A Rejection Letter to Advancement
The Office for Alumni of Colleges and Universities Advancement Office 1 Development Dr. Collegetown, USA Dear Alma Maters, We have carefully reviewed all of your information and credentials as an applicant for our annual act of philanthropy. After much consideration, we regret to inform you that we are unable to offer you a financial gift […]
Striking Out: What Fundraising Can Learn From the American Pastime
Baseball is back! The “American Pastime” has just raised the curtain on its 145th season, and everyone is excited! Well, by “everyone,” I mean “not nearly as many people that used to be excited about opening day, or baseball in general.” Whether it’s declining stadium attendance, TV ratings, or Little League participation, baseball is […]
Rethink Your Advancement Budget to Raise More. It’s THAT Simple.
If you work for a university, you may have noticed the ceiling above your head creaking a bit. Maybe it’s just the building settling, or maybe it’s the sign of a problem “overhead” with the foundation. Higher ed’s rate of hiring non-academic staff is starting to make headlines—making it harder and harder to convince our donor base […]
How Sweet It Isn’t: College Closure Demonstrates Need for Social Strategy
By now you’ve heard: After 114 years, Sweet Briar College in Virginia is shutting down. Many in and outside of the industry, like Dallas Mavericks owner and entrepreneur Mark Cuban, are calling this the beginning of the higher-ed bubble burst, while others think it’s not that dire. I’m not an economist and I’m not an admissions […]
The Party All Your Alumni Are "Liking" About: Tracking Social Media Posts Like Events
The Academy Awards are behind us, which means we can turn our attention away from all the cool parties that we AREN’T invited to and focus on the alumni events we’re obligated to plan. Advancement offices, after all, are known to throw a party every now and again… and again… and again. We’ve got reunion, […]
Grading the LinkedIn Groups of America’s Top Catholic Colleges
Previously, I wrote at (painful) length about important elements of a successfully managed alumni LinkedIn group. Consider that your appetizer for a never-ending buffet of higher-ed LinkedIn group analyses. Although LinkedIn is arguably not quite as fun and dynamic as Facebook, it’s still an essential piece of any advancement social media strategy. LinkedIn engagement is traditionally low—but […]
Why Your Alumni LinkedIn Group Demands Your Attention
In the year 1849, gold was discovered in California’s Sacramento Valley, sparking the famous American Gold Rush. When all was said and done, $2 billion worth of the metal had been extracted from the Golden State’s soil. In 2003, LinkedIn was founded. Twelve years later, the rush is still on—only this rush is like digging for gold without a pickaxe or […]
“New Media” is “THE Media”: Higher Ed Must Invest or Perish
New media is “new” like New York is “new.” Okay, so social/digital media isn’t quite 300 years old, but to refer to these outlets as “new” in 2014 continues to brand them as experimental or unproven, and frankly, I’m tired of it. Why so sensitive? Maybe because I like facts. Maybe because I like relevant […]
Tweeting in the Ivy League
Twitter was founded in 2006, some 370 years AFTER Harvard University. It would be easy for the iconic Crimson to say, in that time, they figured out how to educate America’s most elite students WITHOUT the help of a social network that features a cartoonish blue bird. After all, the university library is full of […]
You’ve Got to Get Mad: Why Social Media Can’t Advance Alone
1976 is a year most social media community managers only know from history books and their parents’ poor taste in movies and music. Admittedly, I am one of those community managers, but being someone who is frequently “credited” with possessing an “old soul,” I am pathetically in touch with the 70s. I’m not a product […]
“Do You Got Any, Ahhh, Leads?”: Enticing Donors with Relevant, Authentic Content
The Dude abides. But he also struggles in The Big Lebowski to find the location of his missing briefcase, which just so happens to be full of $20,000…or so he thinks. The Dude’s hunt for his briefcase brings him face-to-face with many a perilous situation, none of which bring him any closer to finding the riches tucked […]
You Want ROI? You Can’t Handle the ROI!
The end of another fiscal year is upon us and for most advancement shops that means it’s time to count the money! How much money did we raise? How many donors? How many lapsed/non-donors became donors? Did our participation rate increase? Are we all losing our jobs? This can be an uncomfortable time for advancement […]