Lanterna Rally

Author: William M. Stovall

Publisher:

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13:

The purpose of this study was to examine presidents' approaches to fundraising at four-year historically black colleges and universities. The study also explored presidential leadership and how it informs presidents' fundraising efforts. Both private and public institutions were represented in this study. Religious and non-religious affiliated colleges and universities were representative of private institutions. Institutional types for public institutions were land-grant and urban, comprehensive. This study employed a qualitative research method to gather data from the participating institutional leaders. A case study design and qualitative analytic procedures were utilized to derive meaning from collected data. Triangulation was used to retrieve data from various sources. Data sources consisted of semi-structured interviews, observations and documents. Four case studies were used for this study. The qualitative methodology of purposive sampling was utilized to select institutional leaders. Institutional leaders were selected from four-year historically black colleges and universities located in the Southeastern region of the United States. The Southeastern region of the United States was selected due to its high concentration of four-year historically black colleges and universities. Additionally, this study was guided by three research questions that centered on the approaches, role as institutional leader and leadership characteristics of presidents regarding fundraising at four-year, private and public historically black colleges and universities. There were variations among presidents in their approaches to fundraising. For the president of Lee University, fundraising was approached through the means of various types of campaigns. They were: traditional, continuing and interim. The use of each campaign was determined by specific institutional needs. The president of Monroe University approached fundraising from an individualistic perspective. He believed that major gift fundraising should be, solely, the responsibility of the institutional leader. There were similarities in the approach to fundraising for presidents of Verona and Wren Universities. They employed a more inclusive approach based on the notion that everyone is a fundraiser. There was a consensus in regard to the role of institutional leader in fundraising among presidents. Overall, there was unanimity in the belief that presidential leadership is essential to the success of fundraising. Furthermore, each president's perspective on the role as leader suggested that a president's ability to effectively articulate his or her institutional vision was also a shared belief. All four presidents exhibited a different leadership characteristic in relation to institutional fundraising. They were: situational (Lee University), authoritarian (Monroe University), democratic (Verona University), and charismatic (Wren University). Moreover, these varying leadership characteristics were reflective of each president's overall style of leadership.