67: Caroline Chang, UC Innovation

On this episode of the RAISE podcast, Brent talks to a long-time innovator, friend, and Advancement Services Great, Caroline Chang. After a varied career during which she “took the cookies as they were passed” (she’ll explain what that means), Caroline landed as the Vice President of Community and Product Engagement at UC Innovation. Caroline has worked extensively as an internal and external partner with almost every CRM system in the advancement space, so she knows the ecosystem of traditional alumni databases and what each of them can and can’t provide to fundraisers. Caroline was an early believer that if we can connect the digital engagement signals that alumni give us on social media with all the rich data that lives deep within alumni databases, we’ll have the recipe for fundraising success in a modern advancement shop. Besides being a techie, innovator, and expert integrator, Caroline is also a cat-lover, a knitter, a breast cancer survivor, the chair of the CASE Summer Institute for Advancement Services, and a larger-than-life friend with so much personal and professional wisdom to share. Thank you, Caroline, for being a star guest on the RAISE podcast.About CarolineCaroline brings over 30 years of advancement experience to UC Innovation. As the former associate vice president for advancement services at Santa Clara University, she oversaw gift and biographic processing, reporting and technical services, training, and research and prospect management. She started her advancement career at Stanford University as director of young alumni and student development, then transitioned to director of annual giving for the Stanford Medical Center. She became Stanford's managing director of development operations in April 2003 and director of operations in November 2006. Outside of higher education, Caroline is passionate about animals and often thinks of becoming a veterinary technician as her next career. She is president and co-founder of The Catz Meow, an all-volunteer cat transport organization started in May 2016. She was recognized for excellence in teaching with the CASE Crystal Apple in 2016. Caroline holds both a bachelor's and master's degree from Stanford University, and a master's degree in business administration from Santa Clara University.