Office Space: The Art of Working Effectively
CURRENTS Article In this article, author and advancement professional Rob Crawford reflects on his 10-year-plus effort to manage his time and his workload more effectively and productively. The valuable lessons he has gleaned from management books as well as his own experiments offer useful advice for those looking to improve their work habits.

Getting There
CURRENTS Article Women make up two-thirds of the advancement workforce but still lag men in leadership positions and pay. At the same time, the overrepresentation of women in advancement raises concerns about what the lack of gender diversity may mean for the profession.

Office Space: Backing the Brand
CURRENTS Article This article discusses the Communicator Certificate Program at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Run by the institution's university relations department, the program is a series of professional development workshops designed for full-time employees who are involved in managing and communicating the Rutgers brand. The program is also open to any full-time or part-time staff member who wants to learn more about the university. A recent assessment of the program found that it is achieving its goals, making for more coordinated and effective campus communication.

Office Space: Investing in Your Own
CURRENTS Article This article looks at an internal professional development program in the Division of Development and Alumni Relations at Bucknell University. Such a program can not only help retain staff, but also help ensure they have the skills your institution values. In addition, these initiatives empower staff to contribute to one another's professional development, encourage collaboration, and acknowledge the skills and expertise within your office.

Closing Remarks: Mind the (Gender) Gap
CURRENTS Article This column looks at the persistent gender gap in salary and compensation within the advancement field and suggests what might be done to correct it.

Time to Rethink Alumni Leadership?
CURRENTS Article How institutions choose their alumni leaders is changing, and that's probably for the best.

Career Path: History Lesson
CURRENTS Article A fundraiser has found that her background in the university archives has helped her relate to donors and prospects. She recommends that all development officers forge a relationship with the campus archivist.

Manager's Portfolio: Making a Management Transition
CURRENTS Article Even when you have management experience, you face new staff, a new campus culture, and new challenges when you move to a different institution. This article by an advancement professional in that situation shares his plan and offers some practical tips.

Career Path: Perception Versus Reality
CURRENTS Article The author of this column sees a lot of people come to higher education fundraising from other careers. Frequently they initially have mistaken ideas of what the job will be like.

Manager's Portfolio: Attract Success
CURRENTS Article You might be able to achieve your goals more easily when you don't focus exclusively on your daily agenda. Be open and respond to serendipitous events. They could lead you to success.

Career Path: Your Next Campaign: You
CURRENTS Article Development professionals already know how to conduct a thorough job search--even if they don't know they know. This article explains how fund raising is similar to looking for a new job and provides tips on how to find the perfect new place of employment.

Advance Work: Better to Give Than Receive
CURRENTS Article Avoid international gift-giving gaffes with these tips from Lilya Wagner of Counterpart International.

Manager's Portfolio: Secrets to Powerful Presentations
CURRENTS Article In this article, an experienced presenter gives tips for making your presentations memorable and even moving. Such talks start with practice, are delivered with passion, and end with the audience taking away a call to action.

Managers Portfolio: I'm All Ears
CURRENTS Article Listening leadership means to guide yourself and others to positive results by enhanced sensing, interpreting, evaluating, storing, and responding to messages. Unfortunately, great listening is a rare management skill. To build a solid foundation for listening success, advancement managers should understand that listening is a primary communication activity; it’s an innate, learned, and improvable behavior; and that responsible and active listeners are productive listeners. Further, listening leaders constantly strive to improve their skills.

Career Path: The More You Know
CURRENTS Article What should advancement professionals at all levels and in all disciplines find out in a job interview before accepting the position for which they are interviewing? The author draws on her own experience jumping from a small, private school on the East Coast to a large public school on the West Coast (and back again) to explain why it’s important for job seekers to approach the interview as both a showcase for proving how talented they are and a comprehensive fact-finding mission. The alternative, Holthouser writes, is learning too late that the job--and the institution--are a poor match.

Portrait of a Profession
CURRENTS Article How has the entertainment industry characterized the advancement profession? Most film and television portrayals of development professionals rate somewhere between crass caricatures of greedy administrators and more nuanced depictions that poke holes in their integrity. Media portrayals of alumni relations and campus communications officers, meanwhile, are much harder to find. This article highlights some of the films and television programs that have contributed to the public's misperceptions of the advancement profession and asks advancement officers to weigh in on how such depictions impact their own work.

Manager's Portfolio: Two Months to Think
CURRENTS Article A college vice president describes his two-month administrative leave, which contributed to significant changes in Bates College's alumni relations efforts.

Career Path: A Date with Success
CURRENTS Article Busy advancement professionals often neglect professional development activities in favor of more "important" responsibilities. Here are 12 ideas to help even the most overtasked advancement officers squeeze professional development into their daily "to-do" lists.

Closing Remarks: Advancement's Siren Song
CURRENTS Article In this Closing Remarks column, a university editor and publications manager shares her feelings that, although advancement professionals are often underpaid, they are rewarded by a deep sense that what they are doing is important and intrinsically worthwhile. Further, the profession is great fun—especially for editors.

Manager's Portfolio: Five Budget-Busting Myths
CURRENTS Article Your job as a manager is to learn how to negotiate what you need so your programs and staff members can keep up the good work—even in tough times like these. There are five myths you need to overcome if you want to be one of the people who know where the money is.

Manager's Portfolio: Telling Tales In School
CURRENTS Article Storytelling is a powerful method of communication. Because many managers haven’t harnessed storytelling for its positive purposes, it has become primarily a way for employees to vent their unhappiness and cynicism. But when managers make storytelling a positive force in a work culture, they can have a tremendous impact on their institutions.

Closing Remarks: Feng Shui at Work
CURRENTS Article A former CASE board member tells how rearranging her office helped her reassess her professional goals.

Workshop: New Kid On the Block?
CURRENTS Article The author offers valuable tips for first-time development officers. Visiting recent donors, reviewing your institution’s files on major gift donors, and making the easy ask first are just a few of the pointers offered.