For marcomm leaders, it’s key to articulate where you want your team’s work to go—but then bridging the gap between intention and transformation takes a structured approach. That’s where a gap analysis framework comes in. It allows leaders to identify barriers to growth and develop clear, actionable paths to overcome them.

For a new leader, the first 30 days in the role are about establishing trust. Trust is built on consistency, compassion, competence, and communication. This checklist can help new vice presidents or managers assess their own skills and begin to set the groundwork for trust.

Higher education’s top leadership role has evolved and expanded—and today’s advancement leaders are finding partners in their presidents, chancellors, vice-chancellors, and rectors. Here, five pairs of leaders share how they work together with mutual trust and shared commitment to their institutions.

The average tenure for an advancement professional today is just five years. To keep staff on board, our workplaces need to be flexible, empathetic, inclusive, and transparent. Here, two researchers share what they’ve discovered about human-centered talent management and the key steps to retain staff: align talent to mission and values; engage the whole person; and recognize colleagues’ impact.  

CASE’s 50th anniversary is also a time to look to the future. Five advancement leaders share thoughts on the challenges ahead, along with what makes them optimistic in this roundtable discussion.

Advancement professionals are diligently focusing on DEIB initiatives within their teams.  And more and more of them are beginning to look outward as well. Two advancement professionals with wide experience working in the DEIB space offer practical strategies to more effectively identify, involve, solicit, and steward alumni of color.

For colleges and universities, having a good reputation attracts students and faculty, generates alumni engagement, draws donations, and builds community goodwill. Today, it’s more important than ever that institutional leaders pay attention to reputation and cultivate trust. To do that, university leaders need to use these eight strategies: listen to its stakeholders, monitor the higher education environment, build transparency, provide guidance to colleagues, cultivate identity, avoid crises, build a distinct brand, and use rankings strategically.

Black women and women of color are underrepresented as faculty and administrators in higher education—and in advancement specifically, they face a specific set of career challenges. Here, author Karen Chance Mercurius shares her research on how Black women navigate career challenges (like pay inequities, difficulties getting promoted, and challenging interactions with donors and colleagues) and the supports that can help them succeed (mentoring and networking, for instance).

The pandemic changed the worldwide workforce dramatically and swiftly, like nothing seen in modern times. Employees (those who can do their jobs remotely) went home to work and found they could be just as effective in their jobs while better managing their personal lives. Now, as the workplace returns to its new normal, employees are demanding flexibility—fueling workforce recruitment and retention challenges. Advancement and HR leaders share thoughts on the challenges and rewards of flexible work options as they lead through changing times.

The pandemic and the Great Resignation (on top of years of financial pressures and change) have created new levels of stress and mental health challenges for higher education staffs around the world. Here’s a snapshot of mental health in today’s advancement workplaces—including what institutions, leaders, and individuals can do to address burnout and support well-being.