Essential Practices for Leaders Communicating Across Difference

Many leaders strive to create an inclusive environment for their employees, but this can be difficult to achieve without first taking time to understand how our own identity can impact our ability to engage in effective and supportive dialogue with a diverse team. Through this training’s experiential activities and small-group discussion, participants who are leading […]

Establishing a University Engagement Council to Coordinate Communication with Major Donors

Maximizing philanthropic opportunities is the underlying objective of every advancement shop. A fundamental part of ensuring this objective is achieved comes from broad engagement with major donors—which involves strategic communications and connections from various units and stakeholders on campus. To ensure that communication efforts with major donors are well organized, having information on who is […]

Building Stronger Teams with Empathy and Humility

The Covid-19 pandemic laid bare issues with retention, psychological safety, and a sense of belonging that leaders in higher education must face on their own teams. Faculty and staff thrive on strong teams with a positive, productive culture, and leaders who are empathic and humble create a team culture where it is possible to undo […]

Increasing Student Retention and Completion Rates through Proactive Advising

Many institutions are already using proactive advising to help students in danger of failing or dropping out. But are you effectively communicating with both staff and academically at-risk students to maximize your impact? Proactive advising techniques can help you to increase student retention and completion rates through improving interdepartmental communication and creating a better understanding […]

Strategies to Confidently Communicate with Students Experiencing Mental Health Challenges

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 campus, anxiety, and depression has increased during the pandemic. Students returning to campus will need more support than ever. Front-line […]

Building, Leading, and Retaining a High-Performance Frontline Fundraising Team

A new generation of frontline fundraisers who have different values and needs, combined with a rapidly changing social environment and labor market, are making the task of selecting, developing, and retaining fundraising teams more difficult than ever. Yet we know that our ability to sustainably raise fundraising revenue year after year depends on having skilled […]

Retain Frontline Fundraisers by Fostering Inclusive Practices

When prospect and donor values around diversity, equity, and inclusion do not align with your institutional values, tension can develop in the relationship, leading to difficult conversations that can have a negative impact on frontline fundraising goals. Knowing how to effectively communicate and interact with your prospects and donors can lead to deeper relationships with […]

Forging On and Off Campus Partnerships to Support Students’ Emergency Needs

Students of color, first-generation students, and low-income students are typically the most at risk of falling through the cracks in college. In addition to academic barriers, these students often lack financial resources to make it through emergencies or breaks in the academic year. As institutions look to increase retention and completion rates for students from […]

Enhance Donor Experience by Conducting an Acknowledgement Audit

Institutions offer myriad giving opportunities that donors might choose to support. From the unrestricted gift to the gift supporting a scholarship or program, many institutions offer dozens or even hundreds of ways donors can allocate their gifts. Unfortunately, with decentralized institutions, a multitude of giving options can lead to inconsistencies in the ways that units, […]