It’s the second week of February. According to U.S. News and World Report, if you’re like most people, you’ve probably already failed at 80% of your New Year’s resolutions. I love this time of year for this reason. When we start to struggle with our cliché or unrealistic resolutions, we get the chance to have… Continue Reading Forget Those Cliché Resolutions: 4 Goals for High-Impact Fundraisers in 2019
What if you could figure out exactly how undergraduate involvement influences future giving and use it to find alumni donors and leaders waiting for your call? Fundraising in higher education is hard. Not only is it challenging to identify donors with the capacity to give, you have to find those who also want to give.… Continue Reading Stop Wasting Your Gift Officers’ Time: Interview with Joseph Volin on Engagement Metrics
Part 2: The Nitty Gritty Financial Side of Major Gifts Last month, we laid out ways to identify and cultivate major gift prospects, especially those living far from campus. But the work isn’t over once you cultivate a major gift, in fact, this is when the real fun starts! As summarized in last month’s blog,… Continue Reading Finding the “Lowly” Million Dollar Donor (Part 2 of 2)
This month and next we’re talking about major gift prospects. According to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 48% of the $5.6 billion that America’s 50 biggest donors gave in 2016 went to colleges and universities. While these super-rich donors are the dream of every university advancement leader, the success of college and university capital campaigns… Continue Reading Finding the “Lowly” Million Dollar Donor (Part 1 of 2)
How do we demonstrate the authentic value of philanthropy during the uncertain temper of our times? Earlier this month, ALUMinate took part in the American Bar Association (ABA) Law School Development Conference in Chicago, which was attended by advancement staff and law school deans from major institutions across the country. Both ALUMinate co-founders spoke at… Continue Reading Higher Ed Fundraising in Times of Division and Upheaval: 3 Insights from the ABA Development Conference
In the age of digital disruption, how do you cut through the noise to identify which major technological trends have substance? Recently, my colleagues and I had a discussion about PowerPoint. In the beginning, PowerPoint was lauded as a breakthrough solution in business communication. In fact, it became downright pervasive. Then PowerPoint faced a… Continue Reading Do You Really Need Tech for Alumni Philanthropy? How Indecision Could Hurt You
In the past blog series, we discussed what customer journey mapping can teach us about an alumni leader’s journey and development. In this post, we offer three final tips for how to implement the framework. 1) Let data shape the customer journey map Research-driven “customer” (student, alumni, leader, etc.) journey maps will likely prove to… Continue Reading 3 Quick Tips for Creating Great Regional Alumni Leaders
Can customer journey mapping help your institution create a network of amazing regional leaders? In fall 2017, as part of a follow-up to our 2017 Regional Engagement Assessment, I conducted one-on-one conversations with advancement and alumni relations professionals about how their institutions were engaging regional alumni, including challenges they were facing and insights they’d learned from… Continue Reading What’s Your Alumni Leaders’ Journey? (Part 2 of 2)
Do you know the secrets to using customer journey mapping to transform your students and alumni into superstar regional leaders? Most alumni relations and advancement professionals know all too well the challenge of finding and keeping topnotch alumni volunteers and leaders. But what if we approach this challenge with an entirely new mindset and model? What… Continue Reading What’s Your Alumni Leaders’ Journey? (Part 1 of 2)
How do you measure the connection between alumni engagement and alumni giving? Last month, we attended the 2018 AGB Foundation Leadership Forum in Los Angeles. We sought to continue our research and connect with institutions that may be interested in more effective approaches to regional outreach. On January 22nd, we hosted a breakfast session with… Continue Reading More Work Does NOT Lead to Better Results: 3 Essential Insights from Our Time at the 2018 AGB Forum