Develop your unit leaders to think strategically about aligning funding sources with strategic goals. Overview Academic deans, center directors, and their leadership teams can spend a considerable amount of time developing a detailed and action-oriented strategic plan for their college or academic unit. Identifying and implementing achievable goals not only requires the appropriate stakeholders, accountability […]
Advance your institutional priorities by building out a more effective principal gifts program. Overview Principal gifts, defined differently at different institutions, can bring high-level success to your institutional priorities—especially those advocated by your president and academic leaders. By building out a disciplined principal gifts program, regardless of its current maturity, you can bring clarity to […]
Lead with your strengths and leverage your agency for sustainable and collaborative change. Overview Many faculty feel overwhelmed by the overlapping crises in higher education, and that they have little agency for making change. But faculty can take action to make change right where they are by leveraging their strengths and preferences as leaders and […]
Learn best practices for more effective interactions with students experiencing mental health issues, even if you’re not a counselor. Overview As students, faculty, and staff return to campus life, the impromptu conversations that characterize in-person interactions are naturally more likely to resume. Data shows that the rate of students reporting a sense of disconnection from […]
Gain confidence in your ability to engage with donors around polarizing topics. Overview Your donors’ views of current events may not always align with your personal or institutional values and mission, which can create tension when cultivating the relationship. How do you navigate through those conversations in a way that sustains or even builds the […]
Protect the reputation of your institution and the donor against legal or political scrutiny. Overview When donors want to establish a scholarship for the two federally protected class groups that receive the most legal scrutiny–women and students of color–your advancement shop must navigate risk in a way that doesn’t scare away donors or distract from […]
Pursue transformational gifts with confidence using institutional collaboration. Overview The maxim big ideas lead to big gifts has defined fundraising, and—by extension—most of academia over the last 20 or more years. The acceptance of this adage is evident not only by where the most generous gifts to academia are being targeted but also by the […]
Join us to become more comfortable recognizing and harnessing your privilege in order to use it to make a positive impact on your students, colleagues, and teams. Overview All of us enjoy privilege on some level, which means that all of us have an opportunity to use our privilege in support of those who experience […]
Equip yourself with the tools to address trauma and mental health in your classroom. Overview The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study in the nineties taught us the prevalence of traumatic experience in society, as well as how trauma influences lifelong learning, health, and behavior. Researchers have found correlations between high ACEs scores (indicating more traumatic […]
