UI Center for Advancement's Lynette Marshall Reflects on Career of Connection

PHOTO: JASON SMITH Retiring UI Center for Advancement president and CEO Lynette Marshall

Back when Lynette Marshall led university phone-a-thons in the 1980s, she would jot down personal notes for volunteers to mention during fundraising calls to help make those conversations more meaningful. Often, she would take the phone herself to offer a warm hello.

Over the course of her career in university advancement, phone-a-thons eventually gave way to speaking at outreach events around the nation, facilitating major gifts, and orchestrating multibillion-dollar campaigns. But even as her work grew in scale, Marshall never stopped caring about those personal connections.

Building relationships and connecting alumni with their alma mater has been a hallmark of her 42-year career, including the past 20 as president and CEO of the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. Marshall plans to retire this summer, marking the end of a professional journey in which she’s helped transform the UI and set the standard for higher education advancement nationally.

“I try to focus on personal and authentic relationships with people, whether that’s colleagues or donors or university leaders,” says Marshall. “That’s fundamental to me. I feel like if we know one another, we’re more likely to get good work done together.”

After 22 years in development at the University of Illinois, her alma mater, Marshall succeeded Michael New (64BA, 67MA) as the third leader of the former UI Foundation—now the Center for Advancement—in 2006. At the time, the organization had 154 full-time employees, raised $169 million that year, and held an endowment of $548 million. Today, the center is home to 304 staff members, raised $336.6 million in the most recent fiscal year, and manages a university endowment of $1.8 billion.

All told, the organization has raised more than $4.5 billion during Marshall’s tenure, supporting everything from donor-funded scholarships and programs for first-generation students to the rebuilding of an arts campus devastated by the 2008 flood and the construction of a new children’s hospital. Marshall guided the university through its For Iowa. Forever More. campaign, which raised nearly $2 billion by its conclusion in 2017. Currently, the UI is nearing the homestretch of its Together Hawkeyes campaign—the most ambitious university fundraising effort in state history—which aims to raise $3 billion, reach 300,000 alumni and friends, and establish 3 million points of connection by fiscal year 2028.

In 2017, Marshall oversaw the merger of the former UI Alumni Association with the UI Foundation, bringing alumni engagement and fundraising together under a unified advancement organization that now serves as a model for universities around the country. She’s also cultivated a culture of campus philanthropy by helping create the academic Certificate in Nonprofit Leadership and Philanthropy and launching programs for students interested in alumni outreach and careers in fundraising.

Marshall’s work in university advancement has been driven by a core belief in what she calls “the transformative power of public higher education.” “Fundraising and engagement is about inviting people to support the things they’re passionate about,” she says. “It’s something that people want to do—and do with joy—and it’s our job to help them understand the impact they make.”

Nearing retirement, Marshall looks forward to spending more time with family, studying piano, and volunteering with community organizations. But she knows she’ll miss the rhythms of university life—especially the people. After two decades helping others give back to Iowa, Marshall reflects on how much Iowa has given to her.

“The value of those relationships,” she says, “those are all gifts.”