CASE Insights has launched a major initiative in Latin America to foster greater professionalization and standardization of advancement practices in higher education. With support from Santander Universidades, the two-year project is responding to the growing need for philanthropy benchmarks across the region by creating an annual survey to demonstrate the impact and outcomes of fundraising. The project includes a course for advancement professionals at institutions in Mexico and Colombia (the Latin American countries with the highest number of CASE members), followed by a pilot survey for participating institutions. CASE plans to launch the survey throughout Latin America following the two-year pilot project. The survey will join CASE’s suite of global philanthropy surveys, which collect and analyze data from the U.S./Canada, the U.K./Ireland, and Australia/New Zealand.

Phase one of the project launched in late 2023. The CASE Latin America team invited Mexican institutions with at least five years of fundraising efforts and data collection to participate. To enrich the findings, explains Zulay Attanasio, a CASE Senior Data Strategist, “The CASE Latin America team also invited five Colombian institutions with a track record of fundraising to participate, along with a few institutions newer to fundraising that have expressed an interest in the project. Many of these institutions had previously participated in CASE Diplomado training programs.”