Should I stay or should I go?: gendered experiences of retention in institutional advancement

Lauren R. Villanueva

doi:10.17918/00010701

Institutional Advancement (IA) professionals employed in higher education institutions play a critical role in building relationships with external constituents that lead to philanthropic support for strategic priorities. While IA activities have been part of the fabric of higher education since the 18th century, IA has only been a recognized professional specialty for the past 50 years. As a result, the knowledge base to describe the practice of IA and the experiences of professionals who carry out the work is still evolving. Recruiting talent to fill open positions, managing high turnover among staff, and ensuring that the identities and lived experiences of IA professionals reflect an increasingly diverse constituent base, remain critical issues within the field. While women currently hold the majority of professional roles in IA, there is limited understanding of the ways in which the current context and identity neutral models that describe voluntary turnover and retention apply to their experiences. Therefore, phenomenological study was designed to understand the lived experiences of women who hold fundraising and/or alumni engagement roles at private doctoral institutions and the factors that influence their experience in this context. The following questions guided this the study: 1) How do participants describe their work as an IA professional? In what ways is this work gendered? 2) What factors do participants identify 2) as being important to their decisions to stay in and/or leave their jobs? 3) What do participants suggest are ways the IA field could better support them personally and professionally? Data was collected through one-on-one semi-structured interviews and focus group interviews. The findings of this study indicate that although women hold the majority of roles in the field, gendered organizational structures may still impact their experience and job-related decisions. By centering the voices of women, which are currently absent from the existing literature, this study may play an important role in improving their individual experiences as well as providing leaders, managers, and professional associations with insights that will support continued professionalization of the field. Keywords: Gender, organizations, Institutional Advancement, job satisfaction, fundraising, alumni engagement, higher education

Should I stay or should I go?: gendered experiences of retention in institutional advancement

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Should I stay or should I go?: gendered experiences of retention in institutional advancement

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