Blog
September 10, 2026
Three Strategic Takeaways from Kindsight’s KindCon 2026 in Nashville
At Kindsight’s KindCon 2026 in Nashville, leaders from higher education, healthcare, nonprofits, and other sectors explored how data and AI are expanding what is possible in fundraising. The opportunity now is to pair innovation with trust, capability, and organizational readiness so that new ideas create meaningful value for institutions and the people they serve.
Three themes stood out.
1
Trusted Data
2
Practical AI
3
Community
1. Trusted Data Turns Reporting into a Catalyst for Alignment
Reports and dashboards can build executive support, align teams, and reveal opportunities to strengthen data quality. When information is accurate, synchronized, and consistently available, people can use it confidently to make decisions and move in the same direction.
That places reporting at the center of a mature enterprise data strategy. Shared definitions, ownership, integration, governance, and access create the foundation for information people trust and use.
The tool also needs to fit the audience and the decision. Executives may need visual summaries. Frontline teams may need detailed, printable reports. Other users may want to ask occasional questions through conversational AI. Reporting, visualization, and conversational tools solve different problems.
One university made reporting and dashboards a day-one launch priority. That choice reflects the power of designing for trust and usefulness from the beginning.
2. Practical AI Use Creates a Path to Broader Innovation
AI can help fundraisers prepare for conversations, synthesize constituent information, and reduce administrative work. It can also help Salesforce administrators and IT teams understand complex environments, trace dependencies, preserve institutional knowledge, and evaluate changes more confidently.
Organizations will take different paths. Some may build bespoke capabilities with Salesforce, Claude, ChatGPT, and other tools. Others may begin with preconfigured solutions that embed established fundraising practices, accelerate early value, and build confidence.
These choices can represent stages along the same maturity curve. Focused, proven use cases give teams experience and insight they can carry into increasingly ambitious innovation.
3. Community Turns Shared Experience into Momentum
Technology creates value when people help shape how it is used. Small pilots give teams an opportunity to test new approaches, contribute their expertise, and build confidence while honoring the experience that has already made them successful.
KindCon extended that learning across organizations and sectors. Healthcare foundations, nonprofits, and universities compared approaches to common fundraising operations challenges. That exchange helps institutions build on lessons already learned, adapt promising ideas, and return home with new possibilities.
Advancement’s future is especially bright when community, shared learning, and technology move forward together.
Attain Partners – Experts in Advancement Data and Technology
Attain Partners helps institutions strengthen the data, technology, and operational foundations that support effective Advancement. Learn how our team can help assess current capabilities, identify opportunities, and establish practical priorities for continued progress.
About the Author
Jason Belland serves as Higher Education Executive in Residence at Attain Partners, committed to serving the industry with a focus on envisioning outcome-driven solutions that care for the student journey over a lifetime of learning. Jason has spent over two decades working at public and private higher education institutions in roles ranging from online learning and instructional design to marketing and Customer Relationship Management (CRM), bringing together innovative ideas with new technologies to support student success.
In addition to his roles in higher education, Jason served an eight-year tenure at Salesforce, ascending to Vice President of Go-To-Market for Education Cloud, leading teams to create solutions that would empower colleges and universities to engage, retain, and support every learner over the course of a lifetime of learning. The products and solutions created under Jason’s tenure at Salesforce have been implemented by thousands of colleges and universities globally and set the foundation for today’s Salesforce Education Cloud. Jason received his bachelor’s degree in English Language and Literature/Letters from University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and holds an Executive Education Certificate in Business Excellence from Columbia Business School.
