5 Tips for Building Donor Relationships at School Auctions

As a fundraising professional, you understand the importance of building relationships with your valuable donors. They’re the ones who provide the funding that make it possible to provide new opportunities for students and alumni. Therefore, building relationships with them secures support both now and in the future for these fundraising programs to continue taking place. 

Considering the disruptions that everyone experienced (and continues experiencing) during the COVID-19 pandemic and how the industry has evolved since then, your relationships with many donors might appear to be volatile or different. When everyone changed up their strategies to incorporate the latest trends in engagement, some strategic aspects undoubtedly fell through the cracks. 

We recommend taking your approach back to the basics of engagement and donor relationships this coming year. Revisit some tried-and-true ideas that have been proven time and time again to bolster relationships with your supporters. After all, these are the strategies that are most often forgotten when we embrace new methods and change up our approach to relationships. 

The tips we’re covering in this article are ones that you may have seen before. However, they’re immensely important to maintain throughout the hubbub and chaos of the year. Without further ado, let’s dive deeper into these important and timeless strategies to help take your donor relationships to the next level. 

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For students, alumni, and donors, it’s painfully obvious when you send out emails or other communications that do not employ segmentation or other personalization strategies. Everything from a “To whom it may concern” introduction to the lack of personal details in the message makes it clear that you sent the same message to everyone on your email list. 

Generic, impersonalized outreach is the easiest to ignore and causes the downfall of many marketing programs. See how institutions such as Gann Academy increased alumni email open rates by personalizing their email campaigns. 

When it comes to your donors, you should include the same personalization strategies for outreach. 

The easiest way to start making the most of personalization is to use the same approach as Gann Academy: start with your email campaigns. Use the information in your donor database to fill in some gaps and to show your supporters that the message you’re sending is customized just for them. You can do this by: 

- Using the donor’s preferred name in the introduction. 

- Including details about the supporters’ engagement history. 

- Approaching specific segments of donors with targeted messages. 

- Sending messages relevant to the interests of the donor. 

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When you have access to an effective donor database, a lot of this information can be automated to save you time and energy in sending these highly targeted messages. This effective donor database buyer’s guide explains that automation features, when used correctly, can make personalization more effective and efficient. 

Your database can be used to auto-populate details into message templates and ensure you reach the right audience segments in your communications to enhance donor engagement.

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Building relationships is impossible if it’s a one-sided effort. Your institution needs to not only work to communicate and show your donors that you care, you need to invite them to engage back with you by providing ample opportunities. 

Since COVID-19, engaging opportunities look a little different than they have in the past. To create engaging opportunities amidst of a pandemic, many institutions had to adhere to social distancing guidelines by coming up with new virtual event ideas. 

We’ve come up with a list of our favorite virtual fundraising ideas that any educational institution, nonprofit, or other organization can make use of. While you can find the full list here, we’ll highlight some of the options below: 

- Online Gala - This is a great opportunity to encourage your major donors to get dressed up and network with one another using virtual conferencing software.

- TED Talk Events - Encourage your donors while enforcing your emphasis on education by providing TED Talk-style events to spread knowledge about certain topics. 

- Online Classes - Provide online class opportunities for donors as well as students. These may not be full-fledged courses, but mini opportunities to sharpen skills. 

- Annual Giving Days - Giving days encourage a great number of people (especially alumni) to give on a very specific day, similar to #GivingTuesday. 

- Matching Gift Drives - This is a great way to encourage more donations and maximize impact. Promote corporate giving opportunities and remind supporters to check their eligibility for matched gifts. 

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When your donors get involved with all of the opportunities you offer, they strengthen their ties to your institution. This makes it all the more likely that they’ll continue supporting you in your upcoming fundraising events.

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A phone call is an often overlooked relationship-building strategy because it can be somewhat time-consuming. However, it’s a valuable tool and makes a huge difference, especially when it comes to new donors. 

For instance, consider the new donor cultivation timeline below. It shows that a thank-you call within 48 hours of a donation can dramatically improve your donor retention rates. Plus, it’s the first step to begin a strong relationship with your donors. This is because you establish a personal connection with the donor while showing your appreciation for their contribution.

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Phone calls are a great way to start a relationship with donors on the right foot. However, don’t forget to employ the strategy with your seasoned donors as well! Call them to maintain regular contact and to express your gratitude for their continued support in your fundraising initiatives. 

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You’ll notice that on the cultivation timeline from the previous section that the step after a “thank you phone call” is sending a “signed thank you letter.” While email is likely your primary method of communication with the donors, the power of a physical letter of appreciation should not be underestimated, especially when it’s hand-written. 

Handwritten notes are a classic way to show your donors that you will truly take the time out of your day for them. They want to feel like a priority for your organization, which is what a hand-written note should communicate. 

