Hearkening back to the historic relationship between philanthropy and higher education is useful for two reasons. First, it allows us to examine history in a more complete context. Second, it allows us to draw contemporary parallels. Rather than building institutions, today's transformational donors appear interested in how institutions build…

Conrad Colbrandt gave Saint Mary's College of California a financial permission slip to dream big--a $112-million pledge to support new construction and endowments. From the time that Colbrandt made his pledge in 1997 until 2004, talk of new athletics facilities and classroom buildings became real architectural plans. However, all of those plans…

Successful fund-raising efforts are critical for public higher education institutions as they seek to offset uncertainty in government funding. This study evaluated the enhancement of fund-raising capacity through the maintenance of enduring donor relationships. Utilizing the Donor/Organization Integration Model, the study examined interactions…

As state and federal legislatures increase scrutiny and further constrain allocation of tax revenues for education, the need for educational institutions to generate money from other public and private sources becomes increasingly important. Educators from pre-kindergarten through college are now frequently asked to take active roles in generating…

Are we witnessing the privatization of public university research libraries? There is convincing evidence that, in an era of decreasing state support for public higher education, public universities have begun to resemble private universities, particularly in their sources of revenue. A number of indicators demonstrate that public universities,…

The NewSchools Venture Fund is a non-profit organization with a mission to "transform public education through powerful ideas and passionate entrepreneurs", support education entrepreneurs who are working to better serve disadvantaged children, and provide "thought leadership" to help bring about "broad systematic…

This experimental study assessed the effectiveness of fundraising messages. Based on recent findings regarding the effects of message framing and evidence, effective fundraising messages should combine abstract, statistical information with a negative message frame and anecdotal evidence with a positive message frame. In addition, building on…

Successful sport entities have a variety of stable revenue sources to meet increasing expenses. There are three major categories of revenue sources: public, private, and a combination of public and private sources. It is extremely important for the sport manager to ensure that all varieties of revenue streams are maintained. The public sources of…

Colleges in the US raised a collective US$25.6-billion in private donations during the 2005 fiscal year, which is a 4.9% increase from the previous year, but the proportion of alumni who made gifts fell again. The wealth was also not evenly distributed, with the increase in giving to just the top ten institutions accounting for half of the total…

Numerous corporations offer support to the community through charitable foundations. Some of these foundations focus on national initiatives, but many earmark their resources for regional, state, and local programs. The recent economy has reduced the amount of available money, but education is often a high funding priority and grants are being…

Although "naming rights" have proliferated in American higher education for the past several decades, the phenomenon has recently expanded to extraordinary lengths. In this area, academe fits right in with the larger culture, which has named everything from AutoZone Park to Gillette Stadium to the children's wing of your local hospital. Anything…

British support for Italian unification in the nineteenth century is well known but little research exists on continued British involvement with Italy after 1860. One of the most remarkable figures of this era was Julie Schwabe, who launched a one-woman campaign to raise funds to establish schools in Naples. Her first institution closed because of…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of chief development officers about the influence of socio-demographic, alumni involvement, and student experience factors of alumni on major giving to higher education institutions. This study also involved the investigation of differences between institutions with respect to…

Community colleges have an opportunity to engage in institutional advancement while conveying a timely and inspiring message, but the collective voice of the institution needs to be focused and clear. As a result, community colleges need to carefully evaluate their mission, public image, financial needs, and donor base in order to identify a…

University development offices face many challenges--including the struggle to maintain collaborative relationships between external and internal stakeholders. As a collaborative and critical function for research universities, development offices offer university leaders new ways to think about aligning people, culture, and goals with…