This brief article lists five ways in which architects can help cultivate donors and solicit gifts to the campus:

For many campus building projects, the period following schematic design is critical to the project’s future. With the proposed design illustrating the building’s significant forms, program, functional relationships and scale, the project enters the fundraising phase. Design work on higher education cultural projects—such as museums, studio-arts buildings, performance halls and affiliated classrooms, as well as sports facilities, alumni centers, and science buildings—often pauses following schematic design so that university leaders can raise funds for construction.

The juncture between schematic design, design development, construction documents, and construction, during which intensive fundraising occurs, can be a few months to a year or two. Yet designers are hardly idle during this time. Architects are increasingly participating in client universities’ fundraising.