Sue Cunningham interviews Deb Taft, CEO of the global executive search firm, and CASE Educational Partner, Lindauer. Their conversation provides thoughtful discussion on the importance of diversifying leadership in advancement, across education, and throughout the non-profit sector with Deb’s vital advice: “never blame diversity on the pipeline; be relentless; do the work – during the search, after the hire.” Deb also shares invaluable insights on the power of internationalization.  

In this episode of the CASE xChange, Sue Cunningham interviews Meg Bradley, Head of School at Santa Catalina School in Monterey, California. Meg’s path to her role was through the arts and also as an advancement leader. Their conversation explores the skills she has brought from those experiences to becoming the first lay leader of Santa Catalina, a school that includes a co-ed lower school and an all-girls boarding upper school. Hear how she leads her school with an eye for mission-driven change, renewal and growth, particularly in the challenging times brought about by COVID-19. 

Sue Cunningham speaks with Professor Rufus Black, Vice-Chancellor and President of University of Tasmania in Australia. They explore how the pandemic has provided focus upon the importance of the small things in life that truly make a difference. They look back on the innovations that arose in finance out of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, and what lessons those innovations may provide for higher education in this current context. 

Learn more about Tasmania, its role as the gateway to Southern Ocean and the Antarctic; its complex history; and how Rufus stewards the University through attention to its communities to ensure it meets Tasmania’s needs. 

Sue Cunningham speaks with Professor Peter Mathieson, Principal, University of Edinburgh about his leadership of the University of Edinburgh, life under COVID-19, and the similarities and differences in leading universities in Hong Kong and in the United Kingdom. They discuss the importance of advancement, and how it is at different stages of evolution regionally. Professor Mathieson shares his view on the immense value of Edinburgh’s 200,000 – member strong “fantastic army of people with an interest in the university.” And finally, hear what he is most looking forward to once travel is a possibility again – it will make you smile. 

Sue Cunningham interviews Dr. Timothy Hands, Headmaster of Winchester College, an all-boys boarding school in Winchester, Hampshire, England. Winchester College was founded in 1382. He became headmaster in 2016, after eight years as Master at Magdalen College School in Oxford, where Sue served on the Board of Trustees. 

Their conversation starts with a discussion of the parallel universes of those experiencing COVID-19 personally and those who are not directly affected. He discusses his interest in the conditions that produce the works of literature, as a parallel to the circumstances that enable educators to better understand and motivate their students through curiosity about their individual backgrounds so that educators are able to motivate them and understand them. The interview closes with an interesting discussion of “comms squared” and how communications is the backbone of community.

Sue Cunningham has a conversation with Professor Glyn Davis, AC, Chief Executive Officer of the Paul Ramsay Foundation, Australia’s largest philanthropic foundation. Its ambition is unambiguous: To break cycles of disadvantage in Australia. He began his role at the Foundation in early 2019. Prior to this role, Professor Davis served as vice-chancellor of the University of Melbourne from 2005 through 2018. Their conversation explores the excitement of leading a foundation with such an important mission, and how relationships with their funding partners help accomplish their goals. They discuss the threefold crisis Australia has encountered over the last year (a prolonged drought, the subsequent bush fires, and COVID-19), and how the foundation is working with its partners to move them through these crises and support them in achieving their own strategic work. 

They also discuss the differences in leading an institution of the scale of the University of Melbourne vs the intimacy of leading a foundation with a much smaller team, and the benefits that creates for the CEO to dig deeper into the execution of the mission. Hear his perspective on relationships with universities and other funding partners. He shares leadership advice and interesting insights about being in a two-vice-chancellor marriage, perhaps one of the only examples of such an interesting academic couple. Finally, learn about how this essential foundation confirmed its purpose even though its benefactor left no instructions for implementing his wishes.

Sue Cunningham interviews David Dini, a longtime CASE volunteer, former CASE Trustee, who serves as the Eugene McDermott Headmaster at St. Mark’s School of Texas, where he has worked for more than a quarter-century. He came to St Mark’s to create a comprehensive advancement program in 1994 and was named headmaster in 2014. They discuss the challenges in managing crises as a leader through the unusual circumstance of facing both a devastating tornado that extensively damaged the school in the autumn of 2019 followed by the pandemic within months. They also discuss the path to school leadership through a career in advancement, and how that prepared him for his role, and the changing nature of his relationships with students, faculty, and the community of St. Mark’s supporters when moving from advancement to head of school. Finally, if you listen closely, you will hear a piece of advice that made a life-changing difference for Dini early in his career, which likely contributed to a similar result for St. Marks’s School of Texas. 

