Product updates

Introducing AI-Powered Profile Recommendations: Give Alumni A Strong Incentive To Stay Connected

Alumni community platforms are only valuable if alumni use them. But alumni relations teams find it tough to get alumni to sign up and engage because they don't yet see the value in a platform they haven't discovered themselves. That's why we're excited to introduce Auto-Profile Recommendations, a feature designed to encourage alumni participation within communities with minimal manual intervention.

Alumni community platforms are only valuable if alumni use them. But alumni relations teams find it tough to get alumni to sign up and engage because they don't yet see the value in a platform they haven't discovered themselves.

On the other hand, most alumni relations personnel don forty different hats at any given time. They hence can't spend time creating manual reminders that communicate the benefits of their community.

Some platforms think closed private networks are the answer to the engagement corundum. But we at Almabase believe a holistic approach will help alumni make the most out of the valuable resources and connections these communities provide.

That's why we're excited to introduce AI-powered Profile Recommendations, a feature designed to encourage alumni participation within communities with minimal manual intervention. With Auto-profile recommendations, alumni relations teams can effortlessly create periodic automated profile recommendation emails that nudge their users to connect with their peers.

Key Highlights:

Enable Alumni To Reach Their Networking Goals With The Best Possible Matches

Every alumni is unique, and we understand that their connection preferences are specific to their needs. That's why we built a recommendation engine that considers diverse factors, including education, job, skills, interests, and more, and identifies the strongest matching attribute. Hence, profile descriptions don't run into pages but display just one piece of information in which an individual will find the most value. This way, we ensure you recommend profiles only super relevant to an individual.

A recommendation email is sent only when we find at least three other relevant profiles in the community. Accurate information leads to better recommendations, so we nudge alumni to update their profiles for more precise suggestions.

Preview Profile Recommendations & Scores Before You Hit Send

We know spamming your alumni with irrelevant recommendations is a big NO for you because you care deeply about their experience. That's why we let you preview the profiles recommended to each individual before you hit send. So you can be confident that your alumni are seeing recommendations that are truly valuable to them.

We'll recommend the right people. You craft the story. Aren't we a good team already?

Our recommendation engine will find the best matches for your alumni while you customize the email cadence, subject lines, and body text based on your needs. We want you to be able to A/B test to find the perfect combination.

View Impact in Real-Time

We built auto-profile recommendations to help you nudge alumni to network with their tribe and update their profiles. Updated data means more of everything: More targeted email campaigns. More personalized events. More personalized giving experience. Our reporting lets you track these changes in real-time and helps you tangibly show your team how Almabase is helping grow your community.

A Brief Look Inside The AI Engine

We don't want to get knee-deep into all the technical details, so here's a quick overview:

Our recommendation engine is an intelligent algorithm that looks for matching attributes between any two profiles. It doesn't just look at the number of matching attributes but also the strength of the match. So, if two profiles have a few strong matching attributes, they'll be considered a better match than two profiles with many weak matching attributes.

And here's the interesting part: our recommendation engine is designed to avoid recommending the same profiles to alumni over and over again. If an alumnus opens an email with profile recommendations and doesn't interact with any of the profiles, those profiles won't be recommended in the next email.

This means that the recommendation engine is constantly learning and improving, so you can be sure that the recommended profiles are the best possible matches for your alumni.

We’re rolling out Auto-profile recommendations today and it is available to all Almabase customers.

Ready to boost alumni networking without manual effort?

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Related Blog Posts

It can be terribly hard to keep data sane and organized, and even more so when your team’s working with different platforms to store constituent data.

Moving things across several platforms can be a daunting task, but we’ve got you covered. If your institution uses Blackbaud’s Raiser’s Edge NXT to store constituent data, Almabase’s state-of-the-art integration with RE NXT makes data management a breeze. The integration works right out of the box, and with a push of a button, you can have your data flow seamlessly between Almabase and RE NXT.

Read how Northwestern Health Sciences University leverages Almabase & Raiser's Edge integration for their engagement and fundraising needs.

Here’s everything you need to know about Almabase’s integration with RE NXT.

Almabase <> Raiser’s Edge NXT Integration Overview

We started working on this integration with a simple goal – to ensure that your team won’t have to spend resources (and their time) on an expensive third-party solution. That’s why our integration works right out of the box, without the need to set it up manually. With the integration, Almabase and RE NXT can sync multiple data points with the push of a button. What’s more, the data that flows between the platforms is going to be clean and structured, without the hindrance of duplicates. This means that there will be zero compromise on the quality of your data when it flows between systems, which is a huge plus for your IT team.  


We’ve approached our integration to sync data based on three distinct fields, which are:

  • Constituent data
  • Event data
  • Gift data

Each of these fields relates to an engagement touchpoint that a constituent might create through different channels. For instance, imagine an alum makes a gift to one of your campaigns, or another registers to and participates in your next event. All of these data-points will be captured and relayed back to RE NXT through the integration.

