Putting it together: Solutions-based collaboration to unite teams in higher education

As public funding of higher education and research continues to decline, philanthropy plays a critical role in helping universities achieve their missions. Gifts fill funding gaps to provide financial aid that equalises access to college and enables scientists to undertake transformative research. When it comes from corporations and foundations, however, philanthropy is often fraught with administrative challenges between the departments tasked with overseeing this support, typically university advancement and sponsored programmes. Academic administrators in the Corporate and Foundation Relations offices at three State University of New York (SUNY) research centres set out to address the complex issues between university advancement and sponsored programmes, the pre-award arm of university research. Due to intricacies in each other’s goals, objectives, methods, processes and measures for success, the departments often have misaligned functions and services that can hamper the growth of philanthropic support from corporate and foundation sources. This paper analyses the areas of management/structure, policy/protocol and engagement/outreach and discuss current challenges, best practices and pathways for solutions.