About the Author

Dr. Paul Lanning, a partner with RPR Fundraising, LLC,  consults non-profit organizations on fundraising, strategic planning, social media, and marketing.  Current clients include the American Friends of Bar-Ilan University (New York and Los Angeles), the Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation, the Sierra College Foundation (Rocklin, CA), United Cerebral Palsy of San Joaquin, Calaveras, and Amador Counties (Stockton, CA), and the State Center Community College Foundation (Clovis, CA). He also teaches graduate-level courses and advises doctoral students in education administration and leadership at University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA).

Paul Lanning

Paul I. Lanning, Ed.D., CFRE

He served as President and CEO of the Foundation for California Community Colleges from 2007 to 2011. Under his leadership, the Foundation entered a new era in which a number of groundbreaking initiatives were launched to further benefit, support and enhance the California Community College system. Key successes include securing the largest gift to any two-year system of higher education in the nation’s history, raising national awareness of the need for greater private support to public two-year colleges, instituting the organization’s resource development and marketing/ communications departments to increase the Foundation’s capacity in serving the system, and continuous growth and enhancement of the Foundation’s various programs and offerings that impact various aspects of California Community Colleges.

Lanning brought to that role nearly two decades of experience in management, marketing, and business development, with extensive background in education administration, fundraising, mass media, technology, entrepreneurship, and executive leadership. Immediately prior to assuming his role with the Foundation, Lanning was assistant vice president for university advancement and director of corporate and foundation relations for the University of the Pacific for several years, playing a major part in the University’s successful completion of a $200 million capital campaign in which $330 million was ultimately raised. Prior to that, as the founding CEO of Today’s Communications, Lanning was the recipient of the Entrepreneur Business of the Year Award from the Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce in 2000.

Lanning holds a doctorate in education administration and leadership from the University of the Pacific, in addition to a master’s degree in sport management from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of California, San Diego. He is a Certified Fund Raising Executive and has served on a wide variety of boards and committees that advance the missions of various institutions and organizations of higher education. He currently serves as an advisory board member for both the Benerd School of Education at the University of the Pacific and the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, as well as vice chair of the Pacific Fund Advisory Board. He was named the Outstanding Professional in Higher Education by the Benerd School of Education in 2011, and also served that year as a keynote speaker at “Innovations 2011,” the national conference of the League for Innovation in the Community College.

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