Three essays of Fundraising as a tool to reinforce university's outcome

The recent economic downturn has slowed down public sector severely and the situation is expected to get worse until the economy recovers. This is the main reason why also public higher education has grown to appreciate added support from charitable gifts. Therefore, the competition for private charitable donations has become fierce and donors are exposed to an increasing number of solicitations for support. Moreover, fundraising has been acknowledged as “a persuasive activity that seeks to convince donors to a worthy cause”. Furthermore, in a wider perspective, fundraising is not only the science of raising funds, but also the science of financial sustainability of a social cause. From that reasoning, this research is focused on the public sector, with a particular regard to public universities. The mission of a governmental organization defines the value that the organization intends to produce for its stakeholders and for society at large. The former, in order to get its mission and to create value, needs funds, which are not totally delivered by central governments. Therefore, public universities have to fulfill needs through their functions, supported by fundraising activities, trying to involve several types of stakeholders. The research aim of this study is basically to understand, interpret and explain the fundraising phenomenon, process, and activities and how they works within the Italian higher education context. General results will be discussed considering the Resource Dependence Theory framework developed by studies within higher education context. In order to get the research’s aim and to answer to the previous questions, the following chapters will compose the dissertation thesis. First of all, a general introduction about the context, main objectives and contents of the study will be delivered. This section is followed by a general literature review on the topic, with a description of what is the original contribution of the chapters. Afterwards, three essays about the topic are presented, with a specific introduction for each of them and the links to the overall objectives of the thesis. Finally, general conclusions will be stated in the last chapter.