Volume 8 (2023-24)

Volume 8 of Journal of Education Advancement & Marketing consists of four 100-page issues. Articles scheduled for Volume 8 are available to view on the 'Forthcoming content' page.

Articles published in Volume 8 include:

Volume 8 Number 2 (Autumn/Fall 2023)

Editorial
Simon Beckett, Publisher
Leading change: Building a resilient development office through succession planning
Alison Traub, Ben Golding and Lauren Laur

When high rates of employee turnover resist mitigation efforts, a new strategy is needed for overcoming the ill effects of poor employee retention. This paper aims to describe the efforts undertaken by Cambridge University Office of Development and Alumni Relations (Cambridge) to develop a succession plan for key positions. The steps they implemented form a framework that can help development offices increase their resilience and maintain equilibrium amidst the uncertainty and inconsistency of turnover. It provides insights into advancement offices' need for strategy, transparency and flexibility to thrive in an increasingly volatile job market.
Keywords: fundraising; succession; turnover; human resources; training
Engaging parents and families: They are an audience too
Sonia Garrido

Parents and families play a key role in a college student's life. It is crucial for campus communicators to establish better lines of communication with this audience, provide them with information about services and programmes in easily understood ways and engage them as important members of the campus community. This case study analyses the strategies Stony Brook University's Student Affairs implemented to decrease the information gap with parents and families, how various communication channels were set up to help this audience stay informed and connected with the university, and provides a summary of insights and approaches helpful for other institutions looking to implement a similar programme.
Keywords: parents; families; communications; best practices; campus resources
Maximising the life of your content on social media through repurposing
Blaine Pugh, Brittany Cowan, Chelsey Holts and Jane Rudenko

Content teams at higher education institutions produce a vast array of content, from written profiles to YouTube videos that share excitement leading up to an event. Social media teams often amplify this content once, and often look for additional sources of content to fill content calendars throughout the year. This paper showcases how, through repurposing, content is maximised to its fullest potential and can reach more audiences in innovative ways. This paper shares strategies on how to best repurpose content, examples from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and best practices for institutions to keep in mind.
Keywords: repurposing; video; social media; campaigns; higher education
Raising the donor ambition: From major to mega gifts
Heather Little and Lisa Mitchell

In 2018, Monash University publicly launched its inaugural philanthropic campaign with a goal of raising AU$500m from a community of 50,000 donors and doubling the number of bequests. In order to achieve these ambitious goals, the fundraising team focused not only on cultivating and securing new philanthropic gifts, but also on deepening relationships with existing philanthropic donors to raise the donor ambition and to encourage renewal and uplift of philanthropic gifts and grants to the university. Through exploring two philanthropic donor case studies, this paper will provide an overview of the cultivation strategies used to engage donors. Strategies that took philanthropic partnerships from relational to transformational, that raised the donor ambition and so contributed to the university's philanthropic campaign goals. This paper will also explore the importance of embedding a culture of philanthropy across all levels of an organisation, as well as provide some insights into how to collaborate with key stakeholders for enduring philanthropic success.
Keywords: fundraising; philanthropy; culture of philanthropy; donors; major gifts; storytelling; impact; relationships; campaign; communication
Using social media to prevent ‘melt’ in the virtual era
Chay Rao and Sabiha Afrin

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated closures and mitigation processes changed the structure of higher education. Temporary decisions to move classes online became, in some cases, permanent, and an increasing number of students, including those enrolled in residential universities, availed themselves of remote learning opportunities. This new frontier has challenged university communications teams to rethink classic strategies for student connection; such connection has been shown to build excitement for classes and college life, ensuring that students ‘show up’ for virtual learning and maintain enrolment until graduation. This paper presents a case study on the successful social media tactics used by one school-level communications team at a private US residential university to forge deeper connections to students and prevent ‘melt’ in the virtual era.
Keywords: higher education communications; higher education marketing; student enrolment; student retention; social media
Transitioning international student scholars to dedicated alumni volunteers and advocates
Kyriaki Protopapa

This paper explores the value of developing an on-campus calendar of activity to engage and build relationships with future alumni stakeholders while they are still students, taking the University of Nottingham international student scholars as a case study.
Keywords: alumni relations; international alumni; scholarships; events; volunteering; global networks
A commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion: A seven-sector framework to transform higher education access, success and completion
Anton Reece and Lee Emmons

