Themes

Theme I: Achieving our Potential

Achieving our potential as an Advancement organization means fueling NC State to achieve its unmatched potential. It begins and ends with the quality of personnel empowered to carry out our mission on behalf of this great university. This requires us to Optimize Talent Management by creating consistent practices in the recruitment and retention of Advancement professionals, including effective professional development, skills training, mentorship, career laddering, goal setting and accountability. We must become experts at Leveraging Data Strategically to make decisions and accurately inform best practice application of resources. We will need to invest in both Human and Technology Resources, to include applying (and potentially reallocating) resources where opportunities are the greatest. This includes, for example, investment in a state-of-the-art Advancement CRM solution to replace Advance. By getting the “right people in the right seats on the bus,” and leveraging technology and data, our stakeholders will experience Purposeful Engagement with NC State, leading to the optimization of the constituent-centric experience and enhanced impact on the university.

Theme II: The Think and Do Advantage

Based on numerous studies and measurements, NC State’s brand platform “Think and Do” has resonated exceptionally well within the broad range of our constituents since its launch. The brand continues to grow in awareness and acceptance as differentiating NC State from its competition and has served as a force multiplier as the primary, unifying identity for the entire university. To take full advantage of all that Think and Do represents, we are well positioned to leverage Pivotal Partnerships with key internal university stakeholders (Chancellor’s Cabinet, Deans, Department Heads, Faculty and Staff, etc.) and important external leaders in corporations, foundations, and government, media and key influencers, among many others. By using Digital-first Innovation, we can transition our partners to a more effective and user-friendly digital interaction with Advancement and the university. While our brand awareness in the region and around North Carolina has increased significantly, a meaningful investment in Brand Expansion / Amplification is necessitated to ensure NC State’s Think and Do mantra is experienced across the nation and around the world, especially in key national markets. This will result in enhanced Reputation, Passion and Impact within and among our varied constituents, leading to outcomes such as improved rankings, more student applications and more-qualified students, recruitment and retention of top faculty, increased interest from partners, and enhanced fundraising.

Theme III: One Pack

Perhaps the most important, and potentially the most complex, theme within the road map is transitioning NC State Advancement to a “one university” model and approach. This starts with having Streamlined Business Practices focused on creating consistency around goal setting; events management; media relations; marketing; fundraising capacity; foundation board management; financial reporting; and donor stewardship, and other core functions. Addressing these and other related issues will create clearer Outcome-Driven Accountability, resulting in opportunities such as incentive-based compensation and other rewards and recognition. Our ability to effectively achieve this will require a Comprehensive Re-organization of Advancement across the university, with an emphasis on aligning resources for maximum ROI for the university, its colleges and units. This will affect reporting lines and performance evaluations, and reinforce collaboration and commitment to a constituent-centric culture. With these elements in place, NC State will be well positioned to offer our stakeholders enhanced opportunities for Compelling Investments of their time, talent and treasure for the benefit of the university, wherever their passions may reside, to enable NC State to achieve its aggressive strategic goals.