Volume 6 (2021-22)

Volume 6 of Journal of Education Advancement & Marketing consists of four 100-page issues.

Articles published in Volume 6 include:

Volume 6 Number 4 (Spring 2022)

Editorial
Simon Beckett, Publisher
Case studies:
Elevating an institution’s reputation with a meaningfully distinct brand narrative
Timothy R. Bohling, Chief Marketing and Graduate Enrollment Officer and Professor of Marketing, University of Notre Dame and Sol Sender, Founder and Principal, Sender

Brand management activities involve making decisions over time about: (a) what brand messages to deliver to stakeholders, (b) what brand experiences to deliver as stakeholders engage with their firm or institution and (c) how to improve the performance of the firm or institution. While brand management has been widely studied in commercial industries, brand management research within the higher education industry is quite limited. This paper introduces a new brand management framework that illuminates an institution’s meaningfully distinct value proposition and activation paths to help elevate the institution’s reputation and class profile. The authors have named this new methodology the Brand Integrity (BI) framework. This field study deployed the BI framework’s qualitative and quantitative research activities across multiple stakeholder groups to identify the salient University of Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business (MCOB) brand promises that would most resonate with several stakeholder groups, including prospective students, existing students, alumni, faculty, staff and advisory board members. Upon identification of the core brand promises for MCOB, the new brand narrative was powerfully activated and the implications on school popularity and enrolment have been significant. Since the activation of the new brand narrative, MCOB graduate programmes have experienced increases in the number of applications, enrolment selectivity, total enrolled students, female students, and underrepresented minority students. This paper highlights the relevant contributions for both scholars and practitioners.
Keywords: brand management, brand equity, brand reputation, brand narrative, enrollment management, higher education
Harnessing data to strategise for digital endowment reporting
Tommy King, Donor Services Specialist, Kristy Wasilewski, Assistant Director of Donor Services and Sarah Thomas, Director of Donor Services, North Carolina State Advancement Services

Digital endowment reporting is becoming an industry standard in higher education and philanthropy. NC State implemented a digital endowment reporting platform by leveraging efficient project planning and management, a strategic communication schedule and in-depth data analyses for informed decision making. Through the topics explored within, readers can expect to have a better understanding of the preparation needed for a successful digital transition and explore the role data-driven conclusions play in guiding a project of this nature to a rewarding conclusion. A willingness to adapt to issues as they arose to maintain flexibility and a commitment to working cohesively as a team were common threads throughout the project. This paper will detail NC State’s experiences and provide suggestions for how the steps that were taken apply more generally to digital endowment reporting as a whole.
Keywords: data, digital communications, digital endowment reporting, endowment reporting, reporting
University selection: Rational and emotional aspects of the decision-making process
Charlotte Renwick, Associate Director of Student Marketing and UK Recruitment, Leeds Beckett University

University selection is complex, and for undergraduate students, they possess no prior lived experience to provide the foundation for their decision making. It would be easy to assume, therefore, that a rational and systematic decision-making process takes place. Yet despite repeated attempts by the UK Government to provide various factual and comparable UK university performance metrics, the usage of comparable data remains low. Students are influenced by where they feel they will fit in, where they will be safe and supported and for the overall student experience they perceive to be on offer. In the international domain, decision-making models and market research demonstrate both factual and emotional factors involved in overseas university selection. The emotional aspect of the decision, coupled with an overwhelming choice, necessitate universities to have a strong brand. The paper provides a case study of how these concepts were addressed at Leeds Beckett University, a modern university in England with over 25,000 students. At Leeds Beckett, implementing a personalisation marketing strategy has grown student engagement and enrolments, and led to a major turnaround in international student recruitment.
Keywords: university decision making, customer journeys, segmentation, brand, market research
Practice papers
To endow or not to endow? A question of Shakespearean proportions facing higher education today
Lisa Gibert, CEO, Clark College Foundation

