About this chapter

Trustees and senior managers of universities and nonprofit organisations commonly encounter challenge when seeking alignments that optimise fundraising. The chapter incorporates understandings for fundraising success from structured study of strategies, processes and behaviours for institutional advancement employed by leaders of some of the world's most successful universities in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. 

The chapter outlines: 1) Strategic uses of organisational communication in high-performing universities; 2) Key assumptions and practices evident in world-class university advancement operations; 3) Relevant organisational communication strategies, processes and behaviors that might be applied in a wide range of contexts for institutional advancement. 

The conclusion of the chapter details a menu of concerns, from which an organisation contemplating best practices in institutional advancement might tailor an approach for implementing internal and external benchmarking to develop best practices. 

[Thoughts shared with invited senior leaders of Institutional Advancement at The Council for Advancement and Support of Education, Washington DC, May 1995]

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