The Development and Institutional Advancement Program (DIAP) meets annually and focuses on issues related to fundraising, communications, and institutional development. The conference (held in February each year) features a pre-conference workshop for new development officers or a special topic and a conference with plenary speakers who generally address fundraising skills, the vocation of the development officer, or issues in theological education, plus multiple workshops.

The conference workshops are of three types:

• Benchmarks in which persons present their school's best practices in development,

• Talk of the Trade in which the leader presents for one-third of the time and encourages participant interaction for the remaining two-thirds of the time, and

• Workshops that focus on content presentations.

DIAP is the oldest administrator-specific ATS program, and it has the most refined definition of a core curriculum, including: four basic areas of institutional advancement (annual fund, major gifts, planned giving, capital campaigns) and four professional tasks or skills (assembling and managing donor databases and research, working with the president and board, building the case for support, and communicating the case). DIAP conferences also include workshops on administration, management strategies, assessment plans, legal issues, and personal concerns of development officers.

DIAP is overseen by a steering committee of nine representatives, who are elected by the development officers. The steering committee's primary task is planning and evaluation of the annual conference and identifying articles for inclusion in the ATS newsletter, Colloquy.  The location of the February conference varies and has approximately 130 to 150 participants.