Stepping Forward
CURRENTS Article Dwindling state financial support, demands to improve student performance, and the need to adapt to a fast-changing online educational landscape are putting pressure on public higher education institutions and their leaders. Boards of trustees are concerned about the future of their institutions and are taking on a more active role.

Swifter, Sharper, Stronger
CURRENTS Article A growing number of chief alumni officers are striving to make the alumni board a more strategic entity. To achieve this, chief alumni officers recommend aligning the alumni board's goals with the institution's goals, rethinking the board's membership and nominating process, and making the board's work meaningful to alumni and the institution. The end result is a more positive experience for alumni relations' VIPs: the volunteers.

Communicating Up
CURRENTS Article This article examines the benefits to the institution, the board, and the communications operation when the chief communicator has a relationship with the institution's governing board, whether direct or indirect.

Aboveboard
CURRENTS Article College and university boards of trustees encounter a number of ethical issues on occasion, such as institutional contracts that are awarded to board members and boards that pressure an institution to accept gifts that go against its values. This article provides advice to advancement leaders on how to navigate these landmines with a focus on how they can educate their boards about ethics.

Boards of Alumni Associations and Institutionally Related Foundations
Good Question Does CASE have information about alumni boards and foundation boards? We’re looking for roles and responsibilities of each type, expectations for individual board members, committee structures, nomination and orientation materials, etc.

Board Documents
Sample Collection The CASE InfoCenter maintains this collection of board materials from alumni associations and institutionally related foundations. Samples include bylaws, board roles and responsibilities, committee structures and responsibilities, nomination and orientation material, and assorted other documents. The collection is available to all CASE members.

Motivating a Fundraising Board
Article Advancement officials who liaise with fundraising boards need to take more personal responsibility for their members’ engagement with donor cultivation, says a CASE faculty member.

Boards in Crisis: The Impact of Communications and Governance
Product This webinar teaches strategies for preparing communications offices, boards and presidents to communicate well with the media: how to handle everyday opportunities and once-in-a-lifetime crises with an institution’s best interests and reputation in mind. This multimedia file is a recording of a webinar presented Oct. 25, 2012.

Motivating Your Community College Fundraising Board
Product This webinar teaches ways to motivate board members (as well as administrators, staff members and volunteers) to greatness. Topics include positive psychology, diverse learning styles and cognitive shifting. This multimedia file is a recording of a webinar presented Nov. 6, 2012.

Advice for New Chief Fundraisers
Article Two community college chief fundraisers say colleagues who are new to leadership roles in fundraising should engage academic and board leaders in the advancement process, so that they have institutional allies in their work efforts.

Office Space: Personal Invitations
CURRENTS Article The LGBT community is growing in visibility and formal acceptance. How can institutions better welcome and integrate this community into their educational advancement efforts?

The Mindful Development Officer
CURRENTS Article Veteran advancement officer Deb Taft offer tips for reaching out to diverse alumni and volunteers and ensuring they're involved in meaningful ways.

Office Space: We Know Better
CURRENTS Article Keep board members informed, give them meaningful work, and show them appreciation in order to leave board members with a favorable view of and quite possibly increase their engagement (in terms of volunteerism and financial gifts) with your institution.

Tips for Engineering a Great Volunteer Board
Article Any good volunteer board needs a tune up every now and then—and the boards of institutionally related foundations are no exception. A board’s makeup should change as the institution’s goals change, experts say, whether this means attracting members willing to take on a more proactive role in fundraising or bringing on higher-level executives who maintain invaluable professional networks.

Engineering a Great Board
Article Any good volunteer board needs a tune up every now and then—and community college foundation boards are no exception. A board’s makeup should change as the institution’s goals change, experts say, whether this means attracting members willing to take on a more proactive role in fundraising or bringing on higher-level executives who maintain invaluable professional networks.

Lessons Learned: Shifting Your Volunteer Board Composition
Product During this webinar, a foundation executive director examines the dynamics and challenges involved in changing the composition of a volunteer board. She talks about the lessons she learned during this highly contentious undertaking. This multimedia file is a recording of a webinar originally presented Feb. 14, 2012.

