We have all been to meetings where there is uneven participation among attendees. More vocal participants tend to dominate, while others can all but disappear. This is a substantial problem for meeting leaders and facilitators as it results in fewer ideas and perspectives being considered. Group activities can be a productive way to overcome this issue. We have compiled the following group activity designs to help meeting leaders and facilitators spark meaningful engagement among all meeting participants.
Happy New Year! As we saw in the first installment in my series on international advancement efforts, it is critical to know key international holidays to best inform staff or a delegation about when (and when not to travel). Once you understand those parameters, the planning must begin and adequate time is necessary to create a successful advancement initiative based on strategic outcomes. I suggest working from nine months out. This advance planning with the academic year is necessary and intentional for several reasons: Advancement officers are not holding the responsibility alone for reaching out to constituents abroad. It is critical to keep the institution’s entire international agenda in mind and that requires a coordinated effort from alumni, development, special events, communications and marketing, and other departments such as admissions and graduate schools’ external relations offices. Advancement officers will also need to communicate with campus leadership and with volunteers abroad on a regular basis to best manage the expectations for everyone’s participation and support. Everyone involved is a “brand manager” and will have a piece of the promotional timeline. TWO DETAILED SCENARIOS I want to offer two scenarios — one in this article (below), and one in a follow-up article. […]
A presidential transition can be a challenging time, and those critical first conversations will set the tone for the partnership ahead. by Sasha Egorova, Academic ImpressionsInterviewing Jake Heuser, Bradley University Welcoming a new president can be an unnerving event for the whole campus. It can particularly be a challenging time for the vice president of advancement and the advancement team. Those critical conversations in the first few weeks of a new presidency can set the tone for the partnership between the president and the chief advancement officers in the months ahead–a partnership that will be critical to the health of the institution. We recently spoke with Jake Heuser, VP of Advancement at Bradley University, about what it takes to ensure a smooth transition. Heuser has been at Bradley for over 10 years, having raised over $100 million dollars while working with two presidents during his tenure. A couple of years ago, Bradley went through a presidential transition. Reflecting back on that experience, Heuser offered some key insights on how to establish a productive VP/President relationship during a presidential transition – and three steps to engage your new president effectively in fundraising. 1. The First Meeting: Overprepare, Have a Plan, But Stay […]
Bogged down in implementing your strategic plan? Try this creative meeting design to get things moving. Successful execution of a strategic plan separates the excellent from the “pretty good.” Creating great “visions” and ennobling pictures of the future for a campus is not difficult. There are many smart, dedicated and hardworking faculty, staff and administrators throughout every campus and they have powerful aspirations. The really hard part is the implementation part, and too few institutions are good at it. Problems are inevitable during an implementation process, but they are often covered up because people are reluctant to ask for help, don’t want to appear inadequate, or are “stuck” with what they are doing and lack good solutions. Having worked on strategic planning with hundreds of campuses over the last 25+ years, I have created the following meeting design. The Strategic Planning Implementation Clinic creates the opportunity to surface the real problems and pressing challenges that campus stakeholders are facing in implementing strategic priorities, and allows leaders to tap the thinking & resources of participants to generate constructive and realistic solutions to tough problems. This meeting design: One caution: This design will only work if the campus climate feels safe enough for participants to share real organizational problems. If failure […]
In the companion piece to this checklist, I suggested that it’s critical to plan for international advancement efforts nine months out, for three reasons. This allows you time to plan and manage your resources systematically, plan ahead and confirm your spot on your volunteers’ and donors’ calendars, and identify cost-effective travel options. TWO DETAILED SCENARIOS I want to offer two scenarios for planning an advancement effort overseas on such a nine-month timeline. I offer one scenario below, and one here. These two scenarios are precursor events or meetings that will support the overall goals of a new comprehensive campaign. I offer these scenarios in a “timeline” format to guide the staff when working with volunteers and campus VIPs. I have also included tips and checklists for each month of the planning process. If you find these scenarios useful, please share them with your colleagues! Scenario B: A Campaign Prep Launch Event – Asia, Spring 2015 Context:Northbridge University, a mid-sized, comprehensive research university in the Midwest, will embark on a $2.0 billion capital campaign in Fall 2016. The last campaign successfully raised $1.0 billion and concluded on June 30, 2011. Goal:Alumni, family and friend engagement and qualification visits with prospective donors […]
Unrestricted funds are an asset to meeting institutional needs, but they are not always easy to acquire based on donor understanding or personal interests. Successfully soliciting unrestricted gifts requires advancement professionals to know how these funds will positively impact the university experience for a variety of constituents and how to tell those stories in ways that will inspire donors to give. Join us for this interactive virtual training to learn how Kim Bowden, Vice President of Annual Giving at Georgia Tech, leads the Roll Call team in using storytelling to meet fundraising goals for their unrestricted annual fund. You will identify campus relationships that can help you to better understand how unrestricted gifts are used, consider your donor audience and what types of stories may resonate within it, and leave with storytelling ideas that will bolster your unrestricted giving.
With nearly 17 years’ experience in higher education, Laura’s passion for and commitment to students remains her primary focus. She believes deeply in meeting students where they are and in supporting them fully so that they can get to where they want to be. At CMU English, Laura developed the Major Buddy Program, which connects prospective and newly declared majors with current students in the Department so that they can get an inside perspective on the student experience while meeting peers with similar interests and goals. She also serves as a representative of the CMUSafe Ambassador Program, where she assists the CMU community with emergency preparedness and safety measures. Laura is an active member of the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA), and she holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, plus Theatre Arts and a Master of Arts degree in English, both from Duquesne University.
by Kathy Edersheim, President of Impactrics How does an alumni affinity group get started and, perhaps more importantly, what makes it sustainable beyond the initial excitement? There are many right answers and many challenges along the way. The key is to develop some guidelines and learn from other institutions’ successes as well as from their failures. The Yale Alumni Non-profit Alliance (YANA) is one example of a resounding success that can be a model for the formation of other affinity groups. Before you begin the hard work of forming the group, consider: In 2010, these fundamentals seemed to be in place for YANA. Here is the story. Getting Started YANA started with a casual remark to me at a cocktail reception in 2010: “Hello, my name is Ken. We met once before – Do you have a few minutes to talk?” Actually, Ken had been thinking about the idea for a new shared interest (affinity) group for a while. That evening at the reception, Ken described his idea to create a platform to share best practices and provide support for anyone interested in the non-profit sector whether as a professional, a funder, or a board member. He had questions – […]
It doesn’t matter if you are a Major Gift Officer working as a liaison to the athletic department or a Director of Athletic Development. Now more than ever, to effectively raise money for your college athletic department you must have a successful partnership with your Athletic Director. Many advancement professionals working with college athletic departments do not have a background as a coach or an administrator. So how can you, as the athletic fundraiser, build a successful partnership with your Athletic Director? Unfortunately, there is no magic formula to help build this relationship, but here are four steps you can take to get started: 1. Schedule a weekly meeting with your Athletic Director. If a weekly meeting isn’t possible, then make sure it is at least bi-weekly. These meetings will ensure that you, as the frontline fundraiser for the athletic department, have a strong understanding of the current needs of the department. While you’re meeting, you’ll also have the opportunity to coordinate upcoming travel and additional events that require the Athletic Director’s attendance. It may also be helpful for you to attend athletic staff meetings and for your Athletic Director to attend development meetings going forward, to further strengthen the connection […]
What does effective private foundation stewardship look like? Grand Valley State has a tightly-knit community – and here’s how they got there. Based on their experience, read 5 steps to get started, 5 steps to get your house in order, 4 ways to learn about the community, and 4 ways to make it personal. Attending Academic Impressions’ “Corporate Stewardship: Demonstrating ROI” webcast recently, I was provoked to think more deeply about what private foundation stewardship would look like. This question has been critical to my work at Grand Valley State. After eight years, I’ve built a significant network, but that didn’t happen immediately; this is a tightly-knit community, and coming in from outside and forming that network took concentrated work. Here is what I’ve learned along the way. From Scratch to Steward: 5 Steps to Get Started Here is how you get started in foundation giving: 5 Steps to Get Your House in Order 4 Ways to Learn About the Community 4 Ways to Make it Personal Above all, listen. If you ever have the chance to hear what family foundations have to say about their work, try to go. While at Grand Valley, I have attended a couple family […]
