For marcomm leaders, it’s key to articulate where you want your team’s work to go—but then bridging the gap between intention and transformation takes a structured approach. That’s where a gap analysis framework comes in. It allows leaders to identify barriers to growth and develop clear, actionable paths to overcome them.

Advancement professionals are diligently focusing on DEIB initiatives within their teams.  And more and more of them are beginning to look outward as well. Two advancement professionals with wide experience working in the DEIB space offer practical strategies to more effectively identify, involve, solicit, and steward alumni of color.

As you read this issue of Currents, with its focus on intersectionality, I hope you have a chance to reflect on your life journey and your professional journey, and how those experiences shape our important work.  

Collaborative relationships between colleges or universities and their communities can contribute to an improved quality of life for everyone involved. From economic growth and development to attracting diverse talent to addressing inequalities, town-gown relations can enhance all aspects of a community. 

The seeds of alumni support are sown even prior to enrolling in college.  Formative pre-college experiences play an important role in shaping pro-social habits, mindsets, and dispositions that predict later-life support for one’s alma mater.

Many agree that collecting, storing, and analyzing qualitative data is vital to advancement’s growth and an important balance to departments’ continually growing quantitative data capabilities. But is there a method that’s scalable? How can advancement professionals work with data that is, by its definition, difficult to measure? 

The executive director of Equity in the Center talks about how equity is "trendy" and why institutions don’t approach this work like any other initiatives.

In too many organizations, advancement is lagging on diversity, equity, and inclusion when it should be leading—and leading proactively. To build inclusive cultures and achieve real success in DEI objectives, advancement teams have to move from awareness to assessment to understanding. It's action with accountability. In this book excerpt, Angelique Grant and Ronald J. Schiller share key steps for leaders to do that.

The new documentary The Antidote spotlights Amarillo College and its efforts to break the cycle of poverty for its students. The institution’s leaders share their thoughts on the film and how it shows the impact of community colleges.

To say the least, 2020 was an unpredictable year for community colleges. Let’s take stock of the challenges we met and the successes we achieved while looking forward to new opportunities in 2021.