Advancement Operations participates in the university mission beyond supporting our development, engagement, and marketing colleagues. We work with others across the university, which sometimes includes academic deans.
Understandably, deans are more likely to spend time with development and engagement leaders than they are to be interested in matters of processing gifts or managing alumni and donor data. Before we seek access or a seat at the table, we need to be clear about what deans ought to care about and why.
Advancement Operations serves academic divisions (in Canada, “faculties”) in direct ways. We manage the records and information of their alumni and donors, generate invitation lists for their events, facilitate the spending of gifts in accordance with donor intent, provide intelligence via reporting and benchmarking – and so on. When academic leaders are unaware of all that Advancement does, the result can be duplication of functions and undesirable behaviours that put the institution at risk.
To my mind, this is not quite enough reason to seek direct and regular access to deans. Clear policy and good working relationships with administrative staff reporting to the dean can go a long way. As well, Advancement colleagues who do meet with deans should be quite capable of conveying the general nature of operational supports that benefit academic units. To help them, I provide a one-page summary of these supports.
A larger concern is the quality of the relationship between Advancement and the academy. We can accomplish more together when there is trust in the professionalism and sophistication of the advancement organization, of which Operations is an integral part. It’s being able to show that decisions are based on evidence, that relationships with alumni and supporters are managed effectively, that donors are connected with relevant opportunities.
Perhaps the Operations story can be delivered directly to new deans and then refreshed once a year. Whichever way we seek to engage with academic leaders, it’s best to keep it relevant to their needs, and especially to the needs of the Advancement relationship.
(Thank you to Kevin Kardasz of University of Ottawa, Chris Armitage of Trent University, and Sarah Clarke of Carleton University for their thoughts.)
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