When you write these notes, there are specific elements that you should make sure to include, such as: 

- The preferred name of the donor. Just like in email communications, you should make sure to refer to the specific donor as you hand-write letters (be sure to double-check your spelling, too!)

- The activity they participated in. If your donor has just contributed funds, be sure to thank them for the specified amount. If they attended an event, thank them for their involvement and participation. 

- The president’s signature. Letters are generally better received when they come from the top office of your institution. Therefore, you should make sure the president of your institution’s signature is on each and every one of them.

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Just like phone calls, hand-written letters tend to be important strategies as you cultivate relationships with your new donors. However, don’t forget about the strategy for your veteran donors! 

Be sure both phone calls and hand-written letters are a part of both your cultivation and stewardship strategies to strengthen donor relations. 

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Don’t we all love stories? Your donors want to hear your inspiring story. They want to hear the reason behind all the great work that you do and the support that you provide to your community. Sharing these stories with your donors is a great way to show them what it is that their contributions support. 

One of the current trends in the higher education space is the use of images to communicate these types of narratives. This trend is important to keep in mind because there are so many different platforms on which you’ll be telling stories. For instance, consider the following examples: 

- Email - Whether it’s an email to a certain segment of your audience or a regular newsletter sent to many, include an image of an individual who attended your institution along with their story. This adds a face to the name and a personal touch to show the impact of donations. 

- Social media - Platforms like Instagram and Facebook are made for visual storytelling. Be sure to use an image that tugs at the heartstrings to gain the attention of your audience, then caption it with details about the story itself. If it’s a longer story, be sure to provide a link to where donors can read the rest of it. 

- Blog posts - Blogs are the perfect way to write long stories about individuals or about the progress of your institution. Showing images, faces, and specific names makes them even more powerful. 

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They say a picture is worth a thousand words. And it’s true! Be sure to leverage both text and image when you tell the story of your institution’s successes. ‍

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In the last section, we mentioned briefly that stories are a method of showing impact. Communicating impact is critical for donor engagement and continued support down the line. Think about it. If you give to an organization, you’re not contributing money for the sake of spending it. That would be silly! Rather, you’re donating to help accomplish a mission. 

Communicating the progress of this mission and the impact of specific donations is a great way to give your donors the warm and fuzzy feeling in the pit of their stomachs that was probably what drove them to contribute in the first place. You’re reinforcing the positive aspect of donating. 

Check out this nonprofit annual report guide that conveys the story of The Johnsons and how their impact was communicated to all contributors in an end-of-year report.

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Notice some key aspects of this example: 

- It shows a picture of The Johnsons

- The text uses a statistic showing the impact their contributions made

- The text is framed to put all of the emphasis on the Johnsons rather than on the efforts of the organization

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These aspects are some of the most important things to remember when you communicate the impact of specific donors. Generally, on annual reports such as this, it’s your major donors that you’ll highlight. However, you can still use these strategies in emails, letters, phone calls, and other methods of communication to show any supporter that they’ve made a difference. 

Building donor relationships is an incredibly important part of the fundraising strategy at your institution. Therefore, even as you explore all of the new and exciting ways to communicate and engage with them, don’t forget about the basics. Form a strong foundation for your donor relationships by using these tried-and-true strategies. Then, continue to cultivate and build these relationships to watch your fundraising soar!

About the author

Jay Love

Co-Founder and current Chief Relationship Officer at Bloomerang

He has served this sector for 33 years and is considered the most well-known senior statesman whose advice is sought constantly.

Prior to Bloomerang, he was the CEO and Co-Founder of eTapestry for 11 years, which at the time was the leading SaaS technology company serving the charity sector. Jay and his team grew the company to more than 10,000 nonprofit clients, charting a decade of record growth.

He is a graduate of Butler University with a B.S. in Business Administration. Over the years, he has given more than 2,500 speeches around the world for the charity sector and is often the voice of new technology for fundraisers.

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Your university likely often brainstorms new fundraising ideas to engage alumni, from Giving Tuesdays to tele-a-thons. However, one of the most effective ways to earn alumni support is to demonstrate your appreciation before pitching for a donation. 

According to NPO Info’s charitable giving statistics report, alumni are an important donor group for higher education institutions, contributing approximately 26% of all gifts to colleges and universities.

Theoretically, your university should see a regular increase in alumni giving year after year as each class graduates and enters the workforce. 

However, universities will only be able to set themselves up for this growing support if they take the proper steps to retain their alumni donors. To help your university improve your alumni donor appreciation strategy and increase fundraising, this article will explore how to:

1. Send personalized messages. 
2. Send custom merchandise. 
3. Host alumni events. 

When reaching out to current and potential alumni donors, keep in mind that just because an alumni isn’t able to give now, doesn’t mean they won’t be able to in the future. Keeping these relationships strong long-term can be well worth the effort.

