A Message to the CASE Community
A Message to the CASE Community:
These past months have challenged all of us. We have heard from many of you about the difficulties your institutions are facing, and the uncertainty you are experiencing.
During this time, CASE has been working tirelessly to provide the resources that are of most benefit to you. We have launched new online service, including almost 60 ToGathers—our new online forums to connect members around topics of interest—that have reached more than 3,500 people. We converted our in-person conferences to online formats, serving nearly 2,500 participants in 11 conferences, and garnered great response. Our library has received and responded to numerous requests and prepared new subject guides and sample collections. We have lobbied the US government for relief on behalf of the charitable and education sectors; published online Currents and CASE newsletters and blogs; and added other direct outreach to members. We also continued other major initiatives, including the revision of CASE Reporting Standards and Management Guidelines and AMAtlas core metrics and cohort work. We have published the CASE-Ross Survey on Fundraising in the UK and Ireland, delivered 300 custom reports to members based on VSE data, and will soon release the CASE-Council for Canadian Advancement of Education Fundraising Survey.
Throughout, we have guided our actions by three clear objectives: providing relevant services to you, our members; caring for the well-being of CASE staff; and building a sustainable business model. We now anticipate that our revenues will be significantly lower than anticipated in the FY21 budget that was approved in March. In light of this, we have made a number of carefully considered decisions to align our revenues and expenditures—based in large part on the thoughtful advice of our Trustee Pandemic Task Force, the CASE Board of Trustees, and many valued volunteers and members along the way.
Knowing that our revenue picture is much different, our most recent decisions include requiring each staff member to take two unpaid leave days per month from 1 July through 31 December 2020. To implement this policy, all CASE offices around the globe will be closed the first and third Friday of each month through December, 2020. CASE staff will not be working on those days and we will not be conducting any CASE business. Limited exceptions will be made to accommodate the delivery of already-scheduled conferences. We chose this approach as the most compassionate of the alternatives.
We remain steadfast in our commitment to advancing education to transform lives and society. We have reached many more members through our online offerings since March that we originally could have imagined; our efforts to serve you have strengthened and we are dedicated to continuing to provide you with exceptional service.
The entire association has made significant adjustments to bring us to this point, and for that I am profoundly grateful. We will update this memo with details regarding customer service concerns before our first scheduled office closure on 3 July 2020.
I thank you for understanding and welcome your thoughts on how CASE can best serve you. Please reach out with any questions you may have about our actions and plans by emailing me at [email protected]
Wishing you safe and well,
Sue
About the author(s)
Sue Cunningham is President and CEO of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), which supports over 3,000 schools, colleges and universities worldwide in developing their integrated advancement work (alumni relations, communications, fundraising and marketing operations). As CASE President and CEO, Ms. Cunningham provides strategic and operational leadership for one of the largest associations of education-related institutions in the world with members in over 80 countries. She started her leadership role at CASE in March 2015.
While at CASE, Ms. Cunningham has engaged CASE in two strategic planning processes. The first, which engaged thousands of CASE volunteers, resulted in Reimagining CASE: 2017-2021, and created an ambitious framework for serving CASE’s members and championing education worldwide, which included a comprehensive restructure of CASE’s volunteer leadership and governance structure. Building on the strengths of this plan, she led a recalibration exercise that resulted in Championing Advancement: CASE 2022-2027. This Plan articulates a clear strategic intent: that CASE will define the competencies and standards for the profession of advancement, and lead and champion their dissemination and application across the world’s educational institutions.
Among the key initiatives that have developed under her leadership include the redesign and delivery of a new global governance structure. In addition, CASE acquired the Voluntary Support of Education survey and created CASE’s Insights, CASE’s global research and data efforts. CASE published the first global and digital edition of CASE’s Global Reporting Standards and Guidelines, which operate as the industry-leading Standards for the profession, and launched the first global Alumni Engagement survey in addition to annual fundraising surveys. CASE created an ambitious competencies model across all advancement disciplines and a related career journey framework; opened the CASE Opportunities and Inclusion Center which focuses on equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging; and has reinvigorated a global advocacy agenda to communicate the value of education. Ms. Cunningham serves as a Trustee and Secretary for the University of San Diego, and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Board. She is a member of the Signature Theatre (Arlington, Virginia) Board of Directors, Chairs their Governance Committee, and sits on the Executive Committee. She is a member of the Washington Higher Education Secretariat steering committee, the International Association of University Presidents Executive Committee, and the International Women’s Forum. She has recently been named to the new, US-based Council of Higher Education as a Strategic Asset. She is the author of ‘Global Exchange: Dialogues to Advance Education’.
Prior to her appointment to CASE, Ms. Cunningham served as Vice-Principal for Advancement at the University of Melbourne where she led the Believe campaign resulting in surpassing its original $500 million goal; and the Director of Development for the University of Oxford where she led the development team through the first phase of the largest fundraising campaign outside of the United States (at the time): Oxford Thinking, with a goal of £1.25 billion. She served as Director of Development at Christ Church, Oxford and as Director of External Relations at St. Andrews University.
Before working in education, Ms. Cunningham enjoyed a career in theatre, the arts and the cultural sector. She is an Honorary Fellow of the Melbourne Graduate School of Education and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. In 2012, Ms. Cunningham received the CASE Europe Distinguished Service Award, and has received the coveted CASE Crystal Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching. Ms. Cunningham was awarded a master’s degree from the University of Oxford, a bachelor’s degree in performing arts from Middlesex University, and is a graduate of the Columbia University Senior Executive Program.