When the System is Broken, Everyone Loses
Higher education is facing intense scrutiny and disruption—from political attacks to financial instability to public skepticism about its value. These external forces are real and putting immense pressure on institutions.
While these challenges are very serious, I’ve been thinking a lot about how institutions can also be their own worst enemies:
- They operate in siloes.
- They chase prestige over people.
- They mistake motion for progress. (Because if the meetings never end, they must be accomplishing something...right?)
- They "save money" in ways that cost them much more tomorrow.
The result?
Burnout, disengagement, and disillusioned stakeholders. A cycle I've seen repeat itself across institutions—and I bet you have, too.
Last November, after nearly eight years of building and leading a high-performing advancement MarComm function, my position was unexpectedly eliminated—just as our division had closed its strongest fundraising year in a decade, raising $112 million. A decision framed as a necessary budget cut, driven by a substantial shortfall of several hundred fewer fall freshmen than expected.
Talented professionals—marketers, communicators, fundraisers—pushed out, burned out, or disengaged because institutions prioritize short-term financials over long-term impact.
This isn’t just about numbers. It’s about institutional health and long-term sustainability, forcing Advancement teams to constantly grapple with:
- Gift officers quietly job-searching instead of building relationships.
- MarComm teams scrambling on reactive work instead of driving strategy.
- Institutions losing loyal supporters because they’re treated like transactions.
- Annual giving and donor pipelines suffering from lack of sustained engagement and effective stewardship. (But don't worry, all those "miracle gifts" will definitely arrive at 11:59 PM on June 30. 😉)
The institutions that thrive don’t just react—they rethink. They move beyond short-term fixes and take strategic action to build resilience.
4 Ways Leaders Can Break the Cycle
1️⃣ Move from “budget-cutting” to strategic reinvestment.
- Audit spending for impact. Instead of across-the-board-cuts, assess which investments yield the highest long-term value (e.g., donor engagement, alumni outreach, and pipeline building)
- Reframe Advancement and MarComm as revenue drivers. These teams don't just spend money—they generate it. Build data-driven cases that show ROI from engagement efforts.
- Pilot high-impact, low-cost initiatives. Instead of freezing all new efforts, test small, scalable investments in donor stewardship and digital engagement to drive growth.
📊 Research from the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy shows that institutions that maintain fundraising investments during economic downturns often experience stronger donor engagement and giving post-recession.
2️⃣ Listen to the people closest to the work.
- Create structured feedback loops. Hold monthly “frontline insights” sessions where MarComm and fundraising staff share on-the-ground challenges with leadership.
- Decentralize decision-making. Empower teams to make local-level adjustments without waiting for top-down approvals on every initiative.
- Act on feedback, visibly. Employees stop speaking up when they don’t see action. Publicly acknowledge and implement ideas from frontline teams.
📌 Leaders who actively seek input from teams on the front line before making shifts build stronger, more sustainable organizations.
3️⃣ Redefine “efficiency” as maximizing talent, not just cutting costs.
Layoffs and restructuring often assume “efficiency” means fewer people doing more. Because who doesn't love running a marathon with a 50-pound backpack? In reality, this just leads to burnout and attrition. A better approach:
- Stop treating “do more with less” as a strategy: Instead, focus on doing the right work with the right people.
- Align roles to strengths: Audit what tasks drain vs. maximize your team’s expertise. Outsource or automate low-value tasks (e.g., basic email segmentation, meeting scheduling) so staff can focus on high-impact work like donor strategy and engagement.
- Use AI to enhance, not replace. Instead of layoffs, train teams to integrate AI tools for efficiency in content personalization, prospect research, and reporting.
4️⃣ Lead with Vulnerability—It’s a Leadership Strength, Not a Weakness.
Too often, leaders feel pressure to project certainty—especially during difficult times. But teams don’t need perfect leaders; they need honest ones.
- Model transparency from the top. Leaders who share challenges foster trust and encourage open conversations. Vulnerability isn’t a weakness—it’s what makes leadership real. (I explored this recently in Issue #8.)
- Create space for team-wide dialogue. Instead of only discussing what was accomplished in meetings, set aside time to ask, “What challenges are we facing, and how can we tackle them together?”
- Acknowledge when you don’t have all the answers. Teams respect leaders who say, “I don’t know yet, but here’s how we’re figuring it out together.”
📌 Example: Facing financial cutbacks, a university’s VP of Advancement didn’t retreat behind closed doors. Instead, she held open town halls, shared constraints transparently, and co-developed solutions with her team—resulting in stronger morale, buy-in, and retention.
When institutions foster openness, trust, and shared challenges, they create cultures that retain top talent and don't just survive difficult times...they build stronger, more engaged teams because of them.