1. Send personalized messages

Each of your alumni had a unique experience at your university, making life-long connections with professors, faculty, and fellow students. Show them that they are still an important part of this community by reaching out to them with personalized messages.

Basic personalization includes doing small things like addressing your alumni by name. But you can go a step further and create messages that will truly capture their attention by:

• Creating segmented messaging lists: While there are some emails you may want to send to all of your alumni, such as a monthly newsletter, you can create more personalized messaging experiences for alumni through segmentation strategies. For example, try dividing your alumni donors based on graduation year, donation history, and even major. 

• Getting your current students and other alumni involved: Messages from universities often feel more personal when they come from another student rather than a faculty member. Consider employing some of your current students to share their stories and send messages to alumni. Or, consider reaching out to current alumni volunteers too and have them get in touch with their peers to fundraise for your university and connect with their old classmates at the same time. 

• Sharing their impact: Your alumni want to know that your university continues to improve and give current students an even better experience than when they attended. When reaching out to alumni about donating, share stories about how the campus has improved. 

Personalized messages strengthen your donation requests and show your alumni that your university acknowledges and appreciates their support. Additionally, be sure to reach out to alumni volunteers to thank them for their efforts. This will help secure their support long-term, and may even lead to future donations as volunteers can often turn into donors. 

2. Send custom merchandise

Chances are that you or someone (or many people) you know still have school spirit for their alma mater, even decades later. You can help your alumni continue to represent their school years after graduation with custom merchandise with your university’s name and logo. 

Of course, your university likely already has an on-campus store where visiting alumni can pick up merchandise. However, you can give them more options by creating an online storefront or even sending merchandise in the mail as a thank-you for donating. 

When it comes to creating custom merchandise, you can stick to old classic designs or mix things up to create apparel that plays with your university’s branding in a unique way to make items that are stylish and maybe a bit out of the box, but still unquestionably represent your university. For example, try playing with the color and even the overall style of items to create something eye-catching. 

You can also create merchandise lines exclusively for alumni who donate or volunteer. This can make alumni feel not just appreciated, but that they are members of an exclusive group powering their school’s success.

3. Host alumni events

Although with time, your alumni will move on with new friends, coworkers, and raising families, many of them will likely enjoy reconnecting with old college friends and professors, revisiting campus, and reliving the time spent at their alma mater. Alumni events provide the opportunity for them to do just that and are an impactful way to show that their alma mater still considers them to be a valuable member. 

You can gather your alumni together to show your appreciation and garner support with events like:

• Galas and mixers: Chances are that most of your alumni will primarily want to attend events not to participate in any specific activity but to socialize with old classmates and professors. Formal galas give them the opportunity to meet up with one another. You can also host a more informal mixer to create an environment where alumni who may not have met before can break the ice and get to know each other. 

• Talks and presentations: One of your university’s greatest assets is your academic excellence and network of experts and professionals at the top of their fields. While many of your alumni may work in different industries than their major, many will still likely be interested in the same subjects they studied and be interested in attending a talk or presentation about new research in their fields of interest. 

• Virtual events: While some of your alumni may have stayed close to campus, others likely moved far across or even outside the country. You can maintain these connections by hosting a variety of virtual and hybrid events throughout the year. 

To host an alumni event, use your alumni management tools to identify alumni you would like to invite, create personalized invitations, and track how your event turned out. After each event, follow up with alumni to thank them for attending and create a communication stream to strengthen your relationship and encourage them to make a contribution in the future. 

Your alumni will have a connection to your school forever, and you can transform those feelings into lasting support with the right appreciation strategies. Show donors that their contributions matter by reaching out to them with custom messages, providing them with custom merchandise, and bringing them back to your university with numerous events. Good luck!

Most of your higher education donor prospects, whether they're first-time supporters or long-term donors, already have an affinity for your college or university. They might root for your sports team, champion academic research on campus, or want to pave the way for continued high-quality academics. 

While many supporters are emotionally invested in your institution, they may still hesitate to support your fundraising initiatives. They may ignore your Giving Tuesday email appeals, scroll past your social media posts promoting your recurring giving program, or think, “My alma mater always does the same old thing during Homecoming Week” when they receive an invitation to your annual benefit.  

So, in order to really grab your donors’ attention, you should plan fundraisers that they’ll be excited to participate in. Of course, there’s no need to throw out the current strategies that are working for your organization, like your graduation day email stream that always boosts your progress toward your annual fundraising goal or the Parents’ Week dinner that sells out every year. But you can fine-tune your strategies so that you always plan fundraisers your donors will love! 