Sue and Paul discuss the importance of philanthropy today, why the relationship between funders and their recipients must be considered a partnership toward shared goals, and that these institution to institution relationships depend on the involvement of academic leaders in order to realise the outcomes that the foundation and the institution are seeking to achieve. Mr. Ramsbottom underscored the need for professionalised advancement and development teams especially when as they interact with philanthropies and foundations. They discuss the changes taking place in how work gets accomplished, how the Wolfson Foundation has shifted its operations in the face of the pandemic, and why they continue to focus on their core mission instead of pivoting completely to funding for covid-19.

Paul Ramsbottom is Chief Executive of the Wolfson Foundation and its sister charity, the Wolfson Family Charitable Trust. Paul takes a wider interest in issues relating to philanthropy in the UK as a speaker and writer. He has undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in History from the University of Oxford. 

Outside of philanthropy, he has an interest in international development which includes founding the Savannah Education Trust—a charity which works in West Africa—and sitting on the Board of Mercy Ships UK. His hometown university, the University of Bedfordshire, awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2013. In January 2020 he was awarded an OBE for services to charity.  

Sue Cunningham has a conversation with Professor Cheryl de la Rey, Vice-Chancellor at the University of Canterbury, on what turned out to be the first day of ‘Level Two’ reopening on the country of New Zealand after seven weeks of lockdown during the covid-19 pandemic. Their conversation covered similarities and differences across universities, countries, and academic cultures; the impact of the pandemic on international education; and the vital importance of bringing multiple global perspectives to our campuses and even more importantly bringing a diversity of intellectual approaches to problems we are trying to solve. The conversation wraps with a focus on why our network matters, the importance of connecting to one another even in times like the current pandemic, and how we can emerge from this situation even stronger.

In this episode, Sue Cunningham interviews Amy Carrier, senior director, advancement information management at the Oregon State University Foundation, about her experience working from home during COVID-19. They discuss the innovations and changes taking place at Oregon State University. They also have a heartfelt conversation about how Amy cares for her mother who lives with Amy, and who has Alzheimer’s disease. The conversation explores how advancement leaders may need to consider the experiences their teams are having during this time of telecommuting where the stresses may even be more considerable than during normal times. 

Sue Cunningham, president and CEO of CASE, speaks with Serge Sych, vice president for enrollment management, career services & alumni relations at Central European University. Serge explains how his advancement team at a global university manages in times of change, including building new strategies to be flexible, virtual, and authentic. He also shares how his team is looking at long-term planning to deliver a new student experience based on changing economics and psychology.

Heather and Brad chat with Deborah Carr, Head of Philanthropy at The Walter + Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI). Deborah shares how her search for more meaningful work led her into fundraising and her current role at WEHI, one of the world’s best medical research institutes. They talk about Deborah’s first 100 days at WEHI and how she and her team had to adapt their work and priorities when the pandemic hit. Having been in the higher education sector, Deborah also shares learnings from the medical research sector, how it is different from the higher education sector and what these sectors can learn from each other.

Lastly, listen in to find out what you can expect from the Asia-Pacific Institute in Educational Fundraising (APIEF), one of our longest-running programmes, coming up this month.

In this episode, Heather turns the table on Brad, Founding Partner of imageseven, an integrated marketing communications firm, who switched his role from host to guest. Brad provides an overview of imageseven’s focus and the origin behind the business name. Tune in for Brad’s advice on how Heads of Schools and school marketers can develop a strong working relationship and introduce a common definition of ‘branding’ to ensure all stakeholders are on board. Brad and Heather also talk about common issues they see within marketing and communications in the education sector and how to overcome them. Lastly, Brad shares his observation on the impact the pandemic has had on school marketing and what education marketers need to be prepared for.

In this episode of CASE xChange, Heather and Brad caught up with Ben Clark, Head of Philanthropy and Social Investment at Australian Executor Trustees (AET). They talk about Ben’s journey from the arts and auctions to his current role at AET, and his experience in managing philanthropists, trusts and foundations. Their conversation also explores donor trends, strategic thinking on philanthropic investments and philanthropic stabilisation funds - an innovative funding model pioneered in the US and Canada. Ben also shares his insights on asking during times of uncertainty.

Heather and Brad chat with Rossie Ogilvie, Vice-Principal (Advancement) at The University of Sydney about the recent AU$20 million donation received for immunology research from CLEARbridge Foundation; the award-winning publication ‘A Billion Possibilities: Stories from the INSPIRED Philanthropic Campaign’ and how it was used for high-touch donor engagement, leading to bequest confirmations and a major gift. Rossie also shares her thoughts on why engagement has to be even more intentional in our new environment, where trust is extremely critical, and what is next for her team. The conversation wraps up with a discussion on how we can frame the role of advancement in bringing in funding for the University in an era where all universities will be tightening their belt, and three tips to overcome future challenges in advancement.

