Last month in Indianapolis, the Ignite: Peer-to-Peer Leadership Conference brought together 483 student leaders, hospital and campus advisors, partners and Children’s Miracle Network staff. This event created a vital opportunity to elevate the leadership capabilities and fundraising strategies that power our Campus Programs forward. 

Guided by this year’s theme, Where Strategy Meets Culture, Ignite featured 44 workshops and breakout sessions dedicated to helping student teams build operational discipline, execute effectively and scale their local impact. 

Core Takeaways & Strategy Highlights 

• Fundraising Fundamentals: Practical fundraising remained front and center, highlighted by a TED Talk-style session reinforcing core donor development behaviors: making direct, personal asks, following up consistently and creating authentic connections with donors. 

• Leadership & Management Summit: Building upon the four competencies introduced during our Summer Onboarding Series—Accountability, Decision Quality, Resilience and Building Strong Teams—the summit gave student executives practical tools to manage high-performing campus organizations. 

• Executive Insights: Aimee J. Daily, President & CEO, addressed attendees on leading with authenticity and resilience, which students directly applied during collaborative breakout exercises. 

• Network Synergy & Best Practices: Ignite fostered connections among student executives, foundation teams and campus advisors, creating space to scale proven ideas across regions. 

Celebrating Excellence Across the Network 

Throughout the weekend, we celebrated exceptional achievements in peer-to-peer fundraising, recruitment innovation, mission storytelling and executive leadership. 

[View 2026 Ignite Award Winners] 

By investing in this generation of leaders, we continue lifting up the next—empowering students to turn their passion into a force for good and make big change for all kids.  

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