Category: Blog

Recruiting the Right Major Gift Officers

by Dr. Joshua Jacobs

Before you hire your next major gift officer, clarify what the team really needs in the newest MGO, identify the skills you need to ask for, and deepen your candidate pool by searching for non-traditional candidates who have the right combination of skills and personality traits to succeed. Here’s how. The retention and recruitment of major gift officers (MGOs) in higher education is problematic. The average tenure of an MGO, by some estimates, is just above 18 months, levying a high cost on the institution in repeated searches, lost philanthropic momentum, and severed relationships. Not only is the length of tenure brief, the search costs to replace MGOs are high. Because the central pillar of successful fundraising is the relationship with the donor, and because each representative of the institution must establish credibility and trust with the donor before the best gift can be secured, replacing one MGO with another is not a simple plug-and-play process. Additionally, the position requires specific talent. It is not possible to place just anyone in the role, due to the high-level of autonomy (substantial self-direction and travel), lack of direct accountability (difficulty assessing performance), and significant burden of institutional representation (a lone individual is representing […]

How to Negotiate Your Salary in Higher Ed

by Elizabeth Suárez, author of The Art of Getting Everything: How to Negotiate for What You Want and More What Holds Us Back from Negotiating As a negotiation coach who has worked with clients across a variety of higher education institutions, I have often seen a level of hesitation by some clients to negotiate a job offer, compensation package, or project. The hesitation doesn’t come from a lack of skills. Instead, it is generated by the fear of not knowing how to approach the negotiation. Why the fear? Let’s face it, how many of us wake up in the morning ready to negotiate? My guess is not many. Many of us might have not had opportunities to practice negotiation on a frequent basis. Additionally, we live in a polarized world, one in which one-sided negotiation has become the norm. Many no longer feel comfortable discussing difficult topics with those who have a different perspective. Unfortunately, this often leads to a hesitation to negotiate, especially when it’s time to ask for a raise, additional resources, or a promotion. The 3P Approach to Negotiation Overcoming this fear in a higher-ed environment takes preparation, perspective, and practice. Consider the example of one of my […]

How Marietta College Integrated Entrepreneurial Thinking Throughout the Curriculum

To prepare students to think in entrepreneurial ways,we need to become entrepreneurial thinkers ourselves.by Janet Bland, Marietta College Today’s rapid pace of change and growing demand for entrepreneurial thinking can be both inspiring and frustrating to those of us in higher education; after all, we value the measured path to tenure, wear regalia designed in the Middle Ages, and we work happily within a centuries-old tradition of intellectual inquiry and accomplishment.  We can be slow to innovate, yet we must prepare students for a twenty-first century in which they will need to innovate—a world in which creative problem solving, rapid experimentation, and an entrepreneurial outlook will be increasingly important in both the world of work and the advancement of knowledge.  And to prepare students to think in entrepreneurial ways, we need to become entrepreneurial thinkers ourselves. The Challenge We Faced When we set out to update the undergraduate curriculum at Marietta College, we wanted to continue to distinguish ourselves in the highly competitive Ohio higher education recruiting environment, but we knew that we needed to move faster than the usual snail’s pace of curricular reform. We didn’t have ten years to spend bringing in new programs that our students need […]

How Can Liberal Arts Education Help Our Campuses Become More Inclusive?

by Mary Hinton

We have not consistently connected the core values of the liberal arts education and the demands of inclusion. The challenge before is: How can we use our deepest, richest resource—our liberal arts curriculum—to support becoming more inclusive institutions?  Last year, I had the privilege of standing with several hundred students as they protested at the College of Saint Benedict. As on many other campuses, historically underrepresented students expressed their concerns about what they view as the failed promise of community, about the lack of seeing themselves thrive in higher education, and about their need to be heard. During the protest I had two colliding experiences. First, I was reminded of my own experience nearly three decades ago at my alma mater: feeling out of place on campus; desperately wanting to fit in; fervently desiring to be recognized for who I was and the experiences I brought with me, as opposed to trying to contort myself to fit into community as defined by others. How little has changed since then, I thought. Second, as the current leader of a liberal arts institution, I recognized that the hurt I witnessed on that day was rooted in the hopes our students brought to […]

What Happens When Volunteers Are No Longer a “Nice to Have” Resource, But Instead a Strategic Investment?

Most colleges treat volunteers as “nice to have” resource, but a well-managed volunteer infrastructure can mean better fundraising, stronger student outcomes, and deeper relationships with donors, alumni, and friends of the institution. by Valerie Jones, College of Saint Benedict The Scenario In October 1989, 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling was abducted from a rural road in St. Joseph, Minnesota. The event made national headlines and united the community in support of his family. Twenty-eight years later, their worst fears were confirmed. As the grieving family began planning a memorial service in 2016, the College of Saint Benedict (CSB) offered to host. The invitation drew RSVPs from more than 6,000 people, including state and national dignitaries. Logistics such as parking, shuttles, security, media management, hospitality, and more demanded resources. With only two weeks to prepare and with all normal functions of the college already maxed out with the beginning of the fall semester, the college turned to the one resource that would make all the difference: volunteers. Within 10 days, CSB recruited, trained, and deployed roughly 125 volunteers to support the memorial service. Volunteers worked alongside college staff parking cars, ushering dignitaries, greeting shuttles, guiding media members, tending to presenters, collecting condolences and […]

