One of the key points that Loessin makes is that driving force in a campaign is to raise money for potential donors. The challenge is some of the greatest needs in higher education such as increases in general operating budgets are not something that people outside of higher education want to donate money for as compared to new buildings and scholarship programs. Loessin claims that if funds were raised for the most important purposes and the true mission of the colleges and universities, institutions would set smaller goals and that would result in larger institutional impact. He claims that this strategy would require that institutions stick to a plan for academic progress. Loessin warns that capital campaigns are overly oriented to individual donor satisfaction.
Faculty have to become more involved in capital campaign fundraising efforts.
Loessin believes that faculty can inspire a number of donors and foundations to give to the institutions campaign, if the faculty demonstrated their support for the institution both financially and by their individual efforts to promote the institution. As in our discussion of Academic Capitalism and financing higher education in AHED 753, institutions of higher education can have a financial impact on the local and regional economy. Goldstein s and Luger s chapter points out how colleges and universities are multi-product industries. As we discussed in Academic Capitalism, research that focuses on the needs and issues of the region can have a spillover benefit to the businesses and industry in the region. Technology-transfer has been the greatest example of economic benefit that institutions have contributed to their region such as the research triangle in North Caroline or the technology belt around Boston.