Explore 9 key trends from the 2026 National Alumni Survey shaping alumni engagement, donor participation, and advancement strategy today.
Sanna Bara
Published:
May 26, 2026
Discover AI Summary
For years, advancement teams have been trying to answer the same question:
Why are alumni participation rates declining even when alumni still seem to care deeply about their college experience?
The 2026 National Alumni Survey, built on responses from 82,000+ alumni, offers a pretty clear answer:
This isn’t a “people care less” problem. It’s a relationship problem.
Alumni haven’t stopped valuing education, giving or wanting community or purpose.
What’s changed is how they expect institutions to show up in their lives.
A lot of traditional advancement strategy was built for a different era, one where institutional loyalty was almost automatic. You graduated, stayed connected, attended reunions, and eventually became a donor.
That path is much less linear now.
Today’s alumni are asking harder questions:
And honestly, those are fair questions.
The survey surfaced a few patterns that feel especially important right now. Not just as “trends,” but as signals of how alumni expectations are evolving.
This was one of the most interesting tensions in the survey.
Many alumni still see their degrees as incredibly valuable. They’re grateful for the opportunities, friendships, and career outcomes that came from their education. But that appreciation doesn’t automatically translate into an ongoing relationship with the institution itself. And if we’re being honest, a lot of alumni engagement still assumes it does.
For many alumni, graduation quietly became the end of the relationship, except for the occasional fundraising email or event invitation. There’s very little in-between. For example, there’s no consistent sense of community and no feeling that the institution understands what life looks like for them now.
That gap matters more than institutions sometimes realise because people rarely give to institutions they feel disconnected from, even if they once loved their college experience.
What the data shows: According to the 2026 National Alumni Survey, 40% of alumni feel disconnected from their institution, and nearly half feel ill-informed about what it's doing. This isn't minor dissatisfaction — it's a structural gap that shows up directly in engagement and giving rates.
💡 Concordia College built a relationship-first digital strategy specifically to close this gap. Rather than defaulting to campaign-driven outreach, their approach centred on helping alumni feel connected to the institution's ongoing story, not just its fundraising calendar. The result was a community that stayed engaged between asks, not just during them. (Read the Concordia case study →)
One thing advancement teams often interpret as “declining generosity” is actually a shift in where generosity is going.
Alumni are donating to mutual aid funds, local nonprofits, climate initiatives, scholarships, community organizations, and causes they interact with regularly.
In other words, the willingness to give is still there, but institutions are no longer competing only with peer universities. They’re competing with every organization that communicates impact clearly and makes people feel emotionally invested.
That’s a very different landscape than the one advancement teams operated in even 10 years ago. And it also explains why vague institutional appeals don’t land the way they used to.
For example, "Support the annual fund” feels abstract.
Change: “Help first-generation students access emergency grants during finals week” feels real.
What the data shows: The 2026 National Alumni Survey makes this stark: only 13% of Millennial and Gen Z alumni gave to higher education in the past year, compared to 32% of older alumni. Meanwhile, 37% gave to individuals through GoFundMe-style campaigns, 34% gave to civil rights and social justice causes, and higher education ranked 11th on their list of giving priorities. They aren't ungenerous — they're directing generosity toward causes where impact feels direct and personal.
💡 The University of North Carolina School of the Arts ditched the "one fund fits all" model and expanded their Giving Day to 40+ donor-choice funds — letting alumni direct gifts toward causes they actually cared about. Participation and giving both climbed. When alumni can see themselves in the cause, they show up.
For a long time, alumni engagement relied heavily on nostalgia. Such as campus memories, school pride, and traditions. And those things still matter, but they’re rarely enough on their own anymore. Especially for younger alumni.
People stay engaged when they feel connected to something ongoing, not just reminded of the past.
One thing that kept coming up in conversations with advancement professionals this year was that engagement seems to grow when alumni feel like participants, not audiences.
That could mean mentorship, career communities, regional meetups and volunteer opportunities. Digital spaces where alumni can genuinely interact with each other.
The strongest engagement strategies today should feel more like community-building.
💡 Illinois Tech invested in a digital-first strategy — directories, job boards, mentorship, and affinity groups — giving alumni ongoing reasons to show up year-round. The result: 123,000+ engagement activities in a single month. That's a living, active community.(Read the Illinois Tech case study →)
A lot of advancement strategy is still optimized for alumni behavior that no longer exists.
Younger alumni don’t automatically respond to long email appeals, formal institutional messaging, or generic engagement asks. And honestly, that doesn’t mean they’re disengaged. It usually means the experience feels impersonal or outdated.
Younger alumni are used to personalization everywhere else in their lives, from media platforms to shopping experiences to online communities. So when every alumni email feels identical, it creates distance immediately.
They also expect more flexibility in how they engage. Not everyone wants to attend a formal event. Some people want short virtual interactions or mentorship opportunities. Some want to volunteer skills instead of donating money, and some simply want to stay informed without constant asks. The idea that there’s one “correct” alumni journey is starting to break down.
What the data shows: 43% of younger alumni give via digital wallets like Apple Pay or Venmo, compared to just 14% of older graduates. Nearly one in three younger alumni give on an "as-needed" basis — responding when a cause needs support right now — while only 17% give on a regular schedule (vs. 38% of older alumni). Annual fund cycles and fiscal year deadlines simply don't map to how this generation thinks about generosity.
💡 Calvert Hall optimized their Giving Day for mobile and added digital wallet options — and saw donations increase 2x over three years. As Joe Baker, Director of Advancement, put it: partnering with Almabase made their annual giving day more successful than ever before. (Read the Calvert Hall case study →)
A quiet theme running through the survey was this: Many alumni don’t feel confident their contribution actually matters.
Not because they distrust institutions entirely, but because impact often feels vague or invisible. And recognition isn’t just about donor walls or public acknowledgements anymore. It’s about feeling seen or remembered or the feeling like participation matters at every level.
A lot of alumni communication still unintentionally feels transactional: “We need support", “Here’s our campaign.”, “Please donate before the deadline.”
But trust is built in the moments between campaigns. Through transparency, consistency, and storytelling. And showing alumni the outcomes of engagement.
💡 Loma Linda University School of Medicine Alumni Association tied every campaign to real outcomes and real beneficiaries — so donors could see exactly who their gift helped. The result: over $1 million in gifts, driven by genuine confidence that their contribution would matter. (Read the Loma Linda case study →)
This isn’t new, but the expectation is much stronger now. General fundraising appeals used to work because institutional trust was higher by default.
Today, alumni want clarity. They want tangible outcomes. They want to understand the direct connection between contribution and impact. And clearly, this shift is healthy.
The institutions doing this well are getting extremely specific:
Specificity creates emotional connection because people can actually picture the impact.
What the data shows: In the 2026 National Alumni Survey, alumni consistently cite specificity as a deciding factor in whether they give. Vague asks like "Support the annual fund" land differently from "Help first-generation students access emergency grants during finals week." The latter creates emotional connection because people can actually picture the impact.
💡 Boyd Buchanan built clear, specific giving opportunities tied to outcomes alumni could understand and rally behind. Combined with leaderboards, donor