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Jennifer McDonough is a partner at Bentz Whaley Flessner with more than 10 years experience with the firm. Ms. McDonough has broad expertise in the design and leadership of overall advancement programs, strategic planning, staff, board, volunteer and institutional partner training, and the organization, execution and evaluation of campaigns. Her consulting practice has focused on higher education and has also included organizations in the …
Texans, it seems, aren’t content with being second in anything. Now the state has set its sights on creating the nation’s premier higher-education system. As esteemed public universities in California and other states have faced major budget cuts, resulting in layoffs, furloughs, and enrollment caps, Texas is setting aside hundreds of millions of new dollars to bolster the research and prestige of its universities. Full text articl…
The Chinese territory is offering land and other incentives to appeal to U.S. universities and others. The hope is that an influx of higher-education institutions and undergraduates can bolster Hong Kong’s image as a sophisticated, globalized city that is the gateway to China—a status increasingly challenged by Shanghai. Full text article is available via The Chronicle of Higher Education, 8/31/10. …
The nation’s historically black colleges are being challenged from within to overhaul their operations and image as they face outside pressures for more accountability. Once the only higher-education option for black students, historically black colleges now enroll just 12 percent of black students, although they award 30 percent of the baccalaureate degrees earned by all black students. Full text article by Eric Kelderman is available vi…
Churches suffered from plummeting donations after the recession began in 2008. But in the past year, a majority of congregations experienced giving increases because of a better economy, higher attendance and more church teaching on giving. Trends in 2011 included higher budgets, which brought more church spending on staff salaries, missions, facilities and benevolence. Trends also included greater attention to fiscal transparency and board gove…
The best of higher education institutions are leveraging advancement services to enhance productivity. New tools and processes are being adopted to address data quality/quantity, databases, reporting tools, processes, and people. In the quest for innovations, advancement services teams need to be nimble without compromising accuracy and integrity. Data Utilization and Security Fundraisers face two competing trends regarding data: advances in dat…
A small but determined group of college presidents is boycotting one of higher education’s little-known spring rituals: the practice of lobbying each other for better “peer assessments” in pursuit of a higher spot in the coveted rankings compiled annually by U.S. News & World Report. Full text article by Daniel de Vise is available via The Washington Post, 5/3/10. …
Fewer people gave money to colleges in 2009, and those who did gave less than usual, a study of annual funds has found. The number of donors supporting annual funds has been on the decline for a few years, but 2009 marked the first time that annual-fund revenue dropped as well, according to the 2009 Index of Higher Education Fundraising Performance. Full text article by Alexandra Tilsley is available via The Chronicle of Higher Education, 6/24/…
For states in the Pacific West, an exceptional reliance on public colleges and a steady erosion of state support has made higher education unusually vulnerable to the recession. Full-text article by Josh Keller is available via The Chronicle of Higher Education, 8.24.09. …
