Alumni aren't ungenerous.Institutions are. That line struck a nerve on LinkedIn this week. As commencement season wraps up, colleges and universities are celebrating their newest alumni. But what kind of relationship are those graduates actually entering? New data from the 2026 National Alumni Survey shows alumni are generally satisfied with the education they received. And many are active philanthropists. They give to causes, volunteer, and support organizations they care about. They’re just...
16 days ago • 1 min read
The Work Is Getting Clearer Since going solo a year and a half ago, I’ve been unrelentingly pursuing one big idea: Advancement marketing and communications can’t keep being treated as just a downstream service provider. It’s capable of so much more. And as another fiscal year comes to a close soon for many institutions, it becomes harder to ignore how much they need Advancement MarCom to influence bigger outcomes: reputation, campaign progress, donor confidence, alumni engagement, and...
about 1 month ago • 6 min read
Welcome to 2026 It’s been exactly two months since my last newsletter. Some of you may have noticed I slowed my output over the last several months. Consulting work took priority, as did time with family during the holidays, but I’ve also tried to be more selective about when I have something to say. This felt like the right moment to come back. Throughout 2025, I spent a lot of time with clients and production teams talking about philanthropic video. Less about how it’s made (though that...
6 months ago • 4 min read
From Las Vegas to National Harbor: A Year of Going Solo It’s been quieter in your inbox the last couple of weeks while I caught my breath from a busy fall. I’ve also welcomed a few dozen new colleagues to this list, so if you’re new here, I appreciate your patience. This week is special. It marks one year. One year since I stood on stage at the 2024 higher education marketing symposium in Las Vegas, sharing how we elevated Advancement MarCom over my eight years at Drexel University — a...
8 months ago • 5 min read
The Advancement Manifesto Hey friends, Volt just published a brief piece I wrote: “The Advancement Manifesto.” If you’re unfamiliar, Volt is a respected publisher for higher education marketing and communications professionals. Read it here. I originally drafted it in late June intending to post on LinkedIn, but after a gut check with a friend, he encouraged me to get it published more broadly, so I submitted it to Volt.The spark behind this came from three places: Like many of you, I’ve...
9 months ago • 2 min read
Weekly roundup: 5 tips you might've missed, and more Hey friends, I'm having some fun with a new content series on LinkedIn called AI for Advancement. Honestly, I should've started it back when I did the AI for IA podcast in the spring... but hey, better late than never. Over the next few weeks, I'll be covering a mix of practical use-cases across areas like productivity, marketing & comms, fundraising, stewardship, annual giving, alumni engagement, research, and more. No set end date yet,...
9 months ago • 2 min read
Enterprise > Silos: The Model That Wins Since diving deep into the world of Advancement nine years ago, one pattern keeps showing up across organizations that hurts more than any other: silos. Silos slow progress. And more specifically, they slow fundraising. Donors don’t give to an institutional maze. They give to a clear story that shows where their gift goes and why it matters. That’s why a division-wide, enterprise Advancement MarCom model beats a fragmented approach. Especially in the...
9 months ago • 5 min read
Hi Reader, Sorry to cut into your Sunday lineup—whether that’s a triple-header of kids' sports like me, a Costco run to restock, NFL game (Go Birds!), or just a quiet hour on the couch. But if you can sneak a minute, this email might be worth the pause. In producing The IA MarCom Shift series the past few months and reflecting back as it wraps, one theme has become undeniable: Advancement teams are being asked to do more with less. That’s why one of the smartest investments leaders can make...
10 months ago • 2 min read
Processes matter. But collaboration in higher ed doesn’t succeed—or fail—because of forms or workflows. It succeeds when relationships are strong. That’s the focus of Episode 3 of Advancement Amplified: The IA MarCom Shift: Mastering the Collaboration Matrix. Too often, Advancement MarCom teams don’t have formal authority, yet they’re expected to align a sprawling set of players—Central Marketing, schools and units, frontline fundraisers, alumni engagement, donor relations, university...
10 months ago • 1 min read