ABSTRACT
Fundraising has become a vital skill for presidents of colleges anduniversities. It is impossible to be successful in this role without skills of persuasion and the ability to tell the institutional story in a way that fosters giving-both large and small scale giving. When looking to increase their fundraising skills or to more fully understand the role of the president in fundraising, many people look to the big powerhouse institutionsYale, Princeton, Penn, Harvard, Stanford-that have huge endowments and bring in large sums of money every year. However, most colleges and universities do not have large endowments and they struggle with generating funds from alumni and individual donors. Most institutions of higher education are also void of the types of resources that it takes to bring in billions of dollars such as the powerhouse fundraisers. Without resources, it takes enormous creativity to raise funding. As such, we are focusing this chapter on fundraising at an under-resourced, small, urban, liberal arts college in Dallas, Texas-Paul Quinn College. Through this case study, narrated by President Michael Sorrell, we hope to glean strategies for fundraising that are not obvious to most prospective college and university presidents.