Odds and Ends: The Giving Kind
CURRENTS Article Devoted philanthropists John and Tashia Morgridge talk to CURRENTS about the importance of writing small checks and the challenge of giving large gifts in a public manner, offer advice on how to become informed and engaged philanthropists, discuss possible changes to the U.S. charitable giving deduction, and reminisce about some of the projects they've helped make possible.

Odds and Ends: Woman on Board
CURRENTS Article In this interview with CURRENTS, best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Anna Quindlen talks about her board service to her alma mater, Barnard College.

Arm in Arm
CURRENTS Article From recruitment to orientation and beyond, development professionals should be deeply involved with members of their institution's board of trustees. But too often advancement officers treat board members like "hot potatoes," and are reluctant to touch them. This article explains why it is important for the development office to embrace working with the board and offers tips on how to do so effectively.

Winning Words: A Volunteer's Guide to Asking for Major Gifts_Single copy PDF
Product Winning Words helps your trustees, alumni, and friends prepare for prospect calls. Along with explaining the duties of the asker and the civic obligations of the prospect, it shows them how to handle the most commonly asked questions and most commonly offered excuses..

Winning Words: A Volunteer's Guide to Asking for Major Gifts_Packet of 25
Product Winning Words helps your trustees, alumni, and friends prepare for prospect calls. Along with explaining the duties of the asker and the civic obligations of the prospect, it shows them how to handle the most commonly asked questions and most commonly offered excuses.

Winning Words: A Volunteer's Guide to Asking for Major Gifts_Packet of 10
Product Winning Words helps your trustees, alumni, and friends prepare for prospect calls. Along with explaining the duties of the asker and the civic obligations of the prospect, it shows them how to handle the most commonly asked questions and most commonly offered excuses.

Strategic Board Recruitment and Involvement to Dramatically Increase Giving
Product This webinar looks at strategic board recruitment and offers tips for identifying and engaging board members in meaningful ways to increase giving. This multimedia file is a recording of a webinar originally presented April 14, 2011.

Community College Foundations: An Analysis of a Survey Conducted by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education
White Paper This white paper on the structure and staffing of community college foundations reports the results of a CASE survey conducted in 2010. The survey asked community college foundation leaders to respond to questions about board and governance, staffing, alumni relations, budget/funding, fundraising/private support, campaigns, major gifts, endowment and donor outreach.

Best of the Board Cafe: Hands-on Solutions for Nonprofit Boards
Product This collection of most-requested articles from CompassPoint’s Board Café online newsletter offers insights on board responsibilities, executive directors, fundraising, finance and more.

Assessment and Evaluation of Trustees
Product This webinar helps participants learn about various strategies for measuring the effectives of a board as a whole and of individual board members. This is a recording of a webinar originally presented April 8, 2010.

Advance Work: Better with Age
CURRENTS Article The alumni relations director at Siena Heights University created a new advisory group for former board members in response to their desire to remain engaged.

Recruitment and Orientation of Trustees
Product The proper recruitment and orientation of board members is of critical importance to the overall effectiveness and success of the board, the president or head, and the management and health of the institution in which these key leaders serve. This webinar covers the identification, cultivation and selection of trustees and the preparation, transition and education of this primary governing body for an institution. Covers specific recruitment strategies. This multimedia file is a recording on a webinar originally presented Nov. 5, 2009.

Advance Work: A Boon from ­T. Boone
CURRENTS Article The story behind T. Boone Pickens’ $25 million gift to the University of Calgary.

Drawn to Perfection
CURRENTS Article Alumni association leadership and operations change through the years, but often the board structure, or even members, do not. This article discusses how to create the best board for your institution.

Work in Progress: Meeting of Minds
CURRENTS Article Remember good old parliamentary rules of order? The rules are alive and well, and they can help keep meetings from veering off subject, dissolving into personal debates, and failing to reach a decision. Author Nancy Sylvester, a certified professional parliamentarian, describes in practical terms how to apply Robert's Rules for the benefit of all meeting participants.

First Class Leadership
CURRENTS Article All alumni volunteers are important, but the ones that serve on your board and advocate for the institution with legislators need to be recruited and trained with care.

As the World Turns
CURRENTS Article Development is a relatively recent activity in European independent schools, which have unique cultural and historical challenges regarding fundraising. This article describes what the challenges are and how several schools abroad are overcoming them. One important strategy is having a strong development team made up of the head of school, the board chair, and the development director. Each has a specific and critical role to play.

