We asked CASE staff who develop or curate content for our members year-round to highlight some of the content and conversations that they enjoyed working on, believe provided exceptional value or received a lot of feedback. Here are a few of the top resources in each advancement discipline, but there are many more articles, best practices resources and conversations on our website, CASE Communities and blog. Want to recommend something you found really helpful? Add it in the comments.

[Note: Some of the content below requires membership/log in or premier membership/login to view.]

Advancement Management

• Getting Institutional Buy-In for Talent Management Programming. Boston University’s Amy Bronson discusses how advancement leaders can encourage a talent management approach to staffing and shares examples of talent management programming in this issue of Advancement Talk. [premier membership/login required]
• Good Question: Gift Officer Metrics. The CASE InfoCenter staff curated this collection of sample metrics to help evaluate the performance of major gift officers and other fundraisers. [membership/login required]
• Learn What Decisions to Yield to Others. Executives should choose which work tasks matter most to them and cede control of nearly everything else to managers they trust, according to this Sept. 27 Advancement Weekly article. [premier membership/login required]
• Mission Possible. This July/August CURRENTS article looks at ways advancement leaders can find and hire staff of color.
• Time Management and Social Media. This #CASESMC chat recap, co-moderated by Harvard University’s Mike Petroff covers ways that staff can better manage the time they spend on social media.
• To Retain Top Fundraisers, Change Management Style. This November BriefCASE article highlights ways to retain high-performing major gift officers including creatively promoting them, better developing their skills and finding new ways to measure performance.

Advancement Services

• Best Practices in Advancement Services. Circle of Excellence winners and the corresponding judges’ report [membership/login required] for the advancement services category demonstrate successful programs at CASE member institutions.
• Get Compliant with Charitable Solicitation Laws. This article covers what advancement leaders need to do to make sure their institutions comply with state-specific and federal laws.
• Network for Good.This conversation in our advancement services community was around the benefits of using Network for Good for donations and how to count donations through the platform. [membership/login required]
• Parent Constituent Status. Another conversation in our advancement services community was about how different institutions manage the parent constituent status in their databases. [membership/login required]
• Score! Data-Driven Success for Your Advancement Team. This CASE book walks readers through strong arguments for why an organization should adopt data-driven decision-making and explanations of basic issues, such as getting data, what to ask for and what operations to perform once the data is in hand.

Alumni Relations

• Alumni Mentoring Programs. This conversation in our alumni relations community was around setting up and managing an alumni mentoring program. It was such a popular topic that we built a sample collection. [membership/login required]
• Best Practices in Alumni Relations. Circle of Excellence winners and corresponding judges’ reports [membership/login required] for the alumni relations programs category demonstrate successful programs at CASE member institutions.
• Class Exodus. This May/June CURRENTS article looks at the falling alumni giving rate and what institutions can do to rethink value to graduates.
• How Alumni Relations Professionals Can Work with Academics. University of Birmingham’s Kathryn Chedgzoy offers up ideas on ways to convince academics to engage with alumni relations professionals and things they can do to help with alumni relations efforts. [premier membership/login required]
• Promoting pride. This February CURRENTS article looks at LGBT alumni and their increased support for institutions as they become more inclusive.

Communications and Marketing

• Does your marketing deliver? This September CURRENTS article looks at what a higher education marketing professional learned from his college search.
• Good Question: Branding. This CASE InfoCenter resource collection provides information for members ready to take on branding projects, revise an institution-wide branding strategy or create a new set of visual identity guidelines. [membership/login required]
• Online vs. Print Magazines. This conversation in our communications community centered around the pros and cons of an online only magazine as well as experiences at different institutions. [membership/login required]
• Series of three blog posts highlight relevant CASE resources for marketing professionals.
• Summer Cleanup: A Plan to Help Centralize University Social Media Communication. In this blog post, West Virginia University’s Tony Dobies shares 10 steps identified at West Virginia University to grow its social media presence and move the institution forward.
• Survey of Social Media in Advancement. CASE, Huron Education and mStoner teamed up on this yearly survey for educational institutions about their social media activities. The overarching goal of the research is to create knowledge and resources for education professionals as they assess and implement social media strategies for communication and engagement.

Fundraising

• Best Practices in Fundraising Programs, Publications and Videos. Circle of Excellence winners and corresponding judges reports [membership/login required] for the fundraising programs, publications and videos categories demonstrate successful programs at CASE-member institutions.
• Buy-a-Brick Campaign. This conversation in our fundraising community focused on experiences with buy-a-brick campaigns. [membership/login required]
• Cents and Sensitivities. This March CURRENTS article covers how one university’s training program uses professional actors to help fundraisers tune into donors’ emotions.
• Involving Presidents in College Fundraising. In this video, senior practitioners share advice on how to make presidents more engaged in and more comfortable with asking for donations. [premier membership/login required]
• Solutions to Declining Unrestricted Gifts. This August BriefCASE article offers creative ways for fundraisers to secure support for their institutions as unrestricted giving to U.S. colleges and universities declines.
• Stewardship sample collection. This collection of stewardship publications from CASE-member institutions includes annual reports, endowment reports, gift acknowledgements, giving reports and donor honor rolls,  stewardship plans and reports, and stewardship videos. [membership/login required]