As the US continues to navigate the historic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cities, counties and states, higher education has also been affected, particularly diverse, lower socio-economic and first-generation students. Although access to education has always had common challenges including financial, transport, childcare and access to broadband and Wi-Fi, the achievement and success gaps have had a disproportionate impact on some students. Overall student excellence is a top priority at West Kentucky Community and Technical College (WKCTC), particularly given its achievement of being a record five-times top-ten college nationally and twice a finalist with distinction, including in May 2021. Therefore, areas of deep concern were not only access, success and equity, but also a lack of developed committees to identify, address and implement strategies to address those gaps. What was also missing was adequate funding to meet the large and varied needs of our regional student populations. In December 2020, WKCTC was the recipient of a record US$15m gift from philanthropist Mackenzie Scott, which is the largest single donor gift in the college's history. The college advanced a bold and transformative vision to address and remove financial barriers and barriers to regional access and success in higher education by incorporating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) through a seven-sector vision developed by the president.
Keywords: diversity; equity; inclusion; endowment; stewardship

Volume 8 Number 1 (Summer 2023)

Editorial
Simon Beckett, Publisher
Fundraising from couples: New research on how households make giving decisions
Jacqueline Ackerman, Associate Director and Jeannie Infante Sager, Director, Women’s Philanthropy Institute, Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy

This paper explores the question: ‘who decides?’ to provide a deeper look at how households make charitable giving decisions. The Women's Philanthropy Institute fielded a survey of the general US population to ask about charitable decision making. Couples are most likely to use joint decision making, but when one partner makes giving decisions for the household, it is more likely to be a woman. Going beyond previous research, this paper further unpacks the decision-making process. It also situates charitable giving within the context of other household financial decisions, finding that for many households, charitable giving may function similarly to a household bill. The study results have implications for a broad audience, including development professionals who want to better engage donor couples and households and encourage them to increase their giving and approach it in a more strategic way.
Keywords: donor cultivation; donor engagement; household dynamics; giving decisions
Making the save: How 40 hockey players funded a new clinical trial (and the team that made it happen)
Michael Siebert, Program Coordinator, Annual Giving, Office of Alumni Relations and Brooke Rose, Director of Development, College of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Alberta

In February 2021, the University of Alberta (U of A) partnered with the Cure Cancer Foundation and the World's Longest Game to hold the World's Longest Hockey Game to raise funds for the clinical trials for PCLX-001, a new drug to treat breast and blood cancers. The fundraising component of this 11-day event primarily utilised a peer-to-peer approach and was hosted on the U of A's crowdfunding platform. This paper aims to provide insight and recommend best practices for turning an event into a large-scale fundraising effort. The analysis will cover technical and logistical setup, as well as the outreach strategies that were a key part of the crowdfunding model's success. Also explored will be the storytelling, management and messaging necessary to create an authentic sense of community and meaningfully engage shareholders.
Keywords: philanthropy; fundraising; cancer research; third party events; crowdfunding; stakeholder engagement; volunteers; peer-to-peer; communications
Similar but different: How University College Cork created a brand identity for Alumni and Development (and brand value for the wider university)
Kate McSweeney, Director of Communications, Alumni and Development, University College Cork

This paper analyses how University College Cork successfully created a unique and vibrant brand identity for their Alumni and Development office while simultaneously creating value for the overall brand of the university. It reviews the challenges that exist for many higher education marketing teams in complying with overall university brand guidelines, yet successfully creating an alumni and development brand identity to meet the needs and wants of their target audience. The ‘Connecting You’ visual identity innovatively uses the key motif to connect alumni back to their alma mater on both a metaphorical and literal level. Drawing upon University College Cork's experience in creating a meaningful visual identity from the ground up, the data-driven research, traditions and components for success will be identified. You will be taken on a creative journey outlining the steps taken to develop a new vibrant alumni and development brand identity — focusing on the power of symbols, effective storytelling, compelling multi-media content and emotive design that evokes a sense of connection and opportunity with the university.
Keywords: brand; brand development; visual identity creation; University College Cork; Connecting You
Competitors on the court, collaborators in the world: How two universities teamed up during the Final Four
Chelsey Holts, Director of Social Media, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Morgan Moushon, Senior Manager of Digital Marketing and Analytics, Discover Durham