Confessions of a Bad Board Member
CURRENTS Article No alumni professional wants a bad board member on the alumni board. With some planning, forethought, and honest conversations, the alumni board can be on track and working for the institution.

Givers and Getters
CURRENTS Article With increased competition for public and private monies, boards of higher education institutions are becoming more involved in fundraising. This article describes how board members can contribute by seeking as well as donating gifts. It also lays out some strategies for selecting and managing the best-suited volunteers to serve on these important groups.

Fundraising Habits of Supremely Successful Boards
Product This book is aimed at developing board members who are effective and successful in raising the financial support for their mission.

Alumni Administration
Product Selected chapters from the Handbook of Institutional Advancement (3rd ed.) cover key topics related to alumni administration: board relations; alumni involvement in fundraising; communications; program funding and legal issues. Also discusses how to structure alumni association board reporting relationships, recruit board members, define board positions, outline responsibilities and communicate effectively with a board.

Closing Remarks: Just Ask
CURRENTS Article Advancement officers should engage governing boards in strategic discussions. Governance expert Richard T. Ingram suggests beginning with five key issues: philanthropy, image management, affiliated foundation relations, donor involvement, and corporate partnerships. He also offers other ways to inform trustees about advancement and to make room for such topics on crowded meeting agendas.

AdvanceWork: The Ayes Have It
CURRENTS Article Dartmouth College alumni vote annually to choose alumni representatives to the college’s board. In 2000, the alumni staff began offering alumni the option to vote online, both to simplify vote-counting and to promote voter participation. Although participation did not increase in the first year of online voting, it remained steady, and more than one-third of voters used the online option. Officials hope the shift will also reduce election costs.

Alumni at the Wheel
CURRENTS Article Ladner was president of Rollins College’s alumni association board when the college began a major revitalization of the board’s membership, structure, and function. In this brief account, which accompanies a larger article on the board restructuring process, he reflects on the transition from a traditional association model to a modern, working board.

Full Speed Ahead
CURRENTS Article As Rollins College headed into a campaign, officials realized the alumni association needed a stronger board. A three-year restructuring effort changed the board from a homogenous, mostly social group of 15 people to a diverse, active group of 30. The board adopted a businesslike approach, defined its mission and vision, and set measurable goals and strategies. Thanks to the new board, alumni giving, reunion attendance, and program participation have all increased.

AdvanceWork: Anatomy of a Board
CURRENTS Article Six types of volunteer leaders your campus needs

Mastering the Maze
CURRENTS Article In the United States, charitable solicitation is regulated by the federal government but also by many state, county, and local governments. This article describes four areas of regulation with which fund raisers should be aware: registration, maintaining and providing records, telemarketing and direct mail, and trustee conduct.

Back on Track
CURRENTS Article Weerts offers seven suggestions to recharge an alumni board: 1) Recruit well, 2) Communicate the board’s purpose early and often, 3) Don’t underestimate board members’ commitment, 4) Let board members address important problems, 5) Give everyone a chance to speak, 6) Make board participation a learning experience, and 7) Ask students for feedback on important issues.

Who's in Charge?
CURRENTS Article Debra Beck discusses alumni boards and the myths vs. realities surrounding them. She examines the traditional, hierarchical structure of alumni boards and offers alumni associations alternatives to them.

Groups Dynamic
CURRENTS Article Successful development committees share several traits. They have: 1) a clear charge; 2) a dynamic chair; 3) the board volunteers with the most clout; 4) provide a strong orientation and training program for the committee members; and 5) direct interaction with the president or head of the institution. In addition, effective committees have substantive, rather than aimless meetings, clear and frequent communication between meetings, and substantive work assignments. A sidebar article suggests ways of dealing with common development committee problems, such as handling volunteers who won't give a charitable gift, or avoiding the post-campaign doldrums. The composition and responsibilities of the Swarthmore College development committee are presented as an example of what is expected of these members.

Winning Words: A Volunteer's Guide to Asking for Major Gifts_Packet of 50
Product Winning Words helps your trustees, alumni, and friends prepare for prospect calls. Along with explaining the duties of the asker and the civic obligations of the prospect, it shows them how to handle the most commonly asked questions and most commonly offered excuses.