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We’ll help you get started by covering three tips: 

1. Learn about your audience’s preferences. 
2. Offer easy-to-use fundraising tools. 
3. Have your campaign culminate in a fun event. 

As you set out to improve your fundraising efforts, consider working with a fundraising consultant. These professionals bring to the table a third-party perspective and years of experience, helping to improve your fundraising strategy in ways you may not have seen.  And their work goes beyond identifying problems—a consultant can help you brainstorm and implement positive changes to your strategy, setting your organization up for sustainable success and growth. 

Let’s dive into our three tips!

1. Learn about your audience’s preferences.

To plan a fundraiser that will resonate with your audience, you need to get to know your supporters and their preferences. 

The first place to look for this information is your organization’s CRM. Review the donor profiles saved in your CRM to identify trends in your audience’s demographics and preferences. For example, you might notice that most of your donors fall within the age range of 45-60. You might use this information to create a more targeted social media marketing plan for your next campaign, leaning into Facebook over a platform that younger generations prefer, like TikTok. 

Another source of information is donors themselves! Try surveying your donors to find out what they want to see in a fundraising campaign. For instance, you might ask your donors, “Where did you hear about our fundraising campaigns?” or “Which of the events listed below are you most likely to attend?” Show your audience that you care about their opinions while gathering ideas. This will help build and maintain stronger relationships with your support.

Leveraging your CRM and surveying your audience of supporters will empower you to step into your community members’ shoes and see your fundraising efforts from their perspective. This way, you can easily plan campaigns and events that they will be excited to participate in!

2. Offer easy-to-use fundraising tools. 

Having the right fundraising tools on your side will help you set up a campaign that is quick, easy, and hassle-free. And convenience will be a major deciding factor in how your supporters feel about your campaign!

Here are some fundraising tools for your next campaign, as well as how they can be used to streamline the process for everyone involved: 

• Online donation form: An online donation form allows donors to give to your campaign whenever they’re able. Make sure to keep the form short and to the point, only asking for necessary information. For example, essential information to collect includes the donation amount, payment details, and contact information. You can further optimize your form by adding a matching gift search tool so your donors can check their eligibility! 

• Crowdfunding page: With a crowdfunding page, you can collect lots of small donations that add up to great results. You’ll simply set up your page on a crowdfunding platform and share the link with your supporters over email, social media, and other online platforms. 

• Social media fundraising page: Many social media platforms now offer fundraising pages. For example, Facebook allows you to set up a fundraising page with a built-in fundraising thermometer that showcases your progress toward your goal. Because these pages are easily shareable and meet donors where they’re at, they can be extremely handy in helping you secure support. 

• Text-to-give platform: A text-to-give platform allows your supporters to give on the go. Donors simply text a designated keyword to a specific phone number. Their text is then returned with a link to your online donation form, which they can use to contribute to your campaign. 

With each of these fundraising tools, one of your main priorities should be to brand the tool to your organization. Even if you’re using an external platform, having your institution’s brand elements present on a fundraising page or other donation tool is imperative. Doing so can reinforce for your supporters exactly why they’re giving and can help establish professionalism and credibility with your audience.

3. Have your campaign culminate in a fun event.

One of the best things about fundraising for a college or university is the tight-knit community that your organization gets to interact with each and every day. So, why not level up your next fundraiser by having your campaign culminate in a fun event, where people who love your school can gather together and mingle? 

There are hundreds of options out there for fun end-of-campaign events. Here are a few of our favorites: 

• Walk-a-thon: According to Donorly, Walk-a-thon events are the perfect way to conclude fundraisers like peer-to-peer campaigns. This is because these events lend themselves well to pledges prior to the walk itself and they act as marketing for the event. For example, someone might secure a $5 pledge for every mile walked. After they walk 10 miles at the event, the person who pledged that amount would donate $50 to your college or university. 

• An evening of entertainment: For an evening of entertainment, recruit your school’s performing arts students to put on a showcase for your supporters. You can celebrate the end of a special campaign with an evening of music, dancing, and refreshments. 

• Meet-and-greet: Your supporters would love the chance to meet some of your star athletes or history-making researchers on campus. Set up a meet-and-greet and invite supporters who donate to your campaign to come and introduce themselves, get to know their favorite campus celebrities, and take pictures. 

Events like these can bring your community closer and help your supporters create lasting memories that they associate with your institution. To make your event a success, make sure to start planning early. You’ll need to secure venues, arrange catering, and recruit volunteers to make sure everything runs smoothly on the big day!

By using these tips, you can polish your college or university’s approach to fundraising and plan campaigns that your donors will love. As you do, remember to focus on building lasting relationships with your supporters. Show them that you appreciate and value them, and that you’re working to make sure your efforts resonate with them and what they love about your school. Good luck!