Category: Blog

Strategic planning at a college or university is difficult work. Institutions are large, complex, and highly decentralized environments. Too often, institutions of higher education approach strategic planning reluctantly and without meaningfully seeking input and commitment from key stakeholders, which unfortunately leads to plans that are disconnected from budgets and plans that don’t get implemented. In November 2010, Academic Impressions surveyed presidents, chief financial officers, and academic leaders at a variety of public and private institutions to learn how the majority of institutions are approaching strategic planning and budgeting, and to discover what key challenges they are facing; more than 50 institutional leaders responded. Key Finding: Difficulties in Aligning Budgets with Plans Here is what we learned when we asked institutional leaders what they find most challenging. When asked about the most significant challenges faced with respect to strategic planning, respondents told us: integrating the planning and budgeting process (72%) prioritizing what to invest in and limiting the plan to a reasonable number of priorities (46%) creating transparency around the process and decisions (42%) establishing appropriate success measures (42%) Here are the most significant challenges colleges and universities face with respect to resource allocation: ensuring budgets support plans (74%) creating transparency around […]

In the first part of our report on Academic Impressions’ November 2010 survey of presidents, chief financial officers, and academic leaders, we noted that the foremost challenge cited by institutional leaders related to strategic planning and resource allocation is integrating the planning and budgeting processes. In this second part of our report, we want to draw attention to another of the findings. Key Finding: More than 50% of Strategic Planning Efforts Are Unlikely to Succeed What has especially caught our attention at Academic Impressions is that more than 50% of colleges that responded to the survey are not pursuing a “broadly participative” process. What this indicates is that more than half of the strategic planning efforts underway are being pursued in a manner that calls into question the likelihood of implementation. A participative process in which numerous and diverse stakeholders have input into the thinking at the start is a key to building trust in the plan’s direction and investment in its initiatives. In fact, the lower the level of trust within an institution, the more need for an inclusive and participatory process; only through collaborative planning and transparency can institutional leadership begin building the trust and buy-in needed. Broad […]

Now, more than ever, institutions need to ensure the long-term health of the annual fund by moving donors into the pipeline early, and young alumni are often an insufficiently tapped resource. Yet this year sees not only a continuing trend of volunteerism but also growing numbers of recent graduates seeking to reconnect with their alma mater for assistance with networking and career advancement opportunities in this economy. It is critical that alumni relations and annual fund professionals take advantage of a surge in interest from young alumni through proactive and deliberate outreach. We asked Elise M. Betz, executive director of alumni relations at the University of Pennsylvania; Linda Williams Favero,  assistant director of the University of Oregon Career Center; and Ben Jarrett, assistant director of advancement at Georgetown University, for tips on cultivating young alumni engagement and fostering a higher giving rate without expending too many of your limited resources. Their advice is to: Engage young alumni through the services you offer them Adopt a peer-to-peer model for soliciting gifts Leverage social media and electronic communications to keep your outreach resource-efficient Focus on Services for Young Alumni First, Linda Williams Favero stresses the importance of starting with what alumni need, […]

Once you have invited students to take responsibility for the success of their alma mater and have adopted a campus-wide relationship management strategy to remove any “wedges” and facilitate a seamless and positive student experience, a third key step is to involve your undergraduates in student philanthropy. However, the majority of institutions leave career services, alumni networking, and messaging about the importance of philanthropy until the senior year and the senior gift drive. This approach misses three years of opportunities. You can begin making an impact on student awareness by crafting compelling events prior to the senior year that emphasize their engagement in a lifetime community. Georgetown University, for example, has students file through the main administrative building to light candles with alumni on major declaration day, and also holds a “Careertoberfest” at which students have their resumes reviewed and learn about the career and networking resources they will have as alumni, while sipping cider and enjoying bratwurst and Halloween candy. However, if you only organize a few events to raise awareness, you are missing your greatest opportunities. We interviewed Ben Jarrett, assistant director of advancement at Georgetown University, and Raj Bellani, associate provost and dean of students at the […]

Beginnings are a critical time — you can plant important seeds for future constituency with some deliberate planning around how you will convey messages regarding awareness, gratitude, and giving to students during their transition into the institution. In this article, a university president, three enrollment managers, and a thought leader in institutional advancement offer their advice on steps that universities can take during the admissions process to invite new students to see themselves as active members of the university community and lifetime stakeholders in the university — to take pride in their future alma mater from day one. Prior to Admission In fact, you can start engaging potential students in the community and culture of your institution even before day one. MIT offers a case study on how to do this effectively, having recently seen success in engaging prospects and applicants in the culture of the institution even prior to admittance by rethinking the admissions website. Now a “Web Portal and Community,” the site features student, staff, and alumni bloggers. What has worked well for MIT is the openness of the blog. “Invite student, staff, and alumni bloggers to post not only advice for the admissions process but also let them talk […]

Just as it is important not to miss the opportunity of inviting students into a lifetime relationship with the institution at convocation or during orientation, it’s also critical to manage the opportunity presented by the students’ transition out of their undergraduate years. Many institutions miss the chance to educate students about the real role of private giving in the institution’s financial health and set the wrong expectations for their future alumni by relying on gimmicks to improve senior gift participation rates. What Doesn’t Work For example, here are three tactics that, while they may help drive up senior gift participation rates, also damage your ability to engage the seniors effectively as alumni later: Treating the gift as a “quid pro quo” by offering a t-shirt, tickets to an athletic event, or a university coffee mug to students who give — this sets the expectation that when your future young alumni give to the institution, they receive something tangible in return Asking that every student give one dollar — when the gift ceases to be meaningful, you gain participation rate at the expense of your renewal rate “Shaming” seniors into giving by publishing the names of students who do not participate in the […]

Even as the demand in international markets for a US education continues to rise, more institutions are responding to budget pressures in part by stepping up recruitment of international students, who typically bring significantly more tuition revenue than domestic students. According to the Institute of International Education, in 2008-09, more than 26,000 Chinese students were enrolled in college in the United States, up from 8,000 students eight years earlier. The New York Times has playfully dubbed this “the China Boom.” US colleges continue to see rising enrollments from India and other nations, as well, with India’s top education officials seeking partnerships with US institutions for help in boosting college attainment rates. Even enrollment of international graduate students is rising after a recent lull, according to an annual report by the Council of Graduate Schools. However, if you are not an Ivy League school with a well-established reputation in your target countries, how can you ramp up your international recruiting efforts swiftly? PRIMERS ON KEY RECRUITING STRATEGIES Recruiting International Students: Getting Started (November 2009) Recruiting Chinese Students: What You Need to Know (May 2010) Web marketing guru Bob Johnson, president of Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC, notes that your website is the first […]