Framing fund raising: A poststructuralist analysis of higher education fund raisers' work and identities

Rebecca J Meisenbach, Purdue University

Abstract

This project analyzes how higher education fund raisers engage in processes of identity negotiation. Using a poststructuralist perspective to study fund raisers' discourses highlights the tenuous and layered nature of these negotiations. Through grounded theory, interviews with 18 higher education fund raisers reveal six power-laden ways of framing fund raising: financial, relational, educational, mission, coordination, and magical framing. While financial framing is articulated as the traditional core of fund raising many fund raisers attempt to broaden fund raising to be understood differently through other frames. Fund raiser identities are usefully explained as residing in the negotiated tensions among the various modes of framing. Fund raisers use these framings to discursively manage the power relations and reputations inherent in their work and identities. The findings contribute to postmodern understandings of how identities are constructed and negotiated, how individuals handle occupational stigma, how fund raisers operate according to principles of exchange and altruism, and how fund raising relates to practices of public relations. On a pragmatic level, the project suggests training for fund raisers about the ways of framing and particularly about the mission of philanthropy.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Buzzanell, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Communication|Higher education|Education finance

COinS