Athletics Donors and the New Tax Law: Time to Reconsider Your Communications Strategy?

by Sasha Egorova, Academic Impressions The new tax law passed in December 2017 has the potential to significantly affect athletics fundraising. The law repealed an 80% tax deduction that donors could previously take on contributions tied to the right to purchase athletic tickets. Division I schools that rely heavily on these types of gifts could potentially lose millions of dollars in contributions if their donors decide to no longer make these payments. This News Has Made Universities Nervous In April 2018 Academic Impressions surveyed institutions to understand how the law is expected to affect athletics fundraising and how different universities are responding to this change. We found that: Here’s How They’re Responding Things are still very much in flux, as schools are figuring out their way forward. There are many things to consider: interpretation of the law, accounting implications, campaign and fundraising goal-setting, donor communications, receipting, fund restructuring … the list goes on. Overall, there are two ways institutions are responding. RESPONSE 1 Some schools are trying to find a way for donors to still keep contributions like these deductible. In essence, that entails finding a workaround to the law. To do this: This option is still far from clear, […]

Implementing a Research Mission at Your Teaching-Intensive University

by Mary Coussons-Read

When it comes to implementing a research mission, the devil is in the details. Scenario As a dean at Middlestates Territory University (MSTU), you are charged with creating, funding, and implementing a vision and action plan for bringing the “research” portion of the institution’s statutory mission to the forefront.  After many years of negotiation, lobbying, presentation of historical data, and handshaking behind closed doors, the state legislature has finally allowed MSTU to include the words “research-focused” in its official state statutory description and mission. Although the upper administration views this as a victory, the institution has extremely limited financial, laboratory, and human resources, and as the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, you know a long slog lies ahead. You oversee a college comprised of 16 small departments with no more than 10 tenured faculty members in each, and of the total 145 tenured and tenure-track faculty (TTF) in your college, only 15% have or have had external grant funding for research. Research productivity is variable in the college, not only because the disciplines represented range from English to Music to Psychology to Chemistry to Women’s Studies, but also because the standard teaching load for TTF is […]

Title IX and Faculty Misconduct: Steps You Need to Take Today

by Daniel Fusch

Here are steps Title IX coordinators can take in the next day, week, month, and year to start changing the culture on campus. An interview with Rabia Khan Harvey, Academic Impressions, recently Title IX coordinator at Columbia College Chicago Daniel Fusch, Academic Impressions. Rabia, thanks for another conversation. There are so many stories emerging over the last year regarding sexual harassment or other misconduct toward students by some faculty. What has struck you as especially critical for Title IX coordinators to pay attention to? What conversations do they need to be having with department chairs? Rabia Khan Harvey. That’s a tough one. That’s a really tough one. I really feel this needs to become a strategic initiative for the institution. That’s what it will take to get the necessary buy-in and engagement with the whole faculty. Because the steps we need to take aren’t small ones. We need to improve relationships with students from historically marginalized populations. We need to talk with faculty about how the academic department is choosing to nurture students to become alumni of the department. If we don’t provide a department and an institution that is safe for them, that will come back to haunt us tenfold. […]

Title IX and #MeToo: Next Steps for Title IX Coordinators

by Daniel Fusch

What opportunities does the #MeToo movement open up for Title IX coordinators, and how can we seize the moment? An interview with Rabia Khan Harvey, Academic Impressions, recently Title IX coordinator at Columbia College Chicago Daniel Fusch, Academic Impressions. Rabia, thanks for joining me today. I wanted to ask: What does the #MeToo movement mean for college campuses? Rabia Khan Harvey. The first word that comes to mind is outlet. The #MeToo movement was founded in 2006 but didn’t go viral until the Harvey Weinstein allegation. Now it provides an outlet for survivors who have felt silenced for so long, who feared they wouldn’t be believed. It has lifted multiple barriers, from self-blame to not wanting to get the person who was accused in trouble—that was a very real barrier. Secondly, solidarity. It used to be that survivors were left feeling very alone. Now there is the feeling that others have experienced this, and survivors don’t need to be silent anymore. Third, awareness. This movement illustrates for people how much our society has ignored rape culture, how much we have normalized and explained away rape culture. Daniel Fusch. What does it mean for Title IX coordinators and staff, specifically? Rabia […]

4 Strategies for Closing the Coaching Gap for Mid-Level Academic Leaders

by Daniel Fusch

While executive and administrative leaders have had a longer history of working with coaches, there is growing awareness of the benefit to middle managers in higher education, as well. Mid-level academic leaders are often promoted to leadership positions with limited management experience and without the benefit of training and professional leadership development. Yet mid-level leaders face significant barriers to the use of coaching. To build leadership capacity at the mid level, it’s critical that senior leaders take action to address this coaching gap. To learn more, we turned to David Kiel, who worked for 15 years as a faculty leadership developer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is now a consultant to leadership development programs in higher education. Dr. Kiel has conducted extensive research on coaching in higher education, and the article that follows adapts and reworks material from an article the author published in the Journal of Excellence in College Teaching’s special issue “Coaching and Leadership in Academia,” James Sibley and Susan Robison, Editors, that came out in February 2018. The title of the original article is “In Search of Good Coaching for Mid-Level Faculty Leaders” (The full citation can be found in the reference section at the end of […]

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