In Academic Impressions’ recent free webcast Rethinking Campaign and Major Gift Strategies, we put together a snapshot of data culled from a series of recent surveys and reports. While many institutions responded a fear years ago to the recession by focusing increasingly on cultivating top donors, the snapshot we presented documents the extent to which […]
As demand for college education rises among lower-income families amid a troubled economy, and as the pressure mounts on completion rates, more institutions are beginning to assess their strategies for recruiting and retaining first-gen students. We’ve addressed the issue before in Higher Ed Impact, offering tips from various experts in enrollment management. This week, we […]
Recent intellectual property rights lawsuits against institutions of higher education — such as the lawsuit over video streaming at UCLA or the lawsuit against Georgia State University over e-reserves — make two things clear: how little is understood on campus about what “fair use” entails, and how critical it is to plan for risk mitigation as […]
Amid growing pressure on student retention and completion rates, much of the current research on factors in student success emphasizes both the importance of early intervention with at-risk students and increased attention to obstacles that confront students in the first weeks of their first term, including academic underpreparedness and the transition from the rigor, study […]
A few years ago, we interviewed W. Kent Barnds at Augustana College because we noticed his college had an especially proactive plan for talking with applicants, admits, and their families about both the value of attending that specific institution and about the return on their investment. While the national conversation about completion and outcomes has […]
Often, institutions miss opportunities to invite the investment of local business and community leaders by not doing enough to invite and cultivate that investment before the campaign even begins. Mark Jones, vice president of external relations at Hollins University, frames the issue in this way: “There are two ways to approach to business and community […]
You may not be a development officer at your institution; you may be an academic dean, an enrollment manager, a facilities manager, a faculty member … but it is critical that you have a voice and some ownership in the fundraising campaign, if the campaign is to be successful in funding your unit’s efforts in […]
In This Issue August 2012. As the higher education landscape becomes increasingly competitive, and as both the challenges and the opportunities facing your institution become increasingly complex, it’s critical that the goal-setting and the work of raising funds to finance the pursuit of your institution’s mission become an enterprise-wide endeavor, not just a function of the […]
Once the campaign planning committee has identified exemplars among your faculty, staff, and students, who can speak to the opportunities this campaign could fund for your institution, the next critical step is to prepare venues and vehicles for those ambassadors of your institution to tell their stories. For advice, we turned to Santa Ono, provost […]
The previous article made the point that a whole-campus campaign leads to a successful campaign. It follows that the campaign planning or steering needs to seek input from the whole campus, as well as external stakeholders (business leaders and key donors). If the campaign goals are set in a conversation that only involves a few […]
