CASE members share sustainability practices for alumni events.

This is the second in our series of excerpts from CASE at 50: A Narrative History of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. The book, by Rob Moore, highlights special moments and seminal stories from the organization’s first 50 years. This excerpt appears in Chapter 3: A Rolling Start.

In 2022, all students accepted to Ithaca College in New York, U.S., received a print postcard with the tagline “No Surprises. No Secrets. No Stress.” That line summed up the college’s new pricing and values strategy. The Ithaca Commitment is based on a philosophy of transparency related to college costs and financial aid.

In 2019, Mid-State Technical College launched a multiyear capital campaign that would raise nearly $23 million for the benefit of its rural Wisconsin, U.S., community. The creation of the new Advanced Manufacturing, Engineering Technology, and Apprenticeship Center is a direct result of community support and will be fully operational for the 2024 fall semester.

Auburn University's advancement marketing department requires teams to collect metrics—but until recently, the numbers weren’t very useful to the marketing and communications team. Then Director of Content Todd Deery had an idea.

University recruitment videos tend to follow a similar formula—but Leeds Beckett University had other ideas. In 2022, the institution took a different, cinematic approach to capture arts students and alumni performing original pieces in a newly opened arts facility on the U.K. university’s campus.

This article is based on a well-known theory that every story ever told follows one of seven basic plots. By understanding and embracing these plots, we can craft stories that will inspire our advancement audiences to: engage, attend, apply, accept, volunteer, mentor, donate!

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.

Effective mentorship requires intentional effort by both the mentor and the mentee. Hear from both perspectives with advice and tips for building successful and impactful mentoring relationships.

Whether it be a crisis on campus or a volatile world event, communication officers are under pressure to respond. The stakes of these statements have never been higher. Hear from seasoned education communicators on best practices and strategies, and the need to take a deep breath and fully assess the situation at hand.