As we start this new year, our profession will mark the 50th anniversary of CASE. Throughout 2024, we will take moments to recognise this significant milestone, celebrate our history, and focus upon our future.

CASE was born in 1974 with the joining of the American Alumni Council and the American College Public Relations Association. At the time we had just over 2,000 member institutions with fewer than 7,000 advancement practitioners therein. Today CASE represents 97,000 professionals at 3,100 institutions in more than 80 countries, with offices in four regions.

CASE has covered considerable ground to meet our members’ needs as the educational environment has shifted over this half a century. We have developed and executed bold strategic plans that led to acquiring the Voluntary Support of Education survey; establishing the Global Reporting Standards, Competencies Model, and Career Journey Framework; conducting hundreds of online and in-person professional conferences; and creating global surveys and benchmarking tools that evidence our profession’s outcomes and support data-informed decisions and practices. 

As we celebrate our history and all that we have accomplished together, our eyes will be trained on the future. At many of our major conferences this year, we will host special anniversary sessions in which we will seek your insights on the future direction of our profession. Your input will help shape our service to you and will help set our priorities for the next decade and beyond.