The Young Alumni Fund Raising Challenge

The job market is terrible for new graduates and young alumni, but development offices still want them as donors. At many institutions, this is leading to campaigns to get as many people as possible to give small amounts, such as $20.09 to symbolize this year. But there are also colleges that have decided this is a time to forget about participation rates and go for dollars.

Full-text article by Kate Maternowski is available via InsideHigherEd, 5.19.09.

Millionaires No Longer Feel Wealthy

A new study by Fidelity Investments finds that millionaires don’t feel wealthy anymore, largely because of the global financial crisis.

Full-text blog post by Frank Rich is available via The Wall Street Journal, 5.6.09.

Five Steps to Developing a Powerful Social Networking Strategy

Creating web communities can help you build relationships of value with your most important constituents. Colleges and universities would be wise to develop networks that have the same kind of power that commercial networks like Twitter or MySpace do—the power to attract members who will broadcast network benefits throughout the digital ecosystem, attract other members, and create an ongoing community that feeds marketing and recruiting efforts.

Full-text article by Fritz McDonald is available via UniversityBusiness.com, May 2009.

Unmasking Social-Network Users

Social networks typically promise to remove “personally identifying information” before sharing this data, to protect users’ privacy. But researchers from the University of Texas at Austin have found that, combined with readily available data from other online sources, this anonymized data can still reveal sensitive information about users.

In tests involving the photo-sharing site Flickr and the microblogging service Twitter, the Texas researchers were able to identify a third of the users with accounts on both sites simply by searching for recognizable patterns in anonymized network data. Both Twitter and Flickr display user information publicly, so the researchers anonymized much of the data in order to test their algorithms.

Full-text article by Erica Naone is available via Technology Review, 5.6.09.

Proposals Would Transform College Aid

President Obama's health-care goals may be garnering attention, but his higher-education proposals are no less ambitious.

Full-text article by Shailagh Murray is available via The Washington Post, 5.4.09.

Fundraising and the Economic Climate

CASE examines the impact of the current economic climate on institutions and advancement.

Full-text article is availabe via CASE.org, May 2009.

Index Quantifies Record Increase In Startups In 2008

The annual Index of Entrepreneurial Activity released Thursday by the Kauffman Foundation revealed that 2008 saw an increase in startups, the biggest increase since the foundation began tracking the activity in 1996. More lower-income than higher-income ventures started, a sign that many people turned to enterprise because job openings were scarce as a result of the recession.

Full-text blog posting by Kelly Spors is available via The Wall Street Journal, 4.30.09.

Giving by Richest Britons Up 8% in 2008

Britain’s top 100 philanthropists gave the equivalent of a combined $315.5-million last year, an 8 percent increase from 2007, Third Sector Online reports, citing the Sunday Times’ annual Giving List.

Colleges Using Technology to Recruit Students Try to Hang On to the Conversation

Higher education traffics in reputations. To thrive as an institution means keeping up with competitors while setting yourself apart. But as good as colleges have become at building brands, the game is shifting to social media, where there is perpetual motion and little control.

Full-text article by Sara Lipka is available via The Chronicle of Higher Education, 5.1.09.