Just as Hamlet asked the existential question: ‘To be or not to be?’ community colleges are asking a similarly challenging question when it comes to securing long-term financial stability: To create significant endowments or not? Increasingly, this is the interrogative that colleges are engaging with donors as they strive to make their institutions financially sustainable. Because of the transformational roles that endowments can and do play in the complicated puzzles that are higher education budgets, these funding mechanisms have taken on nearly Shakespearean proportions — while at the same time generating Shakespearean-like drama — for a number of institutions trying to defend their endowments or hoping to acquire them in significant amounts. This paper focuses on the role of endowments in higher education institutions, with a particular emphasis on community colleges, which according to the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), currently educate 41 per cent of all undergraduates in the USA. Undoubtedly, endowments have generated advantages for institutions fortunate enough to have secured them in significant amounts. For the relatively small number of institutions with significant endowed assets, the advantages have been staggeringly disproportional. According to the National Association of College and University Budget Officers (NACUBO), approximately 750 of the nation’s 4,000 degree-granting higher education institutions hold endowed assets totaling more than US$635bn. While these funds are generally viewed favorably because of the critical role they play in keeping universities and colleges operational, there is a growing chorus of criticism aimed at endowments. This is especially true for those so-called elite institutions that hold immense endowed wealth and structural power. As these questioning voices have broken through the din of higher education critique, many institutions hoping to generate significant endowments of their own believe it is becoming very difficult to fundraise for endowed support. They say the elite schools and colleges have essentially sucked the oxygen out of the room, and that has had a dramatic impact on institutions trying to fulfill their missions, especially serving marginalised, non-dominant communities. The criticisms over endowments, coupled with changing views about how endowments should be established and their income distributed, are requiring institutions to look at these long-established funding tools very differently. This paper will explore endowments and how institutions are wrestling with the best ways to create financial stability — especially for community colleges that are taking on more of a responsibility educating and training individuals who have traditionally been left behind.
Keywords: college, community, endowments, investments, funding, budgets, foundations, higher education
Technical debt: What it is, how it limits you and what you can do to manage it
Christopher Amherst, Assistant Director of Advancement Information Systems, Rochester Institute of Technology

Within educational advancement services, technical debt (and data debt) can have positive or adverse impacts on the strategic initiatives of your organisation as well as your team’s ability to innovate or feel empowered. With the ever-growing need for data products, technical debt can be leveraged positively to provide timely insights into prospect engagement or donor segmentation. However, like its financial counterpart, it can adversely affect staff morale, impair a team’s velocity and impact overall productivity, if it is not managed. This paper identifies what technical debt is; differentiates the types of technical debt and their corresponding effects on your strategies and leadership; and proposes techniques to empower your staff in assessing, mitigating, and planning your technical debt.
Keywords: technical debt, advancement services, team leadership, technology management
Two methods for motivating faculty giving
Anne Duke, Associate Professor of Accounting and J. Kent Poff, Associate Professor of Accounting, University of North Georgia

In 2020, the combination of fear of illness due to the COVID-19 pandemic, volatility of the financial markets, violence, social isolation and political unrest left many Americans shaken. These difficulties certainly affected university faculty members, who, in addition, often had to pivot to online delivery and administration. A natural response, when facing adversity, is to reduce charitable giving in order to save for emergencies of personal or family need. This choice might also reduce charitable giving by faculty members to the universities where they teach. In addition, faculty members might personally still be adjusting to the tax changes implemented by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017. TCJA essentially doubled the standard deduction available to US taxpayers. Because of the increase, fewer faculty members are itemising deductions. Therefore, these faculty members no longer receive any federal tax benefit from making charitable contributions. To motivate charitable giving among university faculty, university foundations and departments of advancement should educate faculty members about the tax saving strategies of philanthropic giving to their universities by making qualified charitable distributions directly from retirement accounts and/or using donor-advised funds.
Keywords: faculty, charitable giving, tax saving, qualified charitable distributions, donor-advised funds
Descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytics, simplified
Michael Martinez, Director of Information Systems and Yolanda Rodriguez, Director of Data Management & Gift Services, Florida International University

This paper concentrates on how the FIU Foundation utilises descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytics to increase fundraising efforts. From utilising data techniques to establishing prescriptive analytical reports, this paper provides non-profit fundraising organisations valuable guidance on cultivating long-term, personalised relationships with constituents, securing future donations to their organisation and maintaining a sustainable culture of philanthropy.
Keywords: analytics, alumni engagement, donor solicitations, fundraising, descriptive modelling, predictive modelling
Research paper
Examining the effects of K-8 mergers on brand awareness and fundraising using a mixed-method research design
Julia Cronin-Gilmore, Professor and Director, Doctorate of Business Administration Program, Bellevue University and Helen G. Hammond, Assistant Professor and Senior Program Manager, Center for Innovation in Research and Teaching, Grand Canyon University

