Higher Education Administration (HEA) Guide

Since their earliest days, the U.S. higher education institutions have relied on philanthropic support to achieve their missions. What began as incidental is now a highly organized process of fundraising that accounts for tens of billions of dollars annually. As institutions' desire for private support grows, so too does the demand for successful fundraising professionals. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative analysis, this survey-based study ( n = 508) of U.S. higher education fundraising personnel provides new knowledge and grounds fundraisers' position in historical and contemporary literature about fundraisers and professionalism. The findings highlight notable generational, income, and gender differences within the higher education sector and between higher education and the greater profession. The analysis shows an established knowledge-base and set of learnable skills for higher education fundraisers-which are best applied when combined with particular personal attributes. Although the latter are critically important, without full and fair attention to the former, the occupation is unlikely to garner full professional status. This study highlights, the path forward highlights the complexity of contemporary fundraising, is a reminder that fundraising is relationship- and information-driven, and indicates that select, strategic efforts can further professionalize the field. In particular, fundraisers in the education sector may have special opportunities to advance the professionalization of their occupation.

Scholars have long documented the intersection between social identity and experiences within higher education. However, we know very little about the role of social identity in shaping alumni engagement with their alma mater, specifically through philanthropic giving. Building upon social identity and social distance theories and the identity-based motivation model, I developed a philanthropic mirroring framework that posits that alumni engagement increases when alumni social identity is mirrored in solicitation efforts. Using my own population-based survey experiment, the National Alumni Giving Experiment (n = 1,621), I found that respondents who shared at least 1 marginalized social identity with students profiled in fundraising solicitations are more likely than others to assign more importance to the cause and to give greater amounts. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

As a result of decreasing government funds and increasing competition, institutions of higher education have propelled themselves into business practices such as branding. Despite the growing literature on branding in higher education, there is little research on the relationship between alumni donor motivations and the university brand. This study explores donor motivations from social identity and self‐congruity theoretical perspectives. The authors used zero‐inflated negative binomial regression to assess the relationship between identification and count of donations. The results showed that if the level of identification with the university increased, the expected number of donations would also increase. The study further assessing the 'zeros' (non‐donors), the results suggested that if an alumnus were to identify with the university, he would be 43% less likely to be 'certain zero' (definitive non‐donor) and would find a way to give money. Additionally, the authors analyzed responses about why alumni donate and why they choose not to donate. The authors offered observations on the basis of respondent commentary and also raised the question of what happens when university branding efforts conflict with the perceptions of a large stakeholder group such as alumni.