Exploring the Fundraising Role in the Value Creation Process of Public Universities

Literature about fundraising in the higher education context is quite rich and investigates the topic
from several perspectives, but, unfortunately, it has not given enough importance to the relationship
between the fundraising tools, chosen by the university to get funds, and objectives, in terms of output
and outcome, that they want to support by those fundraising means. The aim of this study is to
understand if there is a relationship between fundraising characteristics and university’s output and
outcome, in terms of three university’s function. Results refer to the alternative fundraising tools’
dissemination and features throughout the Italian public universities. The fundraising tools’ features
are considered in relation to their effect on university’s output and outcome, always considering the
university’s functions. In order to reach the research objectives, a questionnaire was sent to a group
of universities and, then, some university’s fundraisers were interviews. Besides, the data gathered
have been processed and analyzed considering the grounded theory. Results allows to better
understand the fundraising phenomenon within the Italian public higher education context