift officers log more—and better—visits.
• A reimagined student engagement center: enabling students to engage, solicit, and steward more authentically via text, email, phone, and video.
• The debut of AI Agents: starting with Research Riley, an AI-powered assistant that autonomously produces in-depth, citation-rich donor profiles.

And that’s just the highlight reel. The full Product Plenary recording is now available on demand—featuring real-world success stories from peer institutions like Thayer Academy, the College of Charleston, and the University of Louisiana Lafayette.

Stay tuned

Over the coming weeks, we’ll release more on-demand recordings of popular sessions from this year’s conference. Bookmark our resources page or subscribe to our blog to be first in line for the latest sessions, insights, and success stories.