Advancement Staff and Alumni Advocates: Cultivating LGBTQ Alumni by Promoting Individual and Community Uplift Jason C. Garvey University of Alabama Noah D. Drezner University of Maryland Using a constructivist case-study analysis, we explore philanthropy toward higher education among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) alumni, examining the role of advancement staff and alumni advocates in engaging LGBTQ alumni to promote individual and community uplift. Data come from focus groups with 37 advancement staff and 23 LGBTQ alumni at three higher education institutions. Findings reveal the importance of advancement staff and alumni in promoting LGBTQ alumni philanthropy. Specifically, participants discussed LGBTQ advancement staff, accounts of microaggressions and overt discrimination, and taking a leadership role in promoting culturally sensitive practices. Both advancement staff and alumni spoke of how alumni volunteering can lead to deeper engagement, and in the difficulty of recruiting and retaining volunteer leaders within the LGBTQ communities. We draw implications from our findings, discussing the importance of relationships and trust when working with alumni from diverse communities. Our discussion also highlights the need to hire a diverse representation of staff, create a warm campus climate for current students, and have culturally competent staff. Keywords: advancement, alumni, fundraising, LGBTQ, philanthropy Higher education advancement officers have had difficulty cultivating alumni donors from historically disenfranchised and marginalized groups (Gasman, 2002; Gasman & Anderson- Thompkins, 2003; Smith, Shue, Vest, & Villar- real, 1999). With declining support from alumni, advancement officers are developing strategies for recruiting and retaining those po- tential alumni donors they had previously ig- nored. However, the absence of a solid theoret- ical foundation for giving among diverse and historically underrepresented communities leaves practitioners vulnerable to ineffective practices. Although institutions are beginning to realize the potential of soliciting more diverse alumni, their advancement staff have difficulty in creat- ing meaningful connections and trust because these alumni have been ignored on their cam- puses (Gasman, 2002; Gasman & Anderson- Thompkins, 2003; Smith, Shue, Vest, & Villar- real, 1999). Over the past decade, scholars have examined giving motivations and behaviors among marginalized groups, namely racial and ethnic minority individuals. However, scholars and practitioners have left other diverse com- munities unexplored. Scholarship and practice involving lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) alumni is scarce. Currently, there exists no em- pirical research on LGBTQ communities’ in- volvement with and motivation to give to higher education. To cultivate new and active alumni, it is necessary to be cognizant of the behaviors and motivations that encourage giving (Gas- man, 2002). Because many practitioners are unfamiliar with the patterns and traditions of LGBTQ giving, “serious attempts should be made by fundraisers to learn what differences exist in philanthropy and fundraising among the Jason C. Garvey, Higher Education, University of Ala- bama; Noah D. Drezner, Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education, College of Education; Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership, Univer- sity of Maryland. Correspondence concerning this article should be ad- dressed to Noah D. Drezner, PhD, Assistant Professor, Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education, Cen- ter for Philanthropy & Nonprofit Leadership, University of Maryland, College Park, 3205 Benjamin Building, College Park, MD 20742. E-mail: ndrezner@umd.edu This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education © 2013 National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education 2013, Vol. 6, No. 3, 199 –218 1938-8926/13/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0033452 199