Almabase_REnxt_Integration

👥How Constituent data stays in sync on Almabase and RE NXT

With Almabase, your alumni have the option to sign up using social sync (either through LinkedIn, Facebook, or Google). By using social sync to sign up, the platform automatically pulls the latest information of your constituent. This information will be fed back to RE NXT, where their records will be updated. Here’s a look at the data that gets collected and updated:

  • Full name
  • Email ID
  • Phone number
  • Address
  • Profile picture

Constituent_data_sync_up_on_AB_and_REnxt

However, that’s not all. Any time a constituent updates their information while registering for, or participating in an event, the updated information automatically flows back to their record on RE NXT. All of this magic happens behind the scenes, without you or a team member having to lift a finger. This can be a huge time-saver for Advancement Services professionals.


🎟️How event data flows between Almabase and RE NXT

Every time you create an event page on Almabase, the integration syncs key data points of this event (event name, date, description, ticketing details, and so on) with RE NXT. This means that all events created on Almabase will also be reflected in your RE NXT database.


Once an event page is live and open for registrations, you can go to the corresponding event page on RE NXT to view detailed participant information. Here are a few key details that get recorded on RE NXT as soon as your constituent completes their registration:

  • Participant information
  • Ticketing information
  • Payments made for registration
  • Accompanying guests
  • Associated gifts made for the event

Event_data_flows_between_ab_and_REnxt

You can always create custom workflows to dictate how the data should flow back to RE NXT, and which fields they should correspond to. You also have a whole host of options when it comes to printing receipts. All of these features take the stress out of events for your event managers!


💰How Gift data flows between Almabase and RE NXT

Every time a constituent pledges a gift to your giving campaign on Almabase, the data associated with each gift will be reflected on our versatile gift dashboard. Payments made on Almabase can be split into gift amount and services/tickets to accommodate any downstream processes as well. From the dashboard, you have the option of creating a batch of gifts, using a broad set of data filters. Once you’ve created a batch, you can run a workflow to import all the gifts corresponding to that batch into RE NXT. Here are some of the data points that get synced:

  • Gift amount
  • Fund(s) supported
  • Payment method
  • Acknowledgement letters
  • Tributes and honor messages

Gift_flow_between_AB_and_REnxt

Creating a batch of gifts on Almabase is simple, as you have plenty of filters at your disposal. Once gift data flows to your RE NXT database, you can view all your gifts, and even make edits to gift details wherever needed. This can help professionals working with Annual Fund and Major Gifts to plan more effective campaigns and raise more funds.

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So there you have it – an overview of Almabase’s best-in-class integration with Raiser’s Edge NXT. While we tried to cover most of how the integration works, there’s still a lot we couldn’t fit into this blog post, for obvious reasons.

If you want to learn more about how the integration can help set your Advancement Team up for success, we have a blog post just for that.

Get in touch with one of our Alumni Success specialists if you want to see the integration in action - we have a feeling you’re going to like what you see!

AB_Book_a_demo

Almabase 🔁 RENXT | Simplified data processes for your educational institution

Almabase's industry-leading integration with Raiser's Edge NXT has saved Advancement teams from leading institutions in the U.S. countless hours and resources. Find out how the integration works, and see how all your data can move between Almabase and RE NXT.

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April 29, 2022

12 minutes

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Blackbaud’s Raiser’s Edge NXT is a popular CRM used by numerous institutions across the country. However, when institutions use RE NXT along with an alumni engagement tool like Almabase, things can get messy when you want data to be uniformly synced across both systems. That’s where our industry-leading integration with Raiser’s Edge NXT comes in.

Because let’s face it - nobody likes working with data first thing every morning when it involves a lot of tedious back-and-forth between multiple systems. We believe this integration is crucial in setting your Advancement team up for success, and this blog post will show you how.

If you're interested in the technical nitty-gritty of the integration, we've got a blog post that you might be interested in.

Here are four ways Almabase’s integration with RE NXT can set your team up for success.

AB_Integrations

Say goodbye to tedious, third-party solutions

Almabase’s RE NXT integration works from the get-go, and you won’t have to invest additional resources in third-party integrations. While some of these integrations can be super expensive, others that are cost-effective aren’t very reliable. Your team won’t have to rely on multiple tools (one of these being Importacular) to get data flowing between the two systems. Whether you want a simple integration to work right off the bat, or you want something more customizable to be more flexible with your needs, our integration offers it all.

AB_customer_testimonial

Automatically capture clean, structured data

Picture this – you have a thriving alumni community that is creating hundreds and thousands of engagement touchpoints on your platform. Imagine if every event registration or profile update had to be MANUALLY synced with RE NXT by your Advancement Services team.

That would be a dystopia we wouldn’t like to think about. With our integration, you get to choose how and when your data flows between Almabase and RE NXT, with zero human intervention. Furthermore, the data you import will automatically rid itself of duplicate entries and junk data. This smooth integration means your Advancement Services team can say goodbye to messy .CSV imports/exports all day long.