A research study was conducted to examine the effects on brand awareness and fundraising for a K-8 private urban school system known as CUES. A substantial number of private schools across the country have suffered financially, with many closing. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to evaluate stakeholder assessment of values, choice and opportunities as well as stakeholder engagement and philanthropic support. Purposive sampling was used to electronically collect data from a sample of n = 139. Quantitative findings illuminate success with more than 60 per cent of participants identifying performance as either ‘above average’ (39.57 per cent) or ‘excellent’ (23.74 per cent). Donors and Board Members described ease of donating to the school with 85.48 per cent indicating ‘very easy’ making it a significant finding relating to other K-8 private schools. Qualitative findings indicate the private school is providing an excellent education for children, diversity, small class sizes and a strong graduation rate where students succeed in high school and beyond. Findings indicate opportunity for community engagement through outreach and service to share successes and tell the story. Recommendations related to teacher support, community engagement, service to others, marketing and showing how donations support the mission are also provided. These findings are transferrable to other private K-8 schools.
Keywords: donors, enrolment, private schools, recruitment, school choice, stakeholder engagement

Volume 6 Number 3 (Winter 2021-22)

Editorial
Simon Beckett, Publisher
Case studies:
Endowment reporting: Reducing time, staff and budget while enhancing quality, quantity and donor satisfaction
Micah Hyle, Assistant Director of Stewardship and Data and Rachel Smith, Donor Relations Coordinator, University of Florida Advancement

In 2017 the University of Florida (UF) launched an ambitious US$3bn fundraising campaign with US$1bn allocated to growing UF’s endowment. Anticipating an influx of new endowment funds, the UF Donor Relations team needed to develop a more sustainable and efficient annual endowment reporting process that would maintain the quality of the reports without increasing time and staffing resources devoted to this effort. To meet this challenge, UF Donor Relations implemented infrastructure changes and built a customised reporting portal that cut the required personnel for report compilation from 24 individuals to 3, implemented a tiered system for donors that resulted in a higher report completion rate from campus partners, and invested time in educating fund administrators on the importance of stewardship and storytelling. Through this case study, readers will learn what steps UF Donor Relations took in order to complete this vision and how to apply these practices to their own reporting processes.
Keywords: donor relations, endowment, technology trends, reporting, advancement services, donor database, stewardship
Updating your stewardship and donor relations strategy: Determining a strategy that works for an organisation of any size
Juliette Kesterson, Director of Donor Relations, The University of Tennessee

This paper focuses on the University of Tennessee’s stewardship and donor relations strategy and how University of Tennessee (UT) creates unique donor stewardship through creative events, technology, segmenting stewardship and elevating personal touches. The examples included can be adapted for the needs of any size organisation.
Keywords: donor relations, stewardship, donor engagement, strategy, partnerships
Reimagining research promotion: How to maintain visibility and momentum through an integrated approach
Molly Gluck, Assistant Director of Public Relations, Boston University

This case study provides an overview of how to effectively leverage social media, content platforms, media relations and creative visual assets to educate the public and key influencers about faculty expertise and cutting-edge research. This paper will outline how higher education institutions can utilise multimedia across multiple channels, owned and earned content, audience segmentation, strategic cadence and evergreen assets to shape, spread and sustain messaging for an overarching topic. The case study will detail fundamentals for successful implementation of each component in the comprehensive campaign. Each specific strategy outlined in this case study has been successfully applied to a wide portfolio of thought leadership and research promotion initiatives for different subject matter areas and faculty members across a major private research university. The reader will be equipped with tools and tactics for developing a dynamic, integrated amplification approach that achieves immediate results and long-term success.
Keywords: higher education, research, thought leadership, integrated promotion, social media, multimedia
Retention marketing: Higher education’s new frontier
Andrew McDaniel, Associate Director, and Jenn Vaughn, Senior Brand Manager, Student Affairs Marketing and Communications, UC Davis

The higher education landscape is changing: 75 per cent of Generation Z say that college is not the only way to get a good education. The 2008 birth dearth has shrunk our pool of 18-year-olds by 15 per cent. National Association for College Admission Counseling’s (NACAC’s) ethic code changes mean colleges can poach our students like never before — and that was all before COVID-19. In this new frontier, retention marketing is paramount. This paper provides insights and approaches to retention marketing that will fit a wide range of audience needs, including case studies from our work at UC Davis Student Affairs Marketing and Communications as it relates to retention and our research into Gen Z.
Keywords: retention, marketing, Generation Z, communications
Practice papers
Great storytelling: Best practices for advancement
Kate McDowell, Associate Professor, School of Information Sciences and Deborah Miller, Assistant Director of Clinical Partnerships, Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign

