At the beginning of 2020, Saffi Nantwi was working through her courses to complete her nursing degree at the University of Brighton in the U.K. And then the pandemic hit, straining her already tight finances.
But Nantwi received a £200 grant from the University of Brighton’s COVID-19 Student Support Fund, a fundraising effort that raised £10,000 in new funds for students to purchase personal protective equipment, laptops, and more. For Nantwi, that meant she could buy the supplies she needed “to support the [U.K.’s] National Health Service in my final year as a student nurse. This award means so much to me.”
Nantwi and the 400+ Brighton students who benefited from the emergency grants likely had no idea that behind the scenes, this fund was launched in just a matter of days by a small team that was juggling how to work at home. The campaign went on to win a bronze Circle of Excellence Award in 2021 for Fundraising Pivots.
CASE’s Circle of Excellence Awards recognize innovative, inspiring, and creative ideas in advancement. For many of the latest 2021 award recipients like Brighton, teams worked to execute impactful projects with small teams, on limited budgets, while grappling with the shifting ramifications and realities of the pandemic. Here’s how four small teams accomplished award-winning work in communications, fundraising, events, and recruitment—and key takeaways on how teams of any size or context can work resourcefully.
Small Teams in Context
In 2020 and 2021, as COVID-19 squeezed budgets or spurred historic layoffs in higher education, institutions around the globe faced the challenge of “doing more with less.” But defining what constitutes a small team or a small budget within advancement can be tricky. According to CASE’s 2020 Alumni Engagement Metrics Survey, the median number of alumni relations staff members globally ranges from 22 staff in Canada to six in the Asia-Pacific region and five in U.S. institutions to just two in Latin America. But the context for many teams in advancement can be complex, and team size and resources are relative: some small teams sit within larger divisions, for instance. Or some smaller teams operate with more robust budgets than larger teams at less-resourced institutions.
Circle of Excellence Awards recipients have a wide range of team and budget resources. Among the 2021 recipients—500+ projects from across the globe—teams ranged from one member to dozens, reporting budgets for award-winning projects from US$100 for quirky costumes for a video to US$800,000 for a multifaceted website relaunch. Of the 39 Grand Gold winners, 11 reported in their entries that they had no budget or outside resources allocated for the projects that won awards.
In 2022, the Circle of Excellence Awards will be judged differently, based in part on this principle: that teams of any size or context can generate great work. For the 2022 awards, some categories will be divided and awarded by staff/roster size, and every entry will be considered for both global and local recognition.
For advancement teams recognized in the 2021 awards cycle, COVID-19 disrupted their budgets, staff capacity, and physical workspaces. The following Circle of Excellence Awards recipients offer case studies in resourcefulness from small teams on limited budgets. Here are their essential lessons learned and four strategies for achieving big impact with a smaller team: keep projects focused, use existing resources, plan ahead, and be agile.
