Sarah Ashenbrener is development office director for Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Community College, a two-year cultural and liberal arts tribal college on the reservation outside of Hayward, Wisc. Annual enrollment is about 1,400 students. Prior to this position, Ashenbrener served as marketing communications/public relations representative with Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College. Ashenbrener has a degree in communications from the University of Wisconsin and is working toward a certificate in nonprofit administration from the University of Wisconsin-Superior next year. She can be reached at sashenbrener@lco.edu.

What are some of the challenges of raising funds for a tribal community college?

One of the greatest challenges of fundraising at a tribal college is being a one-person department. I am the only person handling fundraising, public relations and alumni.

Because of this, an important first step was encouraging the college staff, faculty, alumni and board to get out into the community and share our story. We're not used to this, we didn't have the publications or media to support our efforts, and culturally, it is not in the fundamental tradition of the Ojibwe to "brag." Photography, at times with certain people, was prohibited. And yet telling our story was an important first step to fundraising.

There was a lot of hand-holding with individuals and groups to explain the purpose. It was important for me to connect telling our story with the success of development. Just recently, we published our first-ever annual report that tells the story of our college and our mission and highlights the successes during the past year. For this college in this community in this moment, the publication has shattered an invisible barrier between us and the communities we serve.

In the past, we have often been called "the best-kept secret" by our students, alumni and the community. It is a personal mission of mine to change that. In my last report to our board members, I asked for their support as givers, helpers and ambassadors. Through a variety of community-building efforts, our president and staff are now active in the community. This is our year to change perception. We have a new mantra: "When you hear the words ‘best-kept secret,' we are not doing our jobs." I am just one person, and I need their help.

You mentioned in an earlier conversation that all of the tribal college development officers are fairly new in development. Can you explain why this is?

The newness of tribal college development offices is due to the relatively young age of the colleges themselves. Many are 20 years old or less. There are a few that are older with roots in the 1960s, and they do have established development offices. But the bulk of the tribal college movement occurred in the mid-70s when Congress passed the Tribally-controlled College and University Assistance Act (PL95-471), authorizing funding for tribal colleges.

Our college just celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2007. My office and my position were established the same year, as were many of the development offices at tribal colleges nationwide. While our offices are young, the formation of our positions marks an important stage of normal organizational maturity and stability. When you're young, you're worried about survival. It takes confidence and a number of years of success before you can consider broadening your infrastructure.

At our college, our administrative team is very focused on strategic directions, and that has made all the difference. We're able to look beyond our walls for additional resources. With a number of important positions established, including development, recruitment and human resources, and with the phenomenal staff-development support from organizations like the American Indian College Fund and other private donors, you will see amazing growth and self-sustainability develop across Indian Country in the next five years.

Please talk about your graduates and what strategies you use to engage them.

We have the best graduates. I know everyone says they have the best, but we really do. In many cases, they have overcome so many personal obstacles and sacrificed so much to achieve higher education. And while our formal alumni association is on schedule for creation this December, we are committed to developing strong contacts with our alums and keep in touch on e-mail and on Facebook.

We are also creating a survey in November to find out what kind of events they would like to participate in this year. Most importantly, the recruiter and I work together on projects at the college and in the community each year so that we have plenty of contact with students while they are here. Our doors are always open and they know us personally, so the transition to alumni is a seamless handoff. It is the benefit of being a smaller, more personal college, and we leverage all that we have to stay in contact.

How has CASE been a part of your professional career?

Although I am a relatively new member of CASE, I have asked for research assistance and received valuable content for the start-up phase of my office from the CASE InfoCenter. The center has been a resource for sample procedures and developing donor relationships, and when I had tribal-specific questions, the InfoCenter staff dug deep to find information to help.

CASE has made me feel valued by its attention to detail. Despite my location in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, I feel in touch with best practices at leading colleges and universities. My goal is to create the best development office in the country and I cannot do that without a network of research, trends and best practices. This is a professional organization that will continue to be a part of my daily decisions as I reach my goals.

This article is from the October 2009 issue of BriefCASE.
Please share your questions and comments with Pam Russell via e-mail at russell@case.org or by telephone at +1-202-478-5680.