Elizabeth A. Dale, Ed.D.

Elizabeth A. Dale, Ed.D., was named Drexel University’s Senior Vice President for Institutional Advancement in 2006. Reporting to the president of the University, she provides vision and direction to a full-scale institutional advancement program, including annual, major gift and planned giving; corporate and foundation giving; alumni relations; donor relations, protocol, and all support functions. She provides staff support for the Board of Trustees and the Institutional Advancement Committee.  She also has oversight for the Alumni Board of Governors.

Under her leadership, despite of one of the most severe economic crises in the last century, Drexel’s Institutional Advancement has nearly doubled its annual fundraising.  Drexel raised an average of $64 million per year for fiscal years 2008 through 2011, along with $40 million in fiscal year 2007. For the previous five years, the average giving was $34 million per year. In fiscal year 2009, Drexel secured a $25 million gift, the largest individual contribution in Drexel’s history and one of four 8-figure commitments made since 2008.

Dr. Dale launched the comprehensive fund raising campaign Dream It. Do It. Drexel. A Campaign for the Future, which entered the public phase on November 19, 2011.  Having already raised nearly 75% of the $400 million goal, Drexel is poised to exceed this by the close of fiscal year 2014.

In 2010, the Why I Give campaign, Drexel’s first faculty /staff campaign raised nearly $500,000 and increased participation year over year from 12 percent to 52 percent of Drexel’s 3,000 full-time employees. In 2011, the second annual Why I Give campaign had even greater participation at 54 percent, raising nearly $800,000 and continuing to develop the new culture of philanthropy at the University.

She established Drexel Magazine, which won the 2009 APEX Award for Publication Excellence for the Fall/Winter 2008 edition.

Drexel has achieved 100% participation from board members in annual giving for two years in a row.

Dr. Dale is overseeing the transition at the Academy of Natural Sciences to align their fundraising activities with the University's, fully integrating Institutional Advancement's President’s Principal Gift Team, prospect management program, support services, technology and processes into the Academy's development program.

Understanding the value of data-based decision-making, Dr. Dale has instituted predictive modeling and innovative prospect management techniques, while energizing the front-line fundraisers and their managers. This is enabling improved performance across the board, as well as more targeted and strategic relationships with donors and prospects.

Using a brand approach, Dr. Dale expanded Alumni Relations, which as a result of its strategic initiatives and new program development has experienced significant growth over the past four years. Event programming has increased by more than 119 percent and event participation has increased 75.5 percent. Additionally, over the past three years, alumni volunteer participation jumped by more than 151 percent and, as the result of an increased focus on and a complete overhaul of alumni online resources and services, as well as, partnership engagements, non-event alumni engagement has increased by 102 percent. Under Dr. Dale, the program launched a comprehensive Alumni Career Services program and expanded its community service efforts with the Community Alumni Network at Drexel University (CAN DU), an outreach program of the Drexel University Alumni Association, which in 2010 earned national recognition from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) with a Gold Award in the Collaborative Programs category. In 2011, Alumni Relations instituted the first ever Global Night of Networking, uniting alumni around the globe through virtual means, utilizing facebook, twitter and other social networking avenues to strengthen alumni ties to the University and to each other.

Dr. Dale previously served as Vice Chancellor for University Advancement at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, as well as the founding Executive Director of the UMass Amherst Foundation. In her years at UMass Amherst, she held positions including director of conference services, director of business and facilities services, special assistant to the chancellor and assistant chancellor. In addition to her role as vice chancellor, she held an adjunct faculty appointment in the department of hospitality and tourism management.

In 2009 she received a Fundraising Star Award from Fundraising Success magazine.

In 2010, the National Diversity Council named her among Pennsylvania’s Most Powerful and Influential Women.

Dr. Dale earned a master’s degree in public administration and a doctorate in educational policy, research, and administration from UMass Amherst. She was awarded a prestigious American Council on Educational Fellowship in 1999. In 2005 she was elected and continues to serve on the American Council on Education, ACE Fellows Program, Board of Directors.  She also co-chairs the Council's Finance and Development Committee. She is a director of Farm Haiti, the mission of which is to assist in rebuilding Haiti's agricultural infrastructure one farm town at a time.