Benchmarking Advancement

Abstract

Trustees and senior managers of universities and nonprofit organizations commonly encounter challenge when seeking alignments that optimize fundraising. The paper incorporates understandings for fundraising success from structured study of strategies, processes, and behaviors for institutional advancement employed by leaders of some of the world's most successful universities in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. The paper outlines: 1) Strategic uses of organizational communication in high-performing universities; 2) Key assumptions and practices evident in world-class university advancement operations; 3) Relevant organizational communication strategies, processes, and behaviors that might be applied in a wide range of contexts for institutional advancement. The conclusion of the paper details a menu of concerns, from which an organization contemplating best practices in institutional advancement might tailor an approach for implementing internal and external benchmarking to develop best practices.

Keywords: organizational communication, educational leadership, organizational development, benchmarking, institutional advancement, public relations, fundraising, best practices, nonprofits