The Future of Fundraising: Adapting to Changing Philanthropic Realities

Higher ed fundraising can’t keep doubling down on ineffective practices. We can’t keep hoping donors give. Instead, we need to give donors hope.

We need to adapt to new philanthropic realities in higher education, both to avoid wasteful, depletive fundraising and to optimize our institutions ability to produce more significant, sustainable fundraising results. This will require rethinking how we organize ourselves at every level, including the board, executive team, and advancement operation. In the largest sense, what we must be most attentive to going forward is what we’ve been inattentive to in the past: the growing gap between what institutions wanted and hoped for from their donors and what donors wanted and hoped for from schools, colleges and universities.

In The Future of Fundraising, James M. Langley describes the changing philanthropic behaviors and expectations of our donors, then details the strategies and tactics that will allow fundraising operations and institutions to detect and catch the prevailing winds in their sails and thereby expedite the advancement of their missions and sustain donor trust. Langley contrasts old, increasingly ineffective approaches with current and emerging best practice, unpacking in practical detail how we must organize ourselves and how we must create new models of collaboration to establish a more adaptive craft.

From the author of Fundraising for Presidents and Fundraising for Deans, this new book that will challenge, inspire, and empower you to create the conditions at your college or university for more sustainable philanthropic growth.