My new Chronicle of Higher Education column is out this week. It discusses branding in colleges and universities--specifically, using capital campaigns to strengthen brands. Hence "brand aides."

Here's how we begin:

The capital campaign I'm running is moving along quite nicely, thank you, although not without the expected hiccups and delays. Funny thing, this fund-raising business. We carefully construct timelines and project cash flows, yet we can't always control when the money comes in. We make the plans, but we don't write the checks.

We do, however, control the nature and timing of our campaign communications. As I have explained to volunteers many times, a campaign is as much about marketing as it is about fund raising. Now that we are halfway through our "quiet phase," which focuses on a handful of major donors, we're ready to think about the "public phase" and trumpet our campaign to the world.

On that front, we've got everything figured out except what to say and how to say it.
Certainly, we know the core concepts ("Help us educate the next generation of students," and "Every gift counts," and, of course, "Even public institutions need private support"). And we are aware of the various vehicles available to us: print, Web, e-mail, DVD, and so forth. We now need to fine-tune those concepts, bundle them with pretty pictures, and deliver them in formats that make sense for our audiences and our budget.

But let's back up a minute. On what do we base our messages? Shouldn't they be "strategic" in some way? Well, yes, of course. The central themes of a campaign emanate from its case statement, which, in turn, emanates from the institution's strategic plan. That logic assumes an institution has produced a strategic plan before launching a campaign. I have no incontrovertible evidence to support that claim, but I'm guessing that most institutions do some form of strategic planning before flinging open the windows to announce a campaign.

For those that don't, the campaign itself can be a strategic exercise. It forces the leadership to consider what's important and what's worth investing in. If that's been divined through a formal strategic-planning process, then the campaign plan -- represented most visibly by the case statement -- should flow accordingly. If not, then the case statement becomes the de facto blueprint, at least with respect to philanthropic investments.

Read the rest here. And watch for my next column, which focuses on American Idol. No kidding.