News

Local Business and Community Leaders and Your Campaign

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 leaders during the campaign. One is to take a set of institutional priorities that you have vetted and articulated and negotiated internally — a unified vision for the institution — and approach potential donors with that case: Support us because we have this carefully crafted and articulated vision. Here are our greatest needs; help meet them. But what works better is to engage prospective donors in shaping the vision. Then, business and community leaders are already bought in to the campaign, because they had input during the planning.” When we asked an array of consultants and advancement professionals what made the greatest difference in inviting philanthropic support from local leaders, the experts we interviewed all directed attention to the need to listen actively to local business and community needs and identify (together) shared projects in which they can invest time and expertise, before ever inviting […]

Supporting the Work of the Campaign

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 at the University of Cincinnati, who has taken a lead role in mobilizing efforts across campus in support of the Proudly Cincinnati campaign; David Jones, associate vice president for student affairs and enrollment management at Minnesota State University Mankato; and Gene Luna, associate vice president for student affairs at the University of South Carolina. Ono and Luna are currently involved in $1 billion campaigns; David Jones’ division at Minnesota State supports the work of a $75 million campaign (the largest comprehensive campaign yet for a state college in Minnesota). Jones’ previous institution, the University of Alabama, undertook a $600 million campaign during his time there. Jones, Luna, and Ono offer three key suggestions: Define clear roles for faculty, staff, and students from the start Involve the whole campus in engaging alumni Empower students to get involved — beyond stewardship activities Defining Roles: The Campus and […]

Collaborative Planning for the Campaign

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 people, the campaign will run several risks: The campaign priorities may not accurately reflect the actual needs and priorities of the academic enterprise Limited campus input during the planning may lead to limited campus involvement during the execution of the campaign (as the campus will feel little ownership of it) Limited donor input during the planning may lead to a one-sidedness in later conversations with donors (as campus representatives approach donors with projects to fund, in which donors themselves feel little investment) It is critical to structure the committee and the planning process in a way that invites input and engagement from a broad range of stakeholders. Co-Chairing the Committee Santa Ono is a strong advocate for the provost taking a lead role on the campaign planning committee. In fact, at the University of Cincinnati, which is in the late stages of its very successful […]

Funding Campus Priorities: A Whole-Campus Effort

by Amit Mrig

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 development office. The more that the whole campus takes ownership for the campaign, the more effective the campaign is likely to be — not only in raising funds, but in building stronger and more committed donor relationships and ensuring that the most critical priorities of the institution are those that see funding. We asked an academic dean, a provost, leaders in student affairs and enrollment management, several lead fundraising and campaigns consultants, and a head advancement officer to offer their insights. We hope their advice will be useful to you. Read the paper. See Upcoming Advancement Events

Campus Diversity: Beyond Just Enrollment

At Academic Impressions, we had the opportunity recently to speak with Mary Hinton when she served as the vice president for planning and assessment at Mount Saint Mary College. Hinton advocates adopting a more holistic perspective on campus diversity — specifically, moving beyond a focus on demographics of incoming students. We wanted to learn more about her perspective and hear her thoughts on the practical implications of a broader approach to campus diversity. Here are some of the points she made. Rethinking Diversity “We have to realize diversity isn’t just an issue of access. It isn’t just about getting minorities in the door. That is certainly an important step, but a diverse institution isn’t just about who is enrolled. It’s about who is having successful outcomes. It’s about the quality of the student experience.” Mary Hinton, Mount Saint Mary College Hinton notes that many institutions report the percentages of entering student cohorts to demonstrate the extent to which the campus has become ethnically or socioeconomically diverse — but there are a number of other questions that need to be asked: Is your institution retaining diverse students? Are minority students completing credit hours at the same rate? Are minority alumni employed […]

Engaging the Board in the Campaign

Too often, board involvement in the campaign is limited to what are essentially tactical assignments — making the ask to their contacts, raising certain quantities. What’s missed in these cases are opportunities to engage the board in what board members do best — big-picture thinking, advocacy, and getting key messages out to the community. Jim Langley, founder and president of Langley Innovations, and past vice president of advancement at Georgetown University, offers suggestions for how to approach the board from the outset in a way that will contribute more to the success of your campaign. Starting with a Cognitive Map Langley recommends involving board members early in framing the campaign and the “big ideas” driving it. In an unproductive relationship between the board and the campaign planning committee, board members are shown a gift pyramid, told that the institution has X number of prospects at each level, and then given assignments. “In too many cases,” Langley warns, “we assume that a gift pyramid is enough; we present the pyramid, then march through and orchestrate the ask. If you present the campaign that way to the board, they will assume it is a tactical exercise.” Langley warns that there are two risks in this: […]

