How Your Engineering and Engineering Technology Advisory Boards Can Aid in Fundraising for Your Programs

Abstract

During these stressful economic times, institutions of higher learning are getting less of their budgets from gifts, in the case of private institutions, and less from their state legislatures, in the case of public institutions. The solution to this problem is for programs to get funding from alternate sources. Sources can include grants from government and private sources, patent royalties by the faculty, and grants from foundations. Due to their contacts with industry, engineering and engineering technology departments can work with these industries, especially members of their industrial advisory boards, to get both equipment and cash for their programs. These programs also have alums working in industry, who become members of the programs' industrial advisory boards, and want to help out the colleges from which they obtained their degrees. This is to their own enlightened self-interest. If the program from which they got their degrees becomes better, this can only increase the status of their degree. Shown here will be examples of how working with alums' industries can result in major donations.