---

What is your process for engaging new clients?

EJT Advancement Consulting provides a personalized, focused approach, partnering exclusively through referrals with higher education institutions committed to enhancing ROI in fundraising and aligned with our core values.

Our core values:

• People and Missions: Your institution’s mission and team success are our top priority.
• Advancement Expertise: We value higher education advancement as a specialized field where experience, expertise and leading best practices are critical to driving exceptional fundraising outcomes.
• Excellence: We are dedicated to delivering superior, sustainable, noticeably different results through strategic focus and precision.
• Integrity and Respect: Integrity and respect are the foundation of every consulting partnership and collaboration.
• Creativity: Creative solutions drive measurable, distinctive fundraising success, yet are typically the most common factor limiting a fundraising program’s growth. We believe creativity and thinking outside the box can unlock game-changing transformation.

To explore a consulting partnership, email ejthurman76@gmail.com outlining:

1. The challenge or opportunity
2. Current state
3. Ultimate objective
4. Project timeline
5. Desired deliverables

We look forward to exploring the opportunity to work together in partnership to achieve your goals.

---

Who is behind EJT Advancement Consulting?

Erik Thurman is the principal consultant and founder of EJT Advancement Consulting. Erik has worked in a multitude of roles and capacities in higher education advancement for 25 years. He’s an experienced practitioner with nearly 20 years serving in AVP and VP advancement roles in both public and private universities. He’s worked in advancement shops ranging in size from 75 to 350+ employees. Erik has a proven track record building high impact major and principal gifts fundraising teams, programs and cultures. He’s worked with benefactors and teams to raise 20 eight- and nine-figure gifts exceeding $600 million. Erik has built and led successful multimillion and multibillion dollar campaigns. He works with presidents, senior university leaders, boards, and ultra high net-worth benefactors. Erik has been a speaker at multiple national conferences. He’s the co-founder of Campus Advancement Slack Community, a virtual networking and knowledge sharing community of advancement professionals from public and private colleges and univeristies across the country. Erik is known for his ability to focus on highest ROI practices, for his creativity, and for thinking outside the box. Erik knows how to foster a powerful campus culture of philanthropy by leveraging advancement strategies and tools. If Erik can’t help you, he’ll point you in the direction of a leading expert nationally who can.

---

I’d like to network with fellow higher education advancement execs, how can I do that?

EJT Advancement Consulting founder Erik Thurman is the co-founder of Campus Advancement Slack Community. This is a virtual community exclusively for advancement professionals from public and private colleges and universities nationwide. Erik would be happy to help you join!

---

What are distinctive “superpowers” of EJT Advancement Consulting?

EJT Advancement Consulting brings broad expertise in addressing a wide range of challenges, particularly those preventing teams from achieving their full potential. However, our work shines most in a few specialty areas where we leverage our unique “superpowers”:

• Volunteer Boards: We excel in helping organizations architect and nurture strong philanthropic cultures within their volunteer boards.
• Principal Gifts: We have unique expertise developing sophisticated principal gift programs and crafting compelling proposals.
• Major Gifts Teams: We specialize in building and optimizing high-performing major gift teams.
• High-Impact Campaigns: We provide expert counsel on planning and executing transformative fundraising campaigns, with a focus on aligning institutional strategic plans with compelling campaign cases and priorities.

We believe the most impactful solutions stem from focusing our expertise and creativity on five fundamentals of fundraising success:

1. Bold Institutional Aspirations that inspire donors.
2. A Compelling Case for Support answering “Why now? Why us?”
3. Engaged Prospective Donors with capacity, affinity, and propensity.
4. Authentic Urgency that activates philanthropy.
5. Strategic Execution grounded in best practices.

These principles, combined with our distinctive strengths, consistently deliver exceptional fundraising outcomes.