Why is it so hard for MarComm and Advancement Comms to work together?
How do I help my MarComm colleagues better understand how their work affects our alumni audience? Sometimes their editorial decisions have cost us money from donors.
There are a lot of ways to answer this. It could be structural. It could be capacity. It could be a those-people-just-suck situation.
But here's what I think is the real issue when it comes to communications:
Teams across campus don't realize their "different audiences" are often the same individuals.
I've seen this in enrollment and in advancement. Engineering talks to engineers. Athletics talks to athletes. Advancement talks to alumni. Nobody clocks that the recipient might be one person — an alumna who is an engineer who played on the volleyball team.
And each team feels so much ownership. They think they know their audience better than anyone. But that’s false. Most teams know what they want to say really well — but don't know their audiences much at all.
I’m sure your central team didn’t want to lose donor money. They just need to be reminded that when they’re speaking to “general audiences” that includes alumni.
The fix: get in a room together.
Here's how I'd do it:
Pitch leadership first. Bring the idea up that you'd like to get key folks from central and advancement around the same table.
Share what's working and what's not. Bring your past comms plans. Be honest about the wins and the misses (like the editorial decision that lost you money). The more data you can share, the better.
Map your audiences together. You'll see overlap fast: alumni, friends, corporate partners, etc.
For each overlap, get specific. What's your role? What's their role? What's each team trying to communicate? What are you sending, and when?
Then flip the lens. Look at the whole plan from the audience's side. You’ll see the friction immediately, and the decisions will make themselves.
Bonus listen: My pal Dan Giroux dropped a 5-part series on Advancement Comms on Higher Ed Pulse. I especially loved how Jaime Hunt talks about journey maps in the final episode.
If this feels impossible, I know.
Don't give up.
Make it a working session and bribe the other team with food. 🥯
Or, ask to join an existing meeting so it doesn't feel like "extra time."
Model the behavior. Be vulnerable. Share what you’re doing even if they don’t.
Remind them: It's not about you or them. It's about the person on the other end.
TL;DR: You share an audience. Act like it. (Even when they don’t).
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