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Leadership Transitions During Fundraising Campaigns

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Abstract

Capital campaigns are intense efforts to build the financial assets of an institution in a specified amount of time. This study provides an empirical view of how changes in leadership affected concomitant capital campaigns at ten colleges and universities. The transitions during these 10 campaigns influenced morale on campus, altered timing of the campaigns, created negative publicity, and caused lost momentum; however, all capital campaigns persisted to meet financial goals despite disruptive transitions. One area of note is the lack of fundraising training and development for provosts, many of whom assume interim or full-time leadership posts after a presidential departure.

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Correspondence to Kimberly Nehls.

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Nehls, K. Leadership Transitions During Fundraising Campaigns. Innov High Educ 37, 89–103 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-011-9193-9

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