Your Institution's Magazine and the Campaign
ACHIEVING FRIENDSHIP AND MUTUAL RESPECT
For Kristin V. Rehder & Associates
August 2004
By Rachel Morton, former editor of the award-winning Middlebury Magazine and currently a communications consultant for higher education. Write to rachel.morton@verizon.net

IT SHOULD BE a story of friendship and mutual respect. After all, both the magazine and the institution's fund-raising campaign have many of the same goals:

• commitment to developing strong bonds between alumni and the institution
• communicating the best of the institution to its large constituency
• advancing the goals of the institution
• placing the highest value on the institution's academic and cultural achievements and endeavors

So why is this relationship between the staffs of an institution's campaign and its magazine often rife with misunderstanding and mistrust?

Editors sometimes claim that their magazines are being threatened by the heavy-handed inclusion of blatant fund-raising articles or self-serving, institutional puffery. Fund-raisers may counter that magazine editors want to slam the door in the face of necessary coverage of important campaign milestones and initiatives.

Strive for common ground and both the magazine and the campaign benefit.

Appreciating the Magazine's Mission
For many institutions, the magazine is the only communication alumni receive that is not directly tied to fund-raising. If it is lively, interesting, and thought provoking, a magazine engages its readership in an ongoing relationship that instills a sense of pride and strengthens their bonds to the institution. Over time, those bonds can, and do, result in increased participation in college events, volunteer activity, and, eventually, in financial support. There should be a very light hand and a strict policy about how, and when, campaign and fund-raising material appear in the magazine.

When embarking on a campaign or a robust development initiative, strive to retain the integrity of the institution's magazine and avoid any sense that it has become a mouthpiece for development.

Covering Campaign News in the Magazine

• Most magazines contain a news section, and events such as a campaign kick-off or breaking ground on a new building might naturally be covered here.
• To decide whether to cover a major gift, use common journalistic criteria: Would such a gift make regional or national news because of the amount, the unusual nature of a gift, or the interesting background of the donor? Editors might choose to treat a major gift as a sidebar to a related feature story that covers the area this gift will fund. Perhaps it would be best as a news story or an alumni profile.
• Editors might decide to create a regular development column or department in which important campaign milestones could appear.
• As a rule, editors should have the authority to determine how to present campaign information for maximum impact and viewer interest.

Agreeing Beforehand on Donor Recognition
It is important that the magazine editor and development officers agree beforehand on the level of gift that will receive magazine treatment. Agreeing in advance avoids having development officers lobby for every favorite gift or donor, and the subsequent hard feelings that can arise if story suggestions do not materialize in the magazine.

Magazine stories are not generally good vehicles for donor recognition. They can serve to alienate the great mass of alumni readers who feel that the magazine is focused on alumni "insiders." This kind of one-to-one recognition is best handled in a special stewardship effort that is crafted for that donor.

If the institution does an annual report to donors, opportunities exist for donor recognition through profiles and articles. Another way to get maximum impact is to craft donor recognition into professionally produced "advertisements." These have proven to be effective ways to bring the face of a donor forward and briefly tell the story of a gift, inspiring other donors.

Planning for Stories That Illustrate Institutional Goals
The magazine can best support the institution and its development goals if the editor and senior advancement officers meet before campaign launch to discuss the campaign's priorities and map out subject areas that would provide fertile ground for stories illustrating institutional goals.

The critical term here is stories. A program is not a story. An area, a topic, a facility, an endowment-these are not stories. Stories are how people's lives are affected by these things, especially how their hearts and minds are formed and changed by the things the institution offers. The writers and editors should have the authority to find the human stories that will make campaign and institutional goals come to life. This is what magazines do best.

Beginning Well
It is important to talk candidly about expectations for a superb magazine and a successful campaign. Consider the following steps:

• Sit down for a conversation about how each effort-magazine and campaign-operates and by what standards.
• Find the common ground that you share in advancing the institution.
• Discuss various scenarios for how campaign events, gifts, milestones, and other successes could be communicated to your constituency through the magazine. Plan how you will proceed, then write down your plan and share it, not just with your staffs, but with institutional and campaign leaders.
• Review, describe, and celebrate together in an ongoing way the work you accomplish as a team.

The information contained here may not be reproduced without credit to Kristin V. Rehder and/or permission to copy.
Kristin V. Rehder August 2004.