Campaigns: Meaningful Ways to Engage the Board

Too often, board involvement in the campaign is limited to what are essentially tactical assignments — making the ask to their contacts, raising certain quantities. What’s missed in these cases are opportunities to engage the board in what board members do best — big-picture thinking, advocacy, and getting key messages out to the community. Jim Langley, founder and president of Langley Innovations, and past vice president of advancement at Georgetown University, offers suggestions for how to approach the board from the outset in a way that will contribute more to the success of your campaign. Starting with a Cognitive Map Langley recommends involving board members early in framing the campaign and the “big ideas” driving it. In an unproductive relationship between the board and the campaign planning committee, board members are shown a gift pyramid, told that the institution has X number of prospects at each level, and then given assignments. “In too many cases,” Langley warns, “we assume that a gift pyramid is enough; we present the pyramid, then march through and orchestrate the ask. If you present the campaign that way to the board, they will assume it is a tactical exercise.” Langley warns that there are two risks in this: […]

State Authorization and Title IV Compliance: Why You Need to Act

The federal government’s attention to the state authorization rule — requiring colleges and universities delivering online education to obtain authorization in states from which they enroll students — has received a lot of attention over the past couple of years. Yet the level of urgency required from postsecondary institutions and the potential liabilities involved have not always been immediately clear to institution leaders. We spoke recently with John Ebersole, president of Excelsior College, and Paul H. Shiffman, executive director of the President’s Forum and assistant vice president for strategic and governmental relations at Excelsior College. Ebersole and Shiffman spoke with us at length about recent developments that affect the enforcement of the state authorization rule. A Quick Review: Recent Developments Most significantly, there have been three recent federal court rulings against the Department of Education, halting federal enforcement of the state authorization rules: the department lost in a lawsuit alleging that the department failed to use the negotiated rule-making process in good faith, the department appealed that decision and lost, and finally, the department lost in an additional suit against the “gainful employment” rule. Finally, last week, the Department of Education issued a statement that it would not enforce the […]

3 Tips for Re-admitting Stop-Outs

This article offers critical tips gleaned from two of the earliest and successful college stop-out re-enrollment programs – the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s 49er ReAdmits and 49er Finishers, and Harper College’s Completion Concierge. It is a must-read if you are thinking of starting your first stop-out program. Looking to boost completion rates, more colleges are reaching out to students who left the institution or “stopped out” due to family, life, and career changes — or due to financial hardship — but who either qualify for a degree or other credential without realizing it, or are within a few courses of completion. In 2010, we interviewed Demaree Michelau, WICHE’s director of policy analysis, for her advice on the key barriers stop-outs face in returning to campus and how institutions can begin to address them. In this new article, we review two highly successful programs — one at a four-year institution and one at a two-year institution — and we have asked those leading the programs to share tips and advice that may be replicable at other institutions. Our two sample programs are the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s 49er ReAdmits and 49er Finishers, and Harper College’s Completion Concierge. […]

Boosting Retention for Ethnic Minority Students: First-Year Seminar for a Minority Cohort

ALSO READ Boosting Retention for Ethnic Minority Students: Laying the Groundwork Boosting Retention for Ethnic Minority Students: Leveraging Peer Leadership Boosting Retention for Ethnic Minority Students: Faculty Buy-in and Involvement For this fourth article in our series on supporting the academic success of underrepresented minority students, we interviewed Derek Moore, an academic success coach with Pulaski Technical College. Besides piloting a highly successful success coach program, Moore has taught the first-year seminar since 2007, both regular sections and targeted first-year seminars developed specifically for cohorts of minority students. In this article, we’ll share Moore’s tips for developing an effective first-year seminar for an African-American, lower-income student cohort. Rethinking the Common Reader “In many cases, the common reader could be used much more intentionally. The selection of it should be driven by the objectives of the first-year seminar.” Derek Moore, Pulaski Technical College Moore notes that while this is often the case in at least a general way, there is additional opportunity to: Focus the common reader on specific student learning outcomes (e.g., decision-making, critical thinking, time management, etc.) Identify a common reader that is relevant for your targeted courses Moore cites the example of one year in which two of […]