In The Five Cultures of Academic Development, Crossing Boundaries in Higher Education Fundraising, authors Jeffery Buller and Dianne Reeves explore the different cultures that advancement professionals encounter in college fundraising.

"In academic fundraising, you'll encounter people with a wide range of backgrounds. You'll need to interact effectively with professors, administrators, staff members, corporate leaders, nonprofit managers, financial planners, legislators, trustees, alumni, parents, and people from a host of other professions, all of whom have their own ideas about what a college or university is and what it should be doing," writes Buller and Reeves in an article for Currents.

The authors explore the individuals encountered in five "worlds":

• The Academic World: the culture of professors, academic administrators, and other offices within a college or university who help support the teaching and resource missions of the institution.
• The Development World: the culture of professional fundraisers and other units at a college or university where the primary concern is how to obtain external funding, rather than what should be taught or what type of research should be conducted.
• The World of the Advisory or Governing Board: the culture of those who may be viewed from within the college or university as outsiders with little direct involvement but who see themselves as insiders vital to the college or university's day-to-day operations.
• The World of Parents and Alumni: the culture of those who have strong but highly focused ties to the institution because they see it from their children's perspective or as it was in the past when they were students.
• The Wider World: the culture of those who have little or no direct connection to the institution and so may easily misunderstand its mission, values, and goals.

"If you master the language and perspectives of these five cultures, you'll find that your journey will be easier, more pleasant and far more productive," write Buller and Reeves. Buller is director of leadership and professional development at Florida Atlantic University and a senior partner at Atlas Leadership Training. Reeves does business as P3: Partnering Passion with Philanthropy.

This article is from the February 2018 BriefCASE issue.