Having relocated from Australia to the UK, Ruth O'Hanlon joins us for a conversation on planned giving. Ruth currently leads the Advancement team as the Director of Development at Sevenoaks School Foundation, an almost 600-year old independent school built on philanthropic giving and legacy. Listen in to pick up pointers on starting and maintaining a planned giving programme, why it is important to start early, and how to be an effective planned giving manager. Ruth also shares how Sevenoaks maintained their planned giving programme where in-person contact is reduced, and their strategy to ensure legacy enquiry is a part of an overall appeal.

In this episode, we speak to Barbara Miles, who has recently been conferred the John Lippincott Award for Global Advancement and Support of Education under the 2020 CASE Distinguished Service Awards. Barbara takes us on her global career journey from a music teacher in the UK and Bahamas, to the first Vice-President (Advancement) at Australian National University, ANU. She discusses how she navigated her first 100 days at ANU, and how she learnt about CASE and got involved as a volunteer. Also, hear about ANU’s three-year campaign – ‘Support Australia’s Students’ – that raises funds to support equity scholarships at ANU, and their award-winning fundraising video Students + You: Aled and Arun's Story.

Listeners can also look forward to hearing Barbara’s insightful perspectives on how the advancement profession has changed and grown, as well as on leading a new advancement team.

In this episode, we talk to Kevin Lynch, Director of Marketing & Communications at Shanghai American School (SAS). Previously from BBDO, Kevin shares how he combined his advertising experience with his experience as a parent of an SAS student and started his journey as the first Director of Marketing & Communications at SAS. We explore with Kevin why storytelling is important, how to tell a good story, and how it can give supporters the ability to be transformed into advocates and drivers of the brand - building a solid and vibrant community.

Kevin also discusses how SAS came up with a masterful piece of storytelling (click here for the full video) for SAS’s 2020 online graduation ceremony to captivate their audience with a powerful message to celebrate the graduating cohort's accomplishments. Listeners can also pick up a few interesting anecdotes from SAS' story finding on who is responsible for restarting the school in 1980, and on how they named a new conference room.

What is the CASE Asia-Pacific Graduate Trainee Programme (GTP)? Is it valuable to help my institution identify passionate advancement talent?

In this episode, we hear from Karen Brown, Senior Manager, Planned Giving, External Relations, Development and Alumni, Office of the President and Vice-Chancellor at Monash University about her journey as a GTP supervisor since 2018. Now in its 3rd year, Monash has successfully recruited their past 2 graduates as full-time employees. She shares her experience working with current trainees and how Monash plans their programme in the current environment, including job rotations within different departments. She also touches on the importance of mental wellbeing of the trainees, ensuring they have a support system to rely on. Hear from first-hand experience on how the GTP is a two-way learning process, with not only the trainees learning from experienced colleagues, but also making an impact on the work environment at Monash.

In this episode on annual giving, Heather and Brad chat with Liza Boffen-Yordanov, CFRE, Chief Development Officer and Executive Director, Development Office, Nanyang Technological University (NTU). Liza starts by taking us on her career journey from US to India and Singapore, sharing what motivates her in the work that she does, and what she enjoys most in her current role. Liza then delves into NTU’s annual giving campaigns, particularly about staff and faculty giving and how they achieved a higher giving rate over the last month than before. She also shares about NTU’s first ‘evergreen fund' - the NTU Priorities Funds that aims to continue the cycle of philanthropy. Listen in to find out how you can enhance your annual giving campaigns as well as Liza’s pointers on her top three success factors in annual giving.

How do organisations maintain a healthy culture, particularly in this environment? Mark Bentley, Director, Alumni Relations and Development from The University of Auckland talks about organisational culture and advancement - the importance of team culture and striking a balance between a performance, caring and mission-based culture. He also shares how his team maintained a positive culture and worked together to ensure it's business as usual. Listeners can also look forward to tips on maintaining positive organisational culture into the future.

In this episode, we caught up with Susan Wan, Director of Development at The Alice Smith School in Malaysia. Susan shared details of the KLASSicscares campaign, her school’s recent initiative in response to the pandemic. Learn how being creative and impactful in the current uncertainty shaped some of The Alice Smith School’s upcoming plans, including their 75th anniversary milestone next year.

In this episode, Dr. Baalbaki shares his thoughts around leading a USD650 million fundraising campaign during times of crisis, and driving efforts to secure philanthropic funds for students in financial need. He also provides some insights as to how critical the university leadership team is in helping to achieve their philanthropic objectives.

In the first episode of ‘Voices from the Field’ series, CASE President and CEO Sue Cunningham chats with Heather Hamilton, Executive Director of CASE Asia-Pacific, and Brad Entwistle, Founding Partner of imageseven. In this conversation, Sue shares how the work of CASE has pivoted digitally, as well as the current global environment being a motivation to bring forward our determination in developing more virtual content. She also affirms our commitment to digital strategies and providing you with a stronger set of blended educational opportunities in the future.