This is the third in our series of excerpts from CASE at 50: A Narrative History of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. The book, commissioned by CASE and written by Rob Moore, highlights special moments and seminal stories from the organization’s first 50 years. 

By the mid-1980s, a decade into its existence, CASE was taking steps toward a more international profile. It worked with the U.S. Information Agency and British Council to award Fulbright Fellowships to U.S. advancement professionals to serve terms at U.K. universities. 

The story here is adapted from Chapter 6: Becoming.

William Squire recounts in University Fundraising in Britain how the Fulbright exchanges provided a foundation for institutions interested in developing greater advancement capacity by bringing to the United Kingdom “experienced professional(s) working in a field which was only slowly being recognised as a legitimate area of activity by university authorities in the U.K.” At the same time as senior advancement officers were venturing to the United Kingdom on Fulbright assignments, a small number of U.K. advancement professionals were journeying to the United States to visit successful university advancement operations and attend CASE conferences. These visitors “spread the word at grass roots in the U.K. about what U.S. experience could do to help the struggling professionals emerging in university fundraising.”