Experience at Washington University (Missouri) illustrates the importance of careful media relations planning, including pinpointing what the institution wants to accomplish, establishing ground rules, and working with the institution's communications team to draw up a media relations plan. Planning steps are outlined. (MSE)

Experiences of the University of Texas at San Antonio and Texas Wesleyan University illustrate steps in planning special events. Steps include reconsider the proposed event; coordinate with other campus activities; make a master plan; know the target audience; highlight unique features; build a budget based on facts; evaluate everything; and keep…

Ways to create and implement a master marketing plan for college campuses are described. The best marketing plans describe both objectives and methods for all appropriate areas within the institution. (MLW)

In an interview, Dorothy A. Durkin, a successful marketing specialist at a major university's school of continuing education, discusses her approach to marketing, specific strategies, and techniques for using and storing information. She offers five guiding principles for reaching prospects personally and persuasively. (MSE)

Developing creative and appealing new college alumni programs need not be laborious and time consuming. A variety of familiar events and items can be sources of inspiration: a staff retreat, professional conference, a bulletin board, a telephone call, or the phone book. A positive attitude plays an important role in designing interesting programs.…

Guidelines for managing fund-raising programs are presented including: recognize variability of costs, understand salaries as major cost, compare institution only with its peers, manage volunteers well, allocate enough resources for the long-range development of young alumni and planned giving, pursue endowment gifts, etc. (MLW)

Parents represent a major but largely neglected source of annual, capital, and deferred gifts. An important dividend of any effective parents program will be the volunteers it turns up. These volunteers can help with fund raising. (MLW)

The Princeton Parents Project, a survey of Princeton parents, is described. The project was designed to strengthen communication with and activities for parents of undergraduates, and to acquire information that would be helpful to other institutions. (MLW)

When events or circumstances (war, conversion to coeducation, class size) have disrupted college class cohesiveness or alumni identification with a class or institution, creative planning can bring them back to campus. Segmentation into interest groups may also unite alumni with each other and the institution. (MSE)

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (New York) has coordinated a comprehensive fund-raising campaign with special emphasis on several regions of the country. Each regional component is a miniature of the overall campaign. Planning strategies include regional analysis, adaptation of the usual development resources, volunteers and staffing, good…

Fund-raising campaigns among the employees of colleges and universities have been very successful in some cases, and have not only involved both current and retired faculty and staff but have also built institutional unity and led to increased external giving. Examples of institutional campaigns provide insights into the planning of such programs.…

Colleges and universities can use electronic services such as bulletin boards and electronic mail to both reach out to and keep in touch with alumni. Such services are already being used with some success. Many institutions will find that the technology is already in place on campus. (MSE)

Advice to help a college or school development officer work effectively with a new chief executive officer includes participating in the search, making early contacts with the new administrator, coordinating working styles, keeping staff informed and comfortable with new processes, and launching new fund-raising initiatives as soon as possible.…

Advancement services, the group of functions that support fundraising and alumni relations, has evolved to include donor relations and stewardship, data processing analysis and programing, budget development and analysis, and event management. Centralizing these services under a single manager can lead to greater productivity. (MSE)

Techniques used at Tufts University to evaluate its achievement and goals for institutional development efforts before beginning a new program are outlined, including identifying and assessing competition, finding measures of support volume and importance to the institution, and comparing one's own institution with others in actual and potential…