Involvement of Academic Department Heads and Chairs in Fundraising at U.S. Public Research Universities

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to examine the involvement of department heads and chairs in fundraising activities. We surveyed 440 department heads and chairs who served in Engineering, Business, and Arts and Sciences colleges at 13 public research universities in the Southeastern region of the United States. Based on the data from 114 department heads and chairs who responded to the survey, it appears that they are rarely engaged in direct fundraising activities on a continuing basis, but they seem to show interest and perceive that fundraising should be the expectation of their position.