Storytelling is a key strategy for establishing and sustaining relationships with donors, current and prospective. The purpose of this paper is to explore connections to the century-long public library storytelling in the field of Library and Information Science (LIS) and identify best practices for advancement work. Analysis of 20 interviews with advancement professionals — part of a larger Storytelling at Work project of over 100 interviews — reveals advancement best practices related to library storytelling. Interviewees include advancement professionals at all stages of their career development, from new hires to seasoned leaders. Findings demonstrate that storytelling can inform every stage of the advancement process — including gathering narratives, cultivation, solicitation and stewardship — so that development officers become inspiring tellers of tales. This paper provides a framework to support new advancement professionals to be more strategic in their storytelling and, at the same time, provoke seasoned professionals to analyse how they weave storied relationships.
Keywords: storytelling, advancement, libraries, donor, listening, relationship, connection
Neurodesign: An emerging design discipline that can be used to boost the performance of enrolment and fundraising marketing communications
Deborah Kohl, Professor and Program Director of the D.S. in Information and Interaction Design, Division of Science, Information Arts, and Technologies, The University of Baltimore and Andrés Zapata, EVP of Strategy, idfive

The emerging field of neurodesign employs fundamental knowledge about human brain function to enhance the effectiveness of interface design. This information can be applied to websites and other marketing materials to capture donor and prospective student attention to drive action. Some basics of brain function are described, and specific creative directions stemming from the knowledge of brain–behaviour relationships with respect to attention, working memory and emotional reactivity are offered.
Keywords: neurodesign, conversion rate optimisation (CRO), design, recruitment, fund-raising
Two birds with one programme: How business schools can support their entrepreneurial stakeholders and generate new revenue
John A. Sims, Jr,President and CEO, AJS Consulting and Roy A. Wiggins, III, Trustee Professor of Finance, Department of Finance, Bentley University

This paper examines how US colleges and universities currently support their entrepreneurial stakeholders and proposes an advisory initiative that extends these services in a way that benefits all involved. First, some of the most common support mechanisms provided by these schools to their entrepreneurial stakeholders are detailed. This discussion helps identify an important process that can be added to an already full menu of support that schools provide. Secondly, that process is presented to help schools determine how best to extend the variety of school resources to their school stakeholders engaged in various stages of running business ventures. The ultimate goal is to offer intermediate, advisory opportunities that fall between using independent mentors and coaches and a more formal board of directors. The firms get access to expert advice and counsel. Advisory board candidates have a new way to connect with the school and make meaningful contributions to both the venture and the school. The institution possibly receives a small equity stake in the firm that could bring some needed relief to school’s financial needs. Finally, this process fills an important gap in the services schools can provide their entrepreneurial stakeholders.
Keywords: advisery, alumni relations, corporate relations, entrepreneurship, university advancement

Volume 6 Number 2 (Autumn/Fall 2021)

Editorial
Simon Beckett, Publisher
Case studies:
What’s next for real-time COVID-19-era marketing?
Toni Angelo, Director of Marketing, Office of Strategic Partnerships and Workforce Development and Katie Umberger, Strategic Marketing Specialist, Office of Strategic Partnerships and Workforce Development, Northern Virginia Community College, Dana Cruikshank, Director of Strategic Partnerships, VisionPoint Marketing and Steve Partridge, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships and Workforce Innovation at the Office of Strategic Partnerships and Workforce Development, Northern Virginia Community College

COVID-19 took a heavy toll in the world of higher education and higher education marketing. This paper outlines how Northern Virginia Community College and VisionPoint Marketing tackled the issue of declining summer 2020 enrollment head-on as the pandemic hit the United States and turned the problem on its head in the span of just three weeks. The campaign’s remarkable success serves as a guidepost on what to do in times of crisis in the world of higher education.
Keywords: COVID-19, enrollment marketing, higher education marketing, marketing campaign, pandemic, crisis marketing
What does good engagement and communication with your major gift prospect community look like in the COVID-19 era? Ask your donors
Mary Haworth, Director of the Office of Philanthropic Partnerships and Alumni, University of York

