Office Space: Prime Time
CURRENTS Article This column discusses how and why annual giving has grown more sophisticated and more important at higher education institutions in the past couple of decades as well as the challenge of engaging alumni in a weak economy amid rising college costs and student loan debt.

Grooming Students to Give
CURRENTS Article The success of Rochester Institute of Technology's Campaign Day event in 2006 led staff to modify it and make it a campuswide annual fund kickoff event, Raise Our Annual Responses Day.

The Debt Threat
CURRENTS Article A young alumnus would like to give to the annual fund, but his student loan debt is holding him back. What can advancement do to address this burgeoning problem?

Class Show Offs
CURRENTS Article The Baylor School in Tennessee tackles the challenge of illustrating annual fund progress for each grade and spurs some good-natured schoolwide competition in the process.

Office Space: The True Measure of Loyalty
CURRENTS Article This article looks at the importance of benchmarking and assessing your annual fund program in order to improve your rate of donor retention and to create true donor loyalty, not just participation, by getting and keeping donors engaged in meaningful ways with your institution.

Setting an Example
CURRENTS Article When annual giving by faculty and staff at St. Catherine's School in Virginia reached 100 percent, parents noticed the commitment and increased their giving despite the uncertain economy.

Blank Slate
CURRENTS Article In an interview with CURRENTS, London South Bank University's head of annual giving, Ullysses Tucker, talks about the challenges of starting an annual giving program from scratch and the differences between fundraising at universities in the United Kingdom versus those in the United States.

The Small Net
CURRENTS Article In spring 2010, Amherst College explored the possibility of using text-to-give technology as a method by which donors could contribute to the school's annual fund but ultimately decided that the costs exceeded the benefits. Amy Bovaird, associate director of Amherst's annual fund, explains why they decided not to use it but also discusses emerging technology that may work in the future.

El pan nuestro de cada día
CURRENTS Article Por qué la colecta anual sigue siendo la base para el éxito de la recaudación de fondos.

Bread and Butter
CURRENTS Article Giving experts and institutional fundraisers argue that annual giving is the bedrock of development success. They make the case for investing in best practices for annual giving today as a foundation for the major gift program of the future.

Toast of the Town
CURRENTS Article The Catholic University of America nearly doubled its annual fund between the years of 2004 and 2008 by strategically revamping its appeals and by fully engaging a team of alumni volunteers who became "the face of philanthropy" for the Washington, D.C., institution. A sidebar tells how Harley School, a private independent day school in Rochester, N.Y., gave its annual giving program a makeover in less than five years.

The Giving Gap
CURRENTS Article Some of the circumstances that keep alumni giving participation rates low at public institutions cannot be changed. But what circumstances can be changed? In this story, various public universities share strategies that helped them to increase alumni participation and giving.

Advance Work: Tweet and Greet
CURRENTS Article The University of Leeds uses Twitter to communicate about its annual fund drive. Student phonathon callers tweet about the nightly results and other information of note.

Smooth Mailing
CURRENTS Article Direct mail isn't dead yet, but institutions can't do business as usual. This article explores how some institutions are learning how to integrate e-mail, Facebook, and other Web tools into their annual fund appeals.

Advance Work: Cultivating Cocky Behavior
CURRENTS Article The University of South Carolina created an annual giving campaign that appeals to young alumni.

Winning Ideas
CURRENTS Article This article gives in-depth profiles of eight of the 2008 CASE Circle of Excellence Award winners. These winners were chosen to represent a wide range of types of institution as well as each aspect of advancement: fundraising, alumni relations, communications and marketing, and advancement services.

Cinderella Doesn't Live Here
CURRENTS Article The annual fund is the most obvious place to go looking to develop your major gifts, but it is also the most overlooked. Here are concrete strategies for building your pipeline.

Postcard from Puebla
CURRENTS Article When an institution in Mexico needs to find the correct way to begin an annual giving program, they discover their answers in corporate sponsorships of scholarships.

Never Say Never
CURRENTS Article Is it worth the development office's time and money to keep soliciting those with no history or a dormant history of giving to alma mater? What are the pros and cons of continually trying to build relationships with inactive prospects? Experts say institutions should never completely abandon their never-givers, but should have realistic expectations for return on investment.

Career Path: Out of the Shadows
CURRENTS Article Annual giving jobs are no longer mere stepping stones to major gift positions. Instead, annual fund professionals are gaining new respect for their skills with statistics, data mining, market research, customer and volunteer relations, and more. This Career Path column is of interest to annual giving professionals, development managers, and major gift officers.

Making Peace between Annual and Major Gifts
CURRENTS Article The difference between annual and major gifts lies more in their purpose and their relationship to the donor’s capacity than in their actual dollar amount. To ensure that the annual and major gift programs work together successfully, development leaders must articulate clear donor strategies, use the annual fund to feed the major donor program, and promote the “dual ask”--the practice of asking major donors for continuing annual fund gifts.

Outgrowing the Annual Fund
CURRENTS Article Top-level annual donors deserve special attention to maintain their commitment. It’s often best to manage these donors within the annual fund office, but with special cultivation and stewardship methods such as in-person solicitation visits, personal letters, special events, gift clubs, and volunteer opportunities on campus boards or committees. Strategies such as challenge gifts can encourage them to increase their annual donations, and some of them will eventually make major gifts.

AdvanceWork: Testing Assumptions
CURRENTS Article One university's challenge to annual giving beliefs provides insight into ask amounts.

Proceed According to Plan
CURRENTS Article Development officers often don’t create a strategic plan for the annual fund. But doing so can help them develop goals and strategies, plan budgets and timelines, set priorities, built awareness, prevent interference, and create continuity even amid staff turnover. The author outlines the approaches six institutions take to drawing up a strategic plan.

World-Class Annual Funds
CURRENTS Article Wondering how you might broaden your annual fund campaign to include prospects outside the United States? Consider these tips: 1) target those countries where your alumni are most concentrated; 2) follow your campus’ strengths by targeting countries where faculty already possess expertise; and 3) focus on building ties with parents. How can you keep overseas prospects connected to your institution? Consider establishing an alumni association just for alumni in a particular part of the world, and encourage volunteers with overseas connections to get involved. When communicating about the importance of philanthropy, remember that approaches to natives of other countries and U.S. expatriates need to be different. When wondering if you should use English in all correspondence, use English if you teach in English.