What’s in a Name, asks CASE?
Recently CASE President, Sue Cunningham, wrote a bulletin to all members identifying the challenges of the profession being able to use a universally accepted name for the work undertaken by an institutional Development Office. These days, CASE prefers the word ‘Advancement’ which is widely used in the USA, but has not been readily accepted in UK schools.
It was back in 1990 when the then CASE President, Peter Buchanan, addressed the same topic and his description of our work became one of the blueprints that I use and espouse to this day.
He described the work of Development as comprising three inter-related functions: Alumni Relations, Communications and Fundraising, with the activity undertaken in that order to ensure sustainability. He made the quite clear assertion that a Development Office undertaking fundraising on its own, without being integrated with alumni (and parent) relations alongside an evolving communications strategy, would only achieve short term results.
There are many cases where an institution urgently needs a short term injection of funds and embarks on a specific campaign – right enough – but for long term results and greater engagement, those schools where fundraising is directly linked to the alumni activity consistently achieve sustained success.
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