Mission-driven work deserves the best tools too.
Campus & Cause is a weekly brief on the real, practical ways AI can help higher ed and nonprofit teams do more of the work that matters.
Why this exists
Colleges, universities and nonprofits do some of the most important work there is. They educate, they care for people, they find answers to hard problems, and they make their communities better. But when it comes to new technology, they're usually the last to adopt it.
It's not for lack of smart people. Budgets are tight, teams are small, and there's rarely time to test something new when the day job is already full. So the tools that could save the most time tend to reach the organizations that need them most years after everyone else.
AI is moving faster than anything we've seen. Mission-driven teams can't afford to wait this one out.
What you'll find here
Every week, a handful of stories on what's new in AI and what it means for campuses and causes. Each one comes with the same three things: what happened, why it matters, and one thing you can try.
No hype and no doom. Just the latest tools and real use cases, explained in plain language, so you can bring a good idea back to your team on Monday.
The editor
Brian Stack has spent 15 years in digital marketing across higher education, agencies and nonprofit fundraising. He has led digital work at NIU and across the CU system, and today he leads digital fundraising strategy for a large nonprofit health foundation.
He started Campus & Cause because he kept seeing the same thing: great teams doing important work with tools that were years behind. He also runs Stack Marketing Co., a digital marketing consultancy for mission-driven organizations. You can connect with him on LinkedIn, where each new issue is shared.
How each issue is made
Every story has to pass one test: would a busy marketing, fundraising or enrollment professional read it and think, "I haven't seen that yet, and I can see how my team would use it"? If not, it doesn't run.
Every claim is checked against its original source before it's published, and every story links to that source so you can read it yourself. We don't invent numbers or quotes, and we say plainly when something isn't known yet.
Our standards
No sponsored placements, ever. We don't cover the editor's own employer, clients or their vendors.
If we get something wrong, we fix it and note the correction at the bottom of the story. Spot something? Message Brian on LinkedIn.