Current or aspiring deans, assistant or associate deans, center or institute directors, chairs, and other academic leaders will benefit from this course. If you are looking to improve your partnerships with colleagues, alumni, and donors and create a thriving culture of philanthropy, you will benefit from this experience.

Week 1 – Understanding Your Leadership Style: The Five Paths to Leadership^SM Self-Assessment 
Starting: January 13, 2025 | Live Session: January 16, 2025 (12:00 – 1:30 p.m. ET)
Format: On-Demand and Live | Approximate Time Commitment: 2 hours 

Developing self-awareness as an academic leader can enable you to collaborate more effectively with colleagues, alumni, and donors. To begin our time together, you will complete the Five Paths to Leadership^SM Self-Assessment and examine your natural leadership style under both normal and stressful circumstances. Using this framework, you will consider how you show up in conversations and opportunities related to philanthropy for your academic unit.

Week 2 – Connecting Leadership, Collaboration, and Philanthropic Facilitation 
Starting: January 20, 2025
Format: On-Demand | Approximate Time Commitment: 1 hour 

Collaboration is a critical component of fostering a culture of philanthropy for your academic unit. How well you interact with colleagues can influence the outcomes you are able to achieve with alumni and donors. This week, you will consider what internal relationships you need to nurture to support your institutional efforts to strengthen alumni affinity and donor participation.

Week 3 – Creating the Conditions for Sustained Philanthropic Support: Part I  
Starting: January 27, 2025
Format: On-Demand | Approximate Time Commitment: 2 hours 

This week you will be introduced to a purpose-driven model of philanthropy, supported by the four philanthropic vital signs that indicate the health of a fundraising operation—appreciation, affiliation, agency, and accountability. You will consider what you know about alumni appreciation and practice listening to donors through discovery conversations. In doing so, you can identify pathways for them to give through your institution, rather than to it.

Week 4 – Creating the Conditions for Sustained Philanthropic Support: Part II 
Starting: February 3, 2025
Format: On-Demand | Approximate Time Commitment: 1.5 hours 

Eighty percent of volunteers contribute philanthropically to the organizations to which they give their time. This week, you will explore ways in which you can develop opportunities for alumni and donors to meaningfully engage with your academic unit to strengthen their affiliation. You will begin identifying portals of purpose that align with donor passions and drafting whitepapers that give donors agency to make a significant, sustainable difference in the world. You’ll also consider how collaboration is critical to demonstrating the impact of donor giving.

Week 5 – Reflecting on Your Role in Philanthropic Facilitation 
Starting: February 10, 2025 | Live Session: February 13, 2025 (12:00 – 1:30 p.m. ET)
Format: On-Demand and Live | Approximate Time Commitment: 3 hours

You’ll bring together everything you’ve learned through reading and examining a case study to identify how leadership, collaboration, and the philanthropic vital signs lead to successful philanthropic facilitation with a donor. You’ll also create an action plan for the year ahead focused on improving collaboration and the health of your philanthropic vital signs, and you’ll discuss with your peers how to overcome any barriers you may face to implement it.

Learn more about the program, how it works, who it was designed for, and when new cohorts will begin.

For those who choose to add on our Executive Coaching package, you will receive 6 sessions of executive coaching and will be paired with a coach who has extensive experience in higher education.