Leading advancement teams today, amid change and hefty expectations, is like “constantly being in quicksand,” says Jhumar Johnson. That’s why cultivating resilience is crucial. Here, Johnson—who spent 11 years at the U.K.’s Open University—shares how resilience is built on consistency and trust, but also failure and joy.

It’s a perennial question for advancement teams: what are the latest activities (that actually work) to engage this generation of young alumni? In the CASE Communities online discussion boards, alumni relations professionals shared these ideas. 

For the University of New South Wales, the approach of its 75th anniversary in 2025 presented an opportunity to celebrate some of its pioneering alumnae and leaders. The Australian university launched an initiative to rename certain buildings and spaces and create a Celebrating UNSW Women Trail.

The Notre Dame University Alumni Association in Indiana, U.S., hosted its first Global Day of Service in 2023—drawing more than 3,500 volunteers for projects in 26 countries.

Two simultaneous public-private partnership campaigns at Heartland Community College (Illinois, U.S.) yielded innovative new agriculture and manufacturing facilities. 

In 2022, Cardiff University in Wales launched The 30(ish) Awards to celebrate young (and young-at-heart) alumni making positive contributions to their communities.

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.

Higher education’s top leadership role has evolved and expanded—and today’s advancement leaders are finding partners in their presidents, chancellors, vice-chancellors, and rectors. Here, five pairs of leaders share how they work together with mutual trust and shared commitment to their institutions.

Kent State University transformed its phone center into a multichannel Alumni Engagement Center that’s revitalized the way it interacts with constituents. The new center has enriched relationships with alumni, friends, and partners—transitioning from transactional to transformational partnerships. Here’s how it works.  

“There are so many juicy and amazing things we can tease out of data,” says analytics enthusiast and CASE volunteer Amanda Jarmon. She is an advocate for people with neurodivergence, calling her own experience with it her “superpower’ that enhances her ability to deeply analyze data for her clients.