A Case Statement for Communications Leadership in Campaigns – Episode 1

Context and Why I'm Thinking About This Today

It looks like more universities and non-profits are using search firms to find their next chief communications officer. Woo-hoo! That’s a really good development, especially on the advancement and fundraising side.

It really is critical to have communications strategy and planning at the leadership table during campaign planning, but it is often overlooked while other elements take the focus. There are feasibility studies to conduct, operational readiness reports to present, donor and prospect pools to analyze, staff and technology audits to conduct. There are gift charts and pie charts and giving trend charts and annual fund statistics to measure against major gift needs. So many charts, gobs of data, so little time. And then there’s the big question: settling on a goal. What can the university realistically expect to raise in what time frame? How many fundraisers will we need to get there? Notice I did not say how many communications people will the campaign need to support those fundraisers. P.S. I have literally never heard this statement uttered in my career or met a development leader who is willing to sacrifice a fundraising FTE for a communications FTE. Never.

So, planning is now at the stage where universities have spent A LOT of money on A LOT of information and everyone is in a ready, set, let’s raise some money mood. Time to call a meeting with communications. The head-scratching, AHA moment has arrived. People are starting to realize that maybe not enough attention has been spent thinking about WHO will explain WHAT we’re raising money for and WHERE it will be shared and WHY it all matters. It's just words, right? What's the big deal?

…. things may get tense, maybe not, stay tuned for Episode 2.

…well before they hired the search firm