“…Trustees choosing a new president should focus on personal trustworthiness in judging the candidates. Would they themselves be inclined to make a major gift if that person came calling? With time and familiarity, might they do so?”
An important consideration…and an important acknowledgment that fundraising is central to the role of a college or university president in today’s world.
This is the fourth guest post by F. Gregory Campbell. He served for twenty-five years as president of Carthage College. Previously he had been special assistant to the president at Yale and the University of Chicago. Read his last post, The #1 Strategic Priority: Building Endowment.
Virtually every search for a new president of a small college emphasizes fundraising prowess. That has to be a vital concern for any board of trustees, particularly those at private colleges and universities.
But how will the trustees know when they have found the right person? What qualities does an individual need in order to be a successful fundraiser? How will trustees know that their own expectations of the new president are realistic?
Years ago, during my first months as a college president, a senior colleague at another institution gave me some advice that molded my fundraising activities for the next quarter-century…
View original 270 more words