About this chapter

A synthesised approach for an organisation's leader to sustain funding growth in the best or worst of economic times.

This leadership guide to sustain an organisation's external funding is distilled from the collected input of college chancellors, presidents, advancement leaders and consultants. Each was asked to identify three steps for a college to increase or sustain fundraising results during the economic meltdown of 2008. 

A constructed case study was used to frame priorities of the college leaders and other workshop participants, all of whom reported ongoing fundraising accomplishment during the tough economic times being experienced. The suggested steps were then applied to a college's three distinct "ages" of institutional advancement, namely start-up/formative, emergent and mature operations. 

[Collected thoughts of senior college leaders in the workshop, "Sustain Funding Growth: Leadership Guide to Navigate Tough Times," at Conference of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges, (2009) at Keene State College, Keene, NH]

Keywords: organisational communication, educational leadership, organisational development, institutional advancement, public relations, fundraising, best practices, nonprofits.