This paper will share findings from a piece of research undertaken by the advancement team at the University of York (UoY) into the needs, interests and concerns of its donor community in the context of the global pandemic. This research helped to shape the ways in which the university’s advancement team and senior leadership colleagues continued to fundraise for UoY’s first institutional campaign. Although particularised to UoY, the paper focuses on two key transferable points: those of the importance of gathering insights from your donor community during a time of great challenge and uncertainty and how gathering around a virtual table is not as limiting as we might have anticipated. The paper aims to share some of the learnings from the research undertaken by the advancement team and to encourage advancement professionals to put your donor community at the heart of your case for support. It will provide insights into how colleagues at UoY have continued to engage, cultivate and steward their donor community despite the challenges posed to fundraising for higher education.
Keywords: digital engagement, donor insights, major donor fundraising
Reporting on donor intent to impact campus spending
Liz Adler, Data Manager for Gift Services and Shannon McBratney, Director of Gift Compliance, University of Colorado Foundation

Have you ever found a US$20 bill in your pocket or wallet that you did not know was there? This is the feeling we are hoping to give our campus partners with our new Fund Purpose Report. Being at a large, decentralised university creates many challenges, one of them is how we get everyone on the same page in regard to how gift funds can be spent. This is the question we set out to answer four years ago. Our quest to solve this problem led us to an audit of every single gift fund we have, about 7,000 in total, and the creation of a dynamic report that is now being used across all four of our campuses, greatly impacting our campus spending. In this paper you will read about how we collected our data, how we added this data to our systems in a strategic way and how we transformed this data into a dynamic report.
Keywords: institutionally related foundation, gift fund, reporting, gift compliance, donor intent, spending
Building a data management system
Alison Kubala, Data Specialist and Kelly Travis, Director of Records and Gifts, University of Central Florida

The University of Central Florida Foundation (UCFF) will serve as a case study for this paper as it describes the steps necessary to create, implement and maintain a comprehensive data programme. Several key building blocks are needed such as setting goals, evaluating resources, garnering leadership support and documenting data standards. In-depth detail is provided on how to create a comprehensive data calendar to track incoming data and data audits. Information is also shared on creating a successful Data Governance Committee structure. Building internal and external relationships is key to data enrichment and the paper will discuss how to select the right vendor. A programme cannot be built overnight, but by using these steps, the framework can be created for long-term maintenance and growth.
Keywords: data management, data audit, data enrichment, data governance, vendor selection
The opportunities and challenges of moving to a virtual events programme during a global pandemic
Janne Whaley, Alumni and Parent Relations Manager, Dulwich College

The impact of a global pandemic on alumni events programmes through 2020 and 2021 has been astounding, with physical events cancelled or postponed. Alumni professionals have had to embrace the virtual, moving programmes online and opening up alumni activities to a global audience. This paper offers insight into how an independent school has adapted to the challenges and embraced the opportunities. We offer thoughts on how we will look to take this learning forward into developing a post COVID-19 programme.
Keywords: alumni engagement, alumni relations, events programme, virtual events
Practice papers:
A process for developing effective gift documentation: Considerations in working with donors and gift officers
Debbie Meyers, Assistant Vice President for Advancement Operations, Chautauqua Institution

Gift documentation often requires a special blend of talents: negotiating skills, legal acumen and a bit of clairvoyance. The author of a gift agreement has to balance the mission of the institution with the donor’s wishes — two variables that do not always align. Drafting a solid gift agreement also requires a good working knowledge of what an organisation can do within the letter of the law, against a backdrop of a legal landscape that changes almost daily. And finally, an effective gift agreement has to take into account what the future holds for the terms of the agreement, particularly for endowed funds that are meant to last forever. Documenting a gift sets the foundation for an organisation’s relationship with its donors. An effective gift agreement clearly outlines the donor’s intent, managing expectations and setting the terms of the gift’s administration. A badly constructed gift agreement can erode trust and irreparably damage the donor’s relationship with the organisation. In drafting gift documentation, it is crucial to get things right at the very beginning to avoid bad publicity, legal battles and disgruntled donors. This paper describes how to document funds that meet three basic but critical attributes: funds must be legal, possible and practical. This paper also looks at donors’ motivation and offers suggestions on how to guide them into creating funds that will benefit the institution and meet their philanthropic goals. It also lists elements that effective gift agreements must contain to function well.
Keywords: Gift documentation, donor intent, legal restrictions, scholarships, fund administration
Diversifying donor bases for higher education institutions
Milagro ‘Misa’ Lobato, Director of Prospect Management and Analytics, Rhode Island School of Design, Kristal Enter, Assistant Director of Prospect Management and Research, Massachusetts General Hospital and Kimberly Walz, Senior Director of Advancement, Prospect Development at the University of Central Florida Foundation

