Wartburg College
EN-13: Community Stakeholder Engagement

Key to Wartburg College’s vitality is identifying people, companies, and foundations whose ongoing leadership, vision, and support can inform its strategic direction. Formal framework for engagement occurs in many ways. Here we will identify and go in to detail on a few of the primary ways: National Advisory Boards (NAB) assist pre-determined College programs and departments in the process of evaluation and planning. National Advisory Boards will play an integral role in recommending ways to establish and meet institutional goals. This is achieved through the advice, advocacy, expertise, goodwill, and financial support of Advisory Board members. NABs will provide an avenue for alumni and friends from across the country to stay connected to the college and for enhanced communication between the college and its constituents. Nearly 300 alumni and friends of the college are involved in the NABs. The President’s Advisory Council (PAC) includes about a dozen business and community leaders which are friends and alumni of the College who: • Share a commitment to the College’s mission of “challenging and nurturing students for lives of leadership and service as a spirited expression of their faith and learning”; • Invest time, talent, and resources in helping the College to achieve its strategic goals; • Help to expand the College’s circle of friends, without bearing fund-raising obligations; and • Offer the president their best advice, unencumbered by fiduciary responsibility. The Commission on Mission strategic planning process is detailed in the front section of our strategic plan, located at http://www.wartburg.edu/strategicplan/COM%20Strategic%20Plan_low.pdf. It involved many alumni and friends in envisioning the future for the college. The Transforming Tomorrow campaign seeks to raise funds to fulfill the goals in the strategic plan (www.wartburg.edu/transform). The campaign engages a Steering Committee and National Campaign Committee to guide the work of volunteers and initiatives.

As mentioned above, the committees are made of friends, alumni, community members, and other stakeholders. Members represent a wide range of expertise and disciplines.

President’s Advisory Council (PAC) National Advisory Boards (NAB) * Athletics * Broadcast Archives * Business * Diversity * Engineering Science * German Institute * Journalism and Communication * Leadership * Library * Pathways Center * Social Work * Wartburg West. This is not an exhaustive list.

Although far from being the only example, our Commission on Mission process is a great example of a process which sought community stakeholder engagement, and resulted in significant outcomes. The outcome of the Commission on Mission, the 2010-2020 Strategic Plan, provided guidance on operations and initiatives for the future. Born from this plan, the Transforming Tomorrow campaign lies heavily on the stakeholder beliefs and feedback collected during and after the Commission on Mission to identify priorities for growth and change. As a result of building a campaign upon the feedback of our community has allowed the campaign to be very successful.