A More Perfect Union
CURRENTS Article From annual funds to capital campaigns, alumni relations and stewardship professionals are finding their paths crossing more than ever. Strategic collaboration between development and alumni relations enhances an advancement operation's bottom line.

What I Wish
CURRENTS Article Three professionals from the three branches of advancement discuss what they'd like their colleagues to understand about their jobs. Andy Gurd of The Ohio State University Alumni Association is now working more closely with his development and communications colleagues than when the alumni association operated independently. Florida's Nova Southeastern University is at the midpoint of its campaign, which has given fundraiser Susan Peirce more of an opportunity to work with her alumni relations colleagues—and to appreciate how they help her do her job well. And, Sarah Morris, a communications professional from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, points out a few things that her development and alumni relations colleagues could learn about what is—and isn't—possible in her job.

United by Goals
CURRENTS Article This article looks at the importance of communications and marketing being an integral part of the integrated advancement team and the benefits that can result from such an arrangement.

Office Space: Artists of Advancement
CURRENTS Article When personalities in the office clash, it can affect productivity. Find out how creative employees operate so you can work together to advance your institution.

Office Space: Sweeping the Data Clouds Away
CURRENTS Article Managing an unwieldy data system can be overwhelming, but by prioritizing projects and assessing processes, the database can become a friend rather than a foe.

Office Space: Space Age
CURRENTS Article In this new column about issues in the advancement office, the author discusses the problem of space, and how collaboration improved by bringing staff together.

Piece of Mind
CURRENTS Article The advancement team at Rollins College in Florida learned that collaboration was key to success. They overcame cross-departmental conflict, learned to work together, and realized what each member of the team contributed.

Advance Work: Fun with Ratios
CURRENTS Article Using data from the Association of American Universities and U.S. News and World Report, an alumni professional devised a way to determine how alumni relations staffing affects fundraising.

Closing Remarks: States of Emergency
CURRENTS Article Even as federal and state dollars for U.S. higher education decline, for public institutions the proportion of public funding from all sources still exceeds that of private gifts. With that in mind, the author questions why public institutions spend so little time and money on state and federal government relations. Using alumni and donors as campus champions and understanding state and federal budget cycles are two strategies she suggests for improving government relations.

Open-Door Policy
CURRENTS Article When alumni and development officers work together and share many tasks and responsibilities, they can help their campuses attract much-needed resources and enhance the bottom line. Although many senior advancement officers might be reluctant to fully commit to such integrated efforts, the advantages are becoming too numerous and powerful to overlook. Alumni relations professionals are in the best position to identify new donors. What’s more, integrated initiatives result in better services for millions of alumni donors. Campus leaders can integrate their advancement operations by building multidepartmental teams for specific tasks, celebrating major successes with all advancement officers, and relying on a single advancement mission and vision.

Room for Expansion
CURRENTS Article Today’s advancement professionals must look for ways to manage budget and staff reductions and do more with less. An alliance of alumni relations and fund raising offers a creative way to address these concerns. For alumni relations officers, a move into fund raising can be a positive--and often required--career move that also benefits the future of the discipline. Playing a bigger role in fund raising also helps alumni officers communicate with alumni and respond to constituents’ needs. Alumni directors should greet the prospect of friend raising and fund raising as personal and professional enrichment that benefits institutions and former students.

A New Breed
CURRENTS Article This article examines the complex and often convoluted relationships between admissions and advancement. It describes how marketing is the place where all areas of advancement find common ground and how, for a long time, marketing had its place within the distinct silos in admissions and advancement. Now, however, institutions are developing more comprehensive structures that combine recruitment and advancement in the interest of adopting a true integrated marketing mindset.

Goals and Assists
CURRENTS Article Prospect researchers and development officers must form a partnership to identify potential donors' ability, interest, and desire to give. This article provides three guidelines for building a productive relationship and includes a table showing the differences in the information that researchers and development officers are likely to uncover. This article is of interest to development officers and prospect researchers.

Manager's Portfolio: You Never Get a Second Chance
CURRENTS Article Though often underappreciated, a top-notch receptionist can be a valuable “director of first impressions.” This column explains why receptionists deserve respect and offers numerous recruitment and retention strategies. It is of interest to advancement staff managers who hire and supervise.

Don't Miss the Boat
CURRENTS Article Alumni associations have long avoided being active campaign players or have been marginalized by development colleagues who haven't seen the value of involving them. We need to better incorporate alumni associations into campaigns and use their strengths to our institutions' advantage. Playing a campaign role can bring benefits to alumni associations as well.

Rethinking Our Craft
CURRENTS Article Stone, former president of the Stanford Alumni Association, describes the multiyear process that led to the merger of the alumni association into the university, in sharp contrast to the association’s century-old tradition of independence. His key points: (1) Institutions must “own” their alumni relations responsibilities, and (2) alumni relations requires an entire institution’s commitment to lifelong relationships. Stone also offers advice to alumni relations officers on their role and responsibilities.

Closing Remarks: Expanding the Definition of Advancement
CURRENTS Article The continuing separation of the specialties--alumni relations, communications, and development--may keep advancement professionals from establishing and maintaining relationships with their colleagues. The author argues for more professional unity and also encourages recognizing the advancement role of many others on campus who are outside the core functions, including faculty, admissions officers, student affairs officers, and executive officers and their staffs.

Shifting Gears
CURRENTS Article Cornell University development officers successfully shifted to a project- and team-based approach to fund raising, leaving behind the previous organizational model based around schools and units. This new approach has allowed the university to raise funds for priority projects without launching an institution-wide campaign. As an example, the authors describe the successful team-based effort to fund renovation and expansion of Cornell’s music building.

The Editor and the Fund Raiser: Partners or Adversaries?
CURRENTS Article Publications veterans Walt Collins (formerly of Notre Dame University), Lawrence Hincker (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University), and Mary Ruth Yoe (University of Chicago) join Darrell Loyless, vice president of for development and external affairs at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, for a roundtable discussion. The professionals react to three scenarios of editorial conflict between an alumni magazine staff and development officers.

End Notes: A Declaration of Interdependence
CURRENTS Article In 1998, after 106 years of independence, the Stanford Alumni Association became an official division of Stanford University. The change followed three years of study, extensive negotiations, and a vote by SAA members. In an interview, association president Bill Stone explains that SAA and Stanford leaders decided a merger would provide better access and increased resources.

Sound Off: Blurring the Lines
CURRENTS Article Thomas College director of alumni affairs and assistant director of development Guarino stresses the value of friend-raising by both alumni and fund-raising professionals. He credits the success of the Thomas College program to the willingness of staff from both alumni relations and fund raising to continually communicate about their respective goals and expectations when planning events, to be honest with each other, and remain flexible.