In 2020, institutions of higher education grappled with a new urgency around addressing diversity and inclusion on their campuses as the US processed the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, and the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted profound inequities both on campus and off. Much of this work has focused on diversity of the student and faculty populations, as well as the content of curriculum. In this paper, we argue that addressing the diversification of the donor base to these institutions is just as critical and urgent, though has perhaps not been as central a focus as other aspects of diversity on campus. This paper will touch on the biased systems and fundraising infrastructure that have perpetuated the cultivation of homogenous groups of donors to colleges and universities. We will also provide potential next steps available to colleges and universities that would support the diversification of a donor base. This includes collecting demographic information about donors, building cultural competence among fundraisers and developing quantitative measures around this work.
Keywords: diversity, equity, inclusion, alumni engagement, donor pipeline, fundraising data, bias
Building relationships with audience-centric communications
Allison Turcio, Director of Enrollment Marketing and Digital Strategy, Siena College

Colleges are not just competing with each other for prospective students’ attention, they are competing with Netflix, Snapchat, TikTok, funny memes and all the brands they already love. Audience-centric communication is the way to stand out, build relationships and become a brand that matters. This paper discusses how to focus your mind-set on the audience first, as well as better understand and connect with them. If you are already doing this, this paper will remind you why and reinspire (and maybe even level-up!) your audience centricity. If you are not, the examples shared from higher ed and beyond will help you to get started. It is worth the effort — Siena College found that students who received personal, one-to-one communication from the admissions office were 2.8 times more likely to enrol.
Keywords: higher education, marketing, enrollment, student recruitment

Volume 6 Number 1 (Summer 2021)

Editorial
Simon Beckett, Publisher
Case studies:
Why students don’t read e-mail: A critical look at how university email communications guide or confuse students through the student experience, and the COVID-19 pandemic
Jenny McMahon, Director of Marketing and Communications, Enrollment Management, New York University

This paper examines the perception that ‘students don’t read e-mail’ through the execution and analysis of a comprehensive e-mail audit conducted by New York University’s Enrollment Management Marketing division from May 2019 through May 2020. By looking at the volume, content and quality of e-mail received from the university, we see how institutional messaging can either support or complicate the student experience. This research includes a human-processed dataset of all incoming e-mail communications received during the audit period, quantitative and qualitative analyses of the communications and focus group testimony from undergraduate students. We examine e-mail communications through both the everyday business of being a student and through high-stakes events like the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper illustrates that while volume should not be dismissed as an area of concern among university communicators, the underlying practices that cause e-mail to be ignored are more complex and demand a more strategic approach to student-facing communications.
Keywords: e-mail communications, communications strategy, student experience, content, brand management, organisational culture
Marketing in the time of coronavirus: Lessons learned from the University of Glasgow
Rachel Sandison, Vice-Principal for External Relations, University of Glasgow

This paper provides an overview of the core tenets that drive successful organisational marcomms activity in this peri-COVID-19 environment. The reader will gain an understanding of the marketing theory that underpins these responses, and why marketing and communications has a strategic role to play in driving institutional plans during a crisis. The paper also provides a case study on the specific initiatives undertaken by the University of Glasgow since the start of the pandemic, and the lessons that have been learnt. In particular, the case study focuses on the importance of brand and reputation in the delivery of responsive strategies and the significance of market orientation and innovation during times of crisis.
Keywords: crisis communications, higher education marketing, market orientation, marketing innovation, responsive strategy, stakeholder engagement
Integrated editorial planning at the University of Georgia
Jan Gleason, Executive Director for Strategic Marketing in the Division of Marketing & Communications and Greg Trevor, Executive Director of Media Communications, University of Georgia

This paper provides a case study of how the University of Georgia Marketing & Communications office fine-tuned its processes and tools to integrate editorial and content calendars to expand the reach of content with key audiences to increase awareness. This process brought together teams from media communications and strategic marketing with a focus on the university’s messaging strategy and included a revision of workflows for asset creation and channel distribution planning and the implementation of Asana, a team collaboration and work management application. The results of the integration of efforts led to increased reach and increased team efficiency.
Keywords: integrated marketing communications, editorial planning messaging strategy, integrated team workflows, integrated editorial planning
Alumni participation in an online COVID-19 course for first-year and transfer students
Danny Kibble, Executive Director of Alumni Relations, Engagement and Parent Giving, Jennie Jones, Director of Volunteer Engagement, Office of Alumni Relations and Engagement and Anne M. Wilson, Chemistry Faculty Member, Butler University

