EFFECTIVE PARTNERING WITH DEANS/ACADEMIC

CABINETJames M. Langley

President, Langley Innovations

Effective Partnering

The case for partnering

Example of Partnering in action

The practicalities of Effective Partnering

The Case

BESTPEOPLE

BESTPROSPECTSBEST

PROPOSALS

Effective Partnering

At the major gift level, it’s about content+connection

If you don’t have a strong emotional connection, you need very strong content (entrepreneurs)

If you don’t have strong content, you’d better have a very powerful emotional connection

Effective Partnering

If you don’t think content is that important, consider how one man, with a powerfully compelling message, changed the world with a staff of 12 (apostles), in a very short period of time

Consider how the right content creates powerful connections

Effective Partnering

Two-thirds of our equation -- the institution’s best people and the best proposals -- require academic leadership/faculty participation

They are the leaders/exemplars of institutions we represent

We will need their help in generating the content that will make up our best proposals

Effective Partnering

Not enough to showcase academic leaders and faculty at various events, no matter how impressive they may be

Does not establish philanthropic purpose

Who we are

Where We’re going

Who will benefit, when and how

why you should care

Effective Partnering

Too many of our prospects are lost in the deep dark woods of social cultivation

Philanthropic content will see you, and them, through

Effective Partnering

We make philanthropy more content rich when:

We seek out substantive prospects

Discover how they hope to live out their beliefs

Present a proposal that constitutes the most productive path to do by aligning with our institution

Effective Partnering

Need to help our institutions move from fund raising by category (e.g. Faculty excellence)

To fund raising by objective (e.g. selectively augment faculty to Develop new capability essential to student’s long-term success)

specific outcomes

The Example

Effective Partnering

Let’s say that new capability is ethics (used to be called “moral reasoning”)

You want to create new professorships, secure programatic funds, and carve out a space (new or retrofitted)

Effective Partnering

Need white paper that addresses Philanthropic purpose

Academic -advancement partnership

Academic side generates scholarly, pedagogic content

Advancement determines philanthropic viability, translate ideas into accessible language

Effective Partnering

White paper circulated to promising prospects, and can be used to prospect for new sources of support

encourages collaboration (FACE of Philanthropy) and allows institution to incorporate, thereby creating joint ownership

speaks to how donors can give through, not merely To, the institution to achieve common aspirations (Philanthropic purpose not fund raising)

Effective Partnering

Philanthropic Purpose

Who we are

Where We’re going

Who will benefit, when and how

why you should care

Effective Partnering

White Paper content can be previewed or shaped by salon events

Distinguished host -- sphere of influence setting

Thought leader

Ritualistic meal

Respecting the voice of all (interview: “to see each other””

Effective Partnering

Salon dinner

Can be preceded and followed by advancement officer visits

Can be preceded and followed by white paper

Effective Partnering

White paper process is iterative

Must reflect incorporation

Not each and every voice

Create shared purpose

Effective Partnering

Content-driven, better world philanthropy is true philanthropy

Will attract the most substantive prospects and inspire them to give their time, talent and treasure

Requires a partnership, a culture that makes philanthropy everyone’s business, everyone’s responsibility

The Practicalities

Effective Partnering

Audit advancement operations

Really auditing the philanthropic culture

Is advancement isolated -- by itself or the culture

Is it given to lone-wolfism?

Is it viewed as a “short-order” fund-raising operation?

Effective Partnering

Effective partnering requires

Point of view

policy

Principled practice

Effective Partnering

Point of view

Collective ownership of Philanthropic engagement

Advancement in support of Institutional goals

Not advancement as the only entity in the institution with goals

Effective Partnering

Point of View

A collective acceptance of the moral weight of the proposition

What an advancement officer does and doesn’t do represents and obligates the institution

Culture of gratitude, non-entitlement

Effective Partnering

Policy

Like federalism, requires a constitution, adjudication

Right balance of power between central government and the states

Too much central power retards local initiative

Too little central power contradicts “e pluribus unum”

Effective Partnering

Policy

Central prospect management essential

Resources must be managed for the greatest institutional good and ..

To ensure the greatest philanthropic leverage

Good stewardship on many different levels

Effective Partnering

Principled Practice

Distributed model

Prospect allocation/management

The donor decides

Central

Competence not Control

Effective Partnering

Charity begins at home

So does philanthropy

So does community

The better we collaborate within, the more we inspire collaboration from without

DeliverySystems

Exemplars

Faculty

Advancement

Board

Students

Staff

Vehicles

Web

Publications

White Papers

Proposals

Events

Salon Events

Community

Civic

Physical Presence

OurStory

Who We Are

Where We’reGoing

Who WillBenefit

Why You Should Care

PotentialSupport

Prospects

Donors

Alumni

Parents

Influencers

TheBigMo