Aha! :: Elliance Blog

This post was informed by our agency experience with clients and partially inspired by my reading of Jim Langley of Langley Innovations’ books on fundraising. It’s naive to think that everyone associated with the college is a prospective donor. It’s equally naive to expect that alumni who show up at glitzy events or receive slick […]

This post was informed by our agency experience with clients and partially inspired by my reading of Jim Langley of Langley Innovations’ books on fundraising. There are hundreds of ways for capital campaigns to go wrong, but these five characteristics define all successful ones: Consequential: They set goals for lasting, measurable impact and for improvements […]

This post was informed by our agency experience with clients and partially inspired by my reading of Jim Langley of Langley Innovations’ books on fundraising. “If I only had an hour to chop down a tree, I would spend the first 45 minutes sharpening my axe.” – Abraham Lincoln. This sentiment specifically applies to vice […]

This post was informed by our agency experience with clients and partially inspired by my reading of Jim Langley of Langley Innovations’ books on fundraising. College presidents, vice presidents for advancement, and board members form the trifecta for envisioning, executing and consummating a successful capital or comprehensive campaign. College presidents play these 10 crucial roles: […]

Board members play three crucial roles in a university’s capital and comprehensive campaigns: Strategist & Visionary, Ambassador and Donor.

Unless they are managed systematically, vanity URLs can grow like kudzu. Here are some best practices for managing vanity URLs for colleges and universities.

In serving over 100 colleges and universities, we’ve learned that it takes a coordinated effort on three mutually enhancing fronts to create enrollment success: To help new vice presidents of enrollment succeed in their new consequential roles, we’ve distilled our key learnings and developed the following checklist: 1. Key Strategy Questions What’s our unique position […]

2021 is finally here. Here are the six trends and predictions for 2021, and 10 strategies that higher education marketers can deploy to overcome the challenges and make the most of emerging opportunities.

Changing the name of your college or university can stretch 5-10 years. Name change isn’t the answer to declining enrollments, but it could signal a new strategic direction, or an expansion of the audiences you serve, or a clarification of your mission; or it could be all three. Here are some pearls of wisdom gleaned […]

What’s the difference between a college with a surplus of applications and one with an unacceptably high acceptance rate? Sometimes, it’s curiosity and nerve. Adversity — brought on by geographic isolation, shifting demographics, living in the shadows of giants, deep-pocketed for-profits and other Goliath competitors — can inspire a college and university to challenge assumptions […]