It’s been a few weeks since Slate Summit, which has given me some time to look more closely at several of the features announced in Nashville and consider how advancement teams might use them. 

Three have stood out so far: event check-in communications, entity materials, and matching gifts. They address different parts of advancement work, but each brings information or staff action closer to the record where the work is already happening. 

1. Event Check-In Communications Enable Faster and More Meaningful Engagement with Constituents

Events play an important role in donor engagement, alumni relations, and stewardship. Much of their value depends on what staff know and when they know it. 

The new event check-in communication trigger allows Slate to send a message as soon as an attendee checks in. That communication can go to the attendee, an internal staff member, or both. 

The attendee might receive arrival information, a schedule, or instructions for the event. Internally, a gift officer could be alerted when an assigned prospect arrives. Alumni relations staff could be notified when a board member or volunteer checks in. A stewardship officer could receive an alert when a donor attending a recognition event is on site. 

That creates an immediate connection between attendance and staff action. The right person has a better chance of responding while the constituent is still present.

Once the communications are configured and tested, they can also reduce the manual coordination required for recurring events. Staff don’t need to recreate the same reminders and internal notifications each time. 

Advancement operations teams may also be able to use the resulting attendance and communication activity in broader reporting. Institutions could examine event participation alongside engagement, giving, and follow-up activity. The quality of that reporting will depend on the institution’s data structure and processes, but the check-in trigger gives teams another useful activity to capture. 

2. Entity Materials Directly Tied to Slate Records Make Information Easier to Find and Use

In most advancement operations, documents tied to funds, proposals, opportunities, committees, campaigns, and other records often end up spread across shared drives, folders, and separate systems. 

Entity materials allow staff to attach documents directly to an entity record in Slate. 

What does that mean for you? When materials supporting a proposal, committee, or corporate relationship can be stored with the entity they describe, staff can access the file while working with the record instead of searching through a separate folder structure. 

This may be especially helpful for gift officers, advancement services, prospect development, and donor relations teams that need access to the same information from different parts of the operation. 

This feature won’t eliminate every shared drive or document repository. Advancement teams will still need clear rules for retention, security, and system ownership. For documents that directly support an advancement entity, storing the file with the record, and enabling the right roles to access them, can make the file easier to find and use. 

3. Matching Gifts Functionality Creates a More Consistent Starting Point for Identifying Potential Matches 

Matching gifts can be a boon for any campaign, but the process of identifying and tracking them is usually kind of messy: a combination of donor research, third-party tools, spreadsheets, and staff follow-up.  

Slate’s matching-gift functionality brings more of that work into the advancement system. It uses policy information shared across the Slate community to help identify gifts that may be eligible for an employer match. Staff can track the match through statuses such as “potential” and “fulfilled,” and record the company payment when it’s received. 

Access to shared employer policy information reduces the need for each institution to maintain its own complete matching-gift policy library. It also creates a more consistent starting point for identifying potential matches. 

Institutions can apply their own rules and processes to manage the matching-gift lifecycle. Staff can review potential matches, determine who owns the follow-up, and track progress through fulfillment. 

The employer record also becomes an important part of that process. The donor’s employment information helps identify the opportunity, while the fulfilled matching gift is recorded with the company that made the payment. That gives the institution a clearer record of organizational giving while preserving the connection to the original donor. 

The larger opportunity may be the matches that staff and donors do not already know about. Slate can help surface employer programs tied to existing employment information. Some of those potential matches will not be completed, but identifying them gives the advancement office a better chance to pursue eligible funds that might otherwise be missed. 

Bringing the Gap Between Information and Action

Event check-in communications help staff respond when a constituent arrives. Entity materials keep supporting documents close to the records they belong to. And matching-gift tools help teams identify and manage additional giving opportunities.

Their value will depend on how each advancement office puts them to work. Clear ownership, thoughtful configuration, and reliable data will matter as much as the features themselves.

If you need help optimizing Slate for Advancement’s new features, we can help.

Written by: Judson Matthews, Senior Consultant