Experienced university fundraising professionals know that alumni and their families are some of their most valuable donors. However, if your school is still building its alumni network, it can be challenging to know where to start. 

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Fortunately, universities can access an extensive range of management platforms, specialized consultants, and free educational resources. In this guide, we’ll explore five proven strategies for building a network of alumni donors. 

1. Create an affinity group. 

The more connected alumni are to your school, the more likely they are to contribute to your programs. Invite alumni to continue being a part of your school’s community by creating an affinity group. 

Alumni organizations like affinity groups offer a variety of activities and perks. These organizations offer networking opportunities for alumni who work in the same industry or have the same interests, such as an affinity group for real estate. These organizations provide alumni with a connection to your school that they’re actively incentivized to use throughout their entire career.

Additionally, consider creating a unique legacy society for your planned donors. This honors their decision to give, helps them feel connected to your school, and demonstrates your appreciation for their future gifts. Graham-Pelton’s university fundraising guide outlines the steps for starting a legacy society:

• Outline core details, including the society’s name, perks, and staff members overseeing it.
• Create a web page that provides prospective members with all the information they need and helps current members access their benefits.
• Inform your planned donors about your legacy society, and feature it in any promotional materials for your planned giving program. 

2. Upgrade your prospect research approach. 

There’s a high probability that your school is overlooking several alumni who have the potential to become major donors. With rare exceptions, nearly all major donors start their engagement with a nonprofit as a normal donor. This means your school needs to continuously assess its donor database for major giving candidates. 

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If it’s been some time since your school last conducted prospect research or you are using outdated information, now is the time to update your process. A few modern prospect research strategies include:

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• Leveraging analytics. Predictive analytics enable you to identify in your current major donors’ characteristics and behaviors, helping you spot supporters with similar traits hidden in your database. After finding new giving prospects, predictive analytics can continue to aid you in timing fundraising requests, planning stewardship trajectories, and adapting to changes in your program. 
• Considering multiple giving markers. Fundraisers should be aware of three markers when considering major donors: capacity, affinity, and philanthropy. Capacity is a donor’s financial ability to make a large gift, philanthropy is how likely a donor is to give to nonprofits in general, and affinity is how likely a donor is to give to your organization specifically. 
• Automating where possible. Major gifts are built on the strength of personal relationships, meaning many parts of the donor journey require a human touch. However, when it comes to assessing your entire donor database’s major gift potential, AI tools can help you conduct research and make notes at scale. 

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This approach will continue to help you steward major donors long-term. For example, this research process enables you to uncover giving candidates’ unique interests and values, leading to more productive donation conversations. 

3. Explore alternative donation opportunities.

If your university only accepts cash donations, you are limiting your fundraising potential. Your alumni have a range of assets, and your university should be equipped to accept all of these unique types of donations.

Set your university’s donation processing system up to accept the following types of gifts:

• In-kind donations of goods and services
• Various types of planned gifts, including bequests, charitable remainder trusts, charitable gift annuities, life insurance funds, and pooled income funds
• Gifts of stock and cryptocurrency 
• Donor-advised funds (DAF) grants
• Real estate donations

Some of these gifts require software to accept, while others may require consulting a lawyer. For example, some nonprofit donation software automatically converts gifts of stock and cryptocurrency into cash, whereas several types of planned gifts require a contractual agreement between your school and the donor.

4. Highlight impact in new ways. 

Alumni give to your school because of the positive experiences they had as a student. For many of them, creating an equal or even better school life for future students is a core motivation for giving. 

Retain and acquire more alumni donors by demonstrating that your school is putting their gifts to good use. A few ways you can do this include:

• Creating impact reports. Your university already creates annual reports, but consider also creating impact reports for individual projects. These focused reports break down specific initiatives, helping donors who contributed to that specific project understand its impact. This can be especially helpful for large universities with many departments and ongoing projects. 
• Sharing student stories. Have current students reach out to alumni donors to share their stories and explain how donors’ gifts have contributed to their university experience. To form stronger connections and better inspire support, pair students with alumni with whom they share a major, club membership, or other experience. 
• Holding campus tours. Alumni enjoy returning to their universities to see what’s changed, revisit their favorite spots, and connect with professors. Invite alumni donors to tour campus and physically see the developments you’ve made thanks to their gifts. 

In addition to showcasing impact after a donor gives, provide alumni with examples of their potential impact to inspire them to give. For example, you might promote an upcoming initiative, explain your fundraising goal, and emphasize how that specific alumnus’ gift can make a difference. 

Additionally, thank you students from current students can be especially impactful. Gather a few students who were directly affected by donations to have them write personalized thank-you letters that share their stories and express their gratitude. 

5. Launch an alumni giving day.

If your university needs to raise funds quickly, an alumni giving day can add a sense of urgency to your fundraising efforts and bring in new donors. To maximize donations on this day, try these strategies:

• Select a day relevant to your alumni. Choose a day that has meaning for your university’s community, such as your founding date. Select a day that’s a reasonable distance away from other major giving events, such as Giving Tuesday, to avoid diluting either fundraiser’s earning potential. Plus, these events can encourage group giving, where former classmates give together and compete to raise more than other rival donor groups. 
• Host an event. Events bring your community together, transforming your giving day from a routine fundraiser to a celebration of your alumni. 
• Create a giving incentive. Treat your alumni giving day as a unique giving opportunity to entice supporters to donate on this specific day. For example, you might provide individual donor rewards, such as sending a t-shirt to any supporter who gives above a certain amount.  

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After your alumni giving day, report back to all donors to thank them for their gifts and let them know how you will use their generous donations. 

A network of alumni donors can power your university’s fundraising long-term. Expand your donation strategies and create new opportunities for alumni connections to tap into this valuable audience. 

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About the author

Jamie Pugh, based in New York, NY, US, is currently a Principal Consultant at Graham-Pelton. She has developed major donor relationships at Lehigh University’s College of Business, advancing a billion-dollar campaign. At Villanova University, she led communications for Annual and Planned Giving during a successful $600M campaign.