Nestled in the historic Southern city of Milledgeville, Georgia College combines the educational experience expected at esteemed private liberal arts colleges with the affordability of public higher education. As “Georgia’s designated public liberal arts university,” the institution and its four colleges—arts and sciences, business, education, and health sciences—provide more than 6,600 undergraduate and graduate students with a truly unique environment in which to learn and grow.

In late 2014, Georgia College engaged Advancement Resources as a partner to help build a more robust culture of philanthropy and prepare campus partners for a transformational campaign. The program partnered academic leadership with the advancement team in a multiple-month engagement that introduced donor-centric processes, reinforced leadership’s role in effective fundraising, and outlined a strategic approach to donor engagement.

Monica Delisa, Vice President for University Advancement, provides this summary of the partnership:

Georgia College is in a period of rapid transformation. Our president, Steve Dorman, has set a goal to become among the nation’s preeminent public liberal arts universities and identified increased endowment and philanthropy as cornerstones to meeting that goal.

As a smaller shop, we knew that we needed to help our campus community become partners in philanthropy with us quickly and efficiently. We looked to Advancement Resources to help us make that happen. We engaged academic partners from across campus—athletics to academics—in campus sessions. I was amazed at how completely our academic partners embraced the concepts taught by Advancement Resources and now, four months later, how the lessons have endured across campus. Just a week ago, one of our faculty partners built her entire presentation of her campaign needs using the six word framework she imagined during the sessions.

I believe our training from Advancement Resources ‘legitimized’ the process of developing and transforming donor relationships in the eyes of our academic partners. I look forward to seeing how partnerships between the development staff and academic partners create durable and magical donor relationships that ultimately benefit the students of Georgia College.