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Reorganizing Advancement Is Not (Itself) Enough to Drive Success

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Reorganizing Advancement Is Not (Itself) Enough to Drive Success

Over the last few years, I have helped a number of organizations review the way they deploy their advancement teams. I also led the reorganization of a newly combined alumni relations and annual giving team at a leading private university.

Through these experiences I’ve noticed a couple of frequent expectations among the leaders driving the reorganization process. One expectation is that the newly arranged team will be more efficient. The other is that they’ll be more effective.

Below are some thoughts on both these ambitions. And I close with a comment on one key factor that all organizations require, even if they’re not changing their reporting lines.

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How College of the Holy Cross Exceeded Its Giving Day Participation Goal by 50%

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How College of the Holy Cross Exceeded Its Giving Day Participation Goal by 50%

Giving days are an appealing supplement to traditional giving campaigns. Their compactness and immediacy makes them satisfying both for our alumni and for those of us who organize them.

But investing all that time and energy into one day can feel like a huge gamble. That's why we talked to folks at Holy Cross about how they exceeded their participation goal by 50% in their most recent giving day campaign.

How Stony Brook University’s Alumni Relations Team Made Alumni Engagement a Campus-Wide Effort

How Stony Brook University’s Alumni Relations Team Made Alumni Engagement a Campus-Wide Effort

One of the best ways to meet diverse alumni needs with limited staff and resources is to create campus partnerships with other offices that interact with alumni to form a united front.

Amid growing demands and shrinking resources, Stony Brook University Executive Director of Alumni Relations Matthew Colson and his team have done an amazing job expanding their reach to better support more than 180,000 alumni worldwide. The team has met with as many campus partners as possible to create a culture on campus that recognizes expanding alumni engagement as an institutional priority.

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One Well Timed Email Can Increase Your Userbase by 35%

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One Well Timed Email Can Increase Your Userbase by 35%

Building robust online communities isn’t easy, but that doesn’t mean it has to be complicated. Santa Clara's recent engagement campaign is a prime example of one effective way to do this work.

Santa Clara's Switchboard first anniversary coincided with the start of their academic year. They wanted to connect with the broader community around the start of the new academic year, and they had the idea to showcase their Switchboard's first-year milestones as a means of generating buzz and providing proof that their Switchboard was worth the community's time and attention.

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How Skidmore Launched Its Podcast Entirely In-House

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How Skidmore Launched Its Podcast Entirely In-House

An estimated 67 million Americans listen to podcasts each month, and 42 million of them listen to podcasts weekly.

So it's no surprise that more colleges and universities are getting into the podcasting game, whether it's to target prospective students, engage sports fans, or build brand awareness.

But starting a podcast can be daunting. It's easy to listen to podcasts, but recording, producing, and editing one is a complicated process. That's one reason it's so impressive that Skidmore College took the leap into podcasting all on its own, without any external production help. Now, their podcast, This is Skidmore, is three seasons strong.

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5 Things to Read to Help Polish Your #GivingTuesday Campaign

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5 Things to Read to Help Polish Your #GivingTuesday Campaign

Giving Tuesday (Tuesday, November 28) is around the corner, but there's still time to finalize some details in your months-long planning process. 

It's a little late to implement most Giving Tuesday advice out there, so we picked out five resources you can still use to bolster your work in the month that remains.

"It is not from ourselves that we learn to be better than we are." —Wendell Berry