Setting and Funding Priorities for Your Division: Making the Tough Decisions

Cover: Setting and Funding Priorities

In this Report:

  • Setting Priorities for Your Division
  • Developing the Action Plan
  • Funding Your Action Plan
  • Strategies to Ensure Implementation

As institutions face increasing financial constraints, they frequently ramp up fundraising efforts in order to secure new funds –- rather than asking the tough questions about how to spend existing funds more wisely.

Oftentimes, guidance from an institution-wide plan is vague or missing altogether. But because the majority of decisions that impact how an institution’s resources are expended are made at the division or college level, vice presidents, deans, and department heads have tremendous influence for ensuring maximum value from every dollar and person.

It’s critical to establish a credible process for setting and funding several key priorities for your division, in order to gain your team’s commitment and ensure successful execution. Doing so can build trust — internally and externally — as resources are used more effectively to serve the institution.

This edition will walk you through such a process, with input from past institutional presidents, provosts, chief financial officers, and division heads. We hope their advice will be useful to you.