College and university responses to the exceptional challenges of COVID-19 have varied from institution to institution. Utilising alumni and their disciplinary expertise in the delivery of course content is an underexploited form of alumni engagement. This paper describes significant alumni participation in an online course delivered in the summer prior to new students, first years and transfers, arriving on campus. We have also included student perception of the alumni modules and alumni reflection on their involvement in the course.
Keywords: alumni engagement, lifelong learning, alumni opportunities, online learning
Practice papers
Data governance in the world of constituent relationship management
Therese Callaghan, Associate Vice President of Information Technology, Analytics and Gift Processing, Rutgers University Foundation

Constituent relationship management (CRM) systems are increasingly being adopted in higher education to manage the constituent experience and ultimately grow revenue and support. As institutions move from transaction-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to constituent-based relationship management systems, there is a need for a uniform understanding of the data in a shared information environment. This, coupled with the growth of analytics and data-informed decision-making, requires a structured programme to effectively manage information and its consistent use throughout the institution. Data governance provides the discipline to nurture a common understanding of the data, its consumption and protection as an organisational asset. This paper defines basic CRM concepts, their benefits to advancement departments and more broadly across higher education institutions. Data governance is explained, in the context of individual constituents and the more complex corporate partnerships. Essential data governance tools and concepts, such as the data dictionary and master data management, are covered, including examples. Ways in which the benefits of data governance can be measured and quantified, especially when justifying a new effort, are explained. While the focus is on higher education and advancement, these concepts can be applied more broadly to any organisation.
Keywords: data governance, data quality, CRM, advancement, MDM, master data management, engagement, corporate
Higher education: Using academic innovation and student engagement to differentiate your brand from the competition in challenging times
Sheri Lambert, Assistant Professor and Academic Director MS-Market Research & Insights and Amy Lavin, Assistant Professor and Academic Director MS-Digital Innovation in Marketing, Temple University at Fox School of Business

COVID-19 has changed the game in higher education. Universities and colleges across the globe are faced with staying true to their brand and delivering their coursework in a time when physical presence on campus is severely limited — if possible at all. There are ways to differentiate an Institution’s strategy and engage students so that they get a full college experience — even if they cannot set a physical foot in the classroom. Through this paper, educators and administrators will be introduced to three key strategies that can be employed to keep students engaged in content and perhaps even provide a more inclusive environment than the physical classroom. Threaded throughout the paper are theories on how to incorporate innovative strategies and communication channels to enhance brand messaging and build community in a largely virtual world.
Keywords: engagement, experiential learning, global immersion, virtual classroom, communication
Stewarding major donors: Why is it important, and how to do it well
Annarosa Muscatelli, Philanthropy Manager (Health), Office of the Vice-Provost (Advancement), University College London

This paper explores the stewardship of major giving donors and provides guidance and examples for building an authentic relationship between institution and donor. In a world where our donor’s attention (and money) is constantly being fought over, the paper suggests how as fundraisers we might cut through this noise and keep donors engaged with our causes.
Keywords: advancement, communications, development, engagement, fundraising, major gifts, stewardship
Research paper
Why wait? Benchmarking student philanthropy programmes: A closer look at effective programmes and why we should act now
Amy Harrell Holloway, Philanthropy Officer, UNICEF USA

Student philanthropy efforts are meant to engage students while they are undergraduates and help them understand the importance of giving once they become alumni. We know that when students give as undergraduates it translates to positive giving patterns as alumni, but there is a need for in-depth study of existing student philanthropy programmes (SPPs) so that practitioners understand what makes them successful. This study explores effective student engagement programmes on college campuses by identifying 11 colleges with effective SPPs and gleaning insight into how these programmes are structured, implemented, managed and maintained. The findings suggest (a) that student philanthropy efforts be led primarily by students, with oversight from at least one full-time dedicated staff person, (b) that philanthropy education is integral to the success of these programmes and can be intertwined with asks as early as the undergraduate’s first year, and (c) that programming should be relevant with students interests.
Keywords: alumni, alumni giving, development, engagement, student philanthropy, young alumni