This paper focuses on the unique collaboration between the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, referenced as Carolina, and Duke University leading up to a historic National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Final Four men's basketball matchup on 2nd April, 2022. Learn how the social media teams at each university teamed up to capitalise on the national attention by highlighting several ways the schools collaborate off the court through partnerships in research and innovation. The examples included can be adapted for the needs of any size institution and any sort of collaboration.
Keywords: collaboration; social media; campaigns; higher education; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Duke University; NCAA
Bridging the brand content divide: The cross-departmental collaboration that created institutional best practice and a high-performing website
Jeremy Mishler, Associate Vice President for Marketing and Communications University Advancement and Marketing and Eric Hazen, Director of Digital Marketing, Ferris State University

This paper analyses how Ferris State University unified two rival teams to rebuild their College of Business's web presence, create a model for cross-departmental collaboration and innovation and grow the college's web traffic and conversions for the first time in more than seven years. Learn how the College of Business and the university's Advancement and Marketing team came together in the face of enrolment declines to rebrand and rebuild their prospective students’ online experience and improve their conversion rate. While the authors discuss the best practices they utilised to develop the site, this paper focuses on how these two teams navigated previous conflicts and leveraged the unique expertise of both teams to create something neither was capable of on their own.
Keywords: marketing; brand awareness; enrolment; website design; digital user experience; digital conversions; innovation; collaboration
Reimagining trust fundraising: Taking a major donor approach to cultivation
Peter Lock, Senior Development Officer (Trusts and Foundations) and Lyndsey Robinson, Senior Development Manager, University of Bradford

This paper focuses on cultivating trusts and foundations using methods more closely associated with individual major donors. It describes how the current fundraising landscape lends itself well to this kind of approach and how the real-life experience of working in a small team led to the development of the methods described. The paper then focuses on key areas, including making first contact, developing a relationship, different ways to make connections with trusts and ‘value added’ cultivation. It provides guidance and examples of how to operationalise aspects of this approach.
Keywords: fundraising; trusts and foundations; cultivation; networks
Listening: A way to improve university reputation and governance
Santiago Fernández-Gubieda, Chief Reputation Officer, University of Navarra and Ángel Rojas, Senior Consultant in Corporate Communication

Since 2018, the University of Navarra (Spain) has been using surveys and focus groups to analyse and evaluate the perceptions of its key audiences. This has helped provide a nuanced understanding of the university's reputation, and has given the institution indicators of ideal university performance and brand sentiment. This information can be used to design scorecards for monitoring perceptions. Indicators facilitate decision making that improve the university community’s day to day life. This project confirms that listening introduces new forms of participation and can lead to improvement in university governance. It is also a good method for learning about an institution's reputation. With the collaboration of Fundación Funciva 2023.
Keywords: listening; university reputation; reputation management; stakeholder management; intangible asset management; universities; students
Developing a successful content strategy with a small team and budget
Kristofer Karol, Director of Marketing and Communications, Michigan State University College of Nursing and Marco Schimizzi, Digital Communications Manager, Michigan State University College of Education

Leading a small marketing team and budget can be difficult, but with a little creativity, strategy and resourcefulness, you can still see some impressive results. In the summer of 2021, the small marketing team at the Michigan State University College of Nursing created its ‘Neighborhood Nurses' series to spotlight students and alumni practising in their hometowns. Despite occurring during an ongoing, worldwide pandemic, the campaign, which shared why these nurses chose to go back to their hometowns to practise, significantly increased web traffic to the college website, generated nearly a quarter of a million reach on paid social, injected positivity during a trying time for those in the healthcare industry and helped the university's government relations team meet one of its goals. The multi-channel content marketing strategy featured written stories, videos, graphics, photo galleries, webpages and more over the course of a seven-week campaign, which ran through the summer and up until the beginning of the autumn admissions cycle and focused both on the subjects and their hometowns. All of this was done on a budget of roughly US$5,500 and a team of 2.5 marketing-communications employees. This paper analyses the result, which was that the marketing team was able to embark on future campaigns and even saw an increase in marketing budget and team size due to its successes and senior leadership's new, larger goals.
Keywords: content marketing; integrated marketing; communications; marketing