We all, to some degree, focus our efforts on the alumni who we think are most likely to yield results. We have limited time and resources, and that makes the best use of them. Right?
It doesn’t.
Here’s why.
Reorganizing Advancement Is Not (Itself) Enough to Drive Success
Over the last few years, I have helped a number of organizations review the way they deploy their advancement teams. I also led the reorganization of a newly combined alumni relations and annual giving team at a leading private university.
Through these experiences I’ve noticed a couple of frequent expectations among the leaders driving the reorganization process. One expectation is that the newly arranged team will be more efficient. The other is that they’ll be more effective.
Below are some thoughts on both these ambitions. And I close with a comment on one key factor that all organizations require, even if they’re not changing their reporting lines.
How College of the Holy Cross Exceeded Its Giving Day Participation Goal by 50%
Giving days are an appealing supplement to traditional giving campaigns. Their compactness and immediacy makes them satisfying both for our alumni and for those of us who organize them.
But investing all that time and energy into one day can feel like a huge gamble. That's why we talked to folks at Holy Cross about how they exceeded their participation goal by 50% in their most recent giving day campaign.
5 Things to Read to Help Polish Your #GivingTuesday Campaign
Giving Tuesday (Tuesday, November 28) is around the corner, but there's still time to finalize some details in your months-long planning process.
It's a little late to implement most Giving Tuesday advice out there, so we picked out five resources you can still use to bolster your work in the month that remains.
Why Alumni Trust in Higher Education Is Failing—and What We Can Do About It
Alumni giving rates are down nationwide, and a majority of Americans say that colleges and universities put their own interests above their students'. Things aren't looking great for fundraising and alumni relations in higher education.
We all have our own assumptions about why it's happening. It's obvious to us, common sense, even if there isn't always the research to back it up. But in the absence of data, there's little we're empowered to do about it.
Fortunately for us, there is some research as to why alumni trust in their alma maters is failing. In this post, we'll break that that research down into five action items.
The Missing Middle: Advancement and Alumni Relations's Ongoing Generational Deficit
Advancement and alumni relations had a formula for engaging alumni that worked for decades. But young alumni these days are breaking that mold.
Their giving rates are lower. They attend fewer events. They give for different reasons, care about different causes, face different economic challenges, and have different perceptions of higher education and its worth than their older counterparts.
Yet for all our self awareness and new strategies, we're still only scratching the surface when it comes to solving the problems underlying the young alumni engagement deficit. The problem lies in how we define "engagement" in the first place.