Two different systems, one source of truth

At this point, you might wonder whether it’s worth maintaining data on multiple platforms if each of them were to store different data. Fortunately, this isn’t the case. Almabase’s integration with RE NXT ensures that the data you see on both platforms will always be in sync with each other. This means you won’t have to worry about making sure the data is uniform across the systems. The integration also has provisions in place to ensure there are no duplicates or junk data on either of your systems, which can take a massive load off your IT team’s shoulders.

Besides, Almabase is so much more than an online community for your constituents, or a CRM for your team. With powerful alumni-centric engagement tools, Almabase empowers your team to unlock higher participation and donations. That’s why many institutions prefer to use Almabase in tandem with RE NXT.

AB_customer_testimonial

Our integration, your rules

When it comes to integrations, we don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all approach. Every institution will have unique guidelines in place to handle data. That’s why our integration allows you to create custom workflows to dictate when, and how, data flows between Almabase and RE NXT. The customization is limitless and can be tweaked to fit your needs. If you’re feeling particularly experimental, you can tinker around with APIs to build your workflow, or you can use Microsoft Power Automate for that tailor-made fit that works best with your processes.

So there you have it – an overview of how Almabase’s best-in-class integration with Raiser’s Edge NXT can set your Advancement team up for success. While we tried to cover the most obvious advantages of the integration for your team, there’s still a lot we couldn’t fit into a blog post.

If you have any specific queries about the integration, or you want to see it in action, you can always get in touch with one of our Alumni Success Specialists. We have a feeling you’re going to like what you see!

AB_book_a_demo

How Almabase’s integration with Raiser’s Edge NXT can set your Advancement team up for success

From improving the efficiency of your team to optimizing your workflows and processes, find out how the integration can set your team up for success.

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April 29, 2022

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Picture this — A giving day is on the horizon. You have hundreds of funds that you want to drive donations to. You’re expecting thousands of alumni from multiple classes and campuses to participate. Directing this complex mix of audience to causes they care about while ensuring a smooth giving experience seems daunting and almost impossible.

With our newest addition to our P2P Crowdfunding page, donors are going to find it suprisingly easy to navigate to causes they want to engage and contribute to.

It's called Campaign Hub, and it’s here to transform how you create and organize giving campaigns.

Dive in to find out more.

Make Your Giving Page Home To All Your Giving Day Initiatives

Visualize the home screen of a desktop that has multiple folders. Just a double-click on any them reveals the contents of the folder. Easy way to organize things right?

That’s why we took the same logic and applied it to Campaign Hubs. Now you can organize all your giving day initiatives on your giving page which in turn helps your donors quickly navigate to their preferred cause.

Think of Hubs as parent folders. You can name a hub to reflect a major cause. For instance, Athletics & Activities is an example of a major cause.

Now within a hub, you can create and organize multiple giving campaigns.

Highlight select campaigns, and customize every campaign within each hub

Each campaign that is part of a giving day has to tell a story, pique interest, and showcase healthy competition— in one quick glance. Not easy. Only you know what’ll strike a chord with your alumni.

That’s why we wanted you to have complete control over how you craft this story.

Feature an image of your choice: Draw alumni into your campaign with a catchy image that captures their attention or take the text-only route.

Add a description, short or long: Tell the story behind the campaign in two lines or two  paragraphs.

Display hand-picked funds for each campaign: Your constituents won’t have the time to search through hundreds of funds. That’s why we built fund drive, a feature that let’s highlight select group of funds on a campaign. By eliminating choice overload, you are making giving straightforward for your constituents.

Set and showcase campaign goals to inspire healthy competition: You can set gift and participation goals for each campaign you create within a hub. A real-time goal progress thermometer appears on the campaign page whenever a goal is set. The best part — although all thermometers across campaign pages are independent of each other, they can be configured to add up to the primary thermometer of your pillar giving page.

Showcase donor names: Seeing a buddy's name on a campaign is likely to grab a potential donor's attention. You can choose to display or hide donor names for each campaign.

Create personalized campaigns with participation challenge: A participation challenge lets you create campaigns for a specific group of constituents based on conditions like affiliation, funds chosen, and more. So now it’s possible to create a campaign just for the class of 98’ or just for parents. Only the names and contributions of people that satisfy the conditions will be displayed on the campaign page that has participation drive enabled.

Unique shareable links for each campaign: Spreading the word for each campaign can’t get easier. Donors can share any campaign they are on with their peers. A unique link ensures potential donors  see only campaigns that are relevant to them. More focused information. More focused giving.

Arrange campaigns in a hub in any order you prefer

Play around with the position of campaigns within a hub until you find the perfect order. This feature will help you spotlight campaigns that you want constituent’s to see first.

Our Campaign Hub feature is available starting today.

If you’re an Almabase customer, simply log into the platform to create your first Campaign Hub.

[New] Easily Drive Participation Across Hundreds of Campaigns with Campaign Hub

Picture this — A giving day is on the horizon. You have hundreds of funds that you want to drive donations to. You’re expecting thousands of alumni from multiple classes and campuses to participate.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique. Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat. Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet. Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.

May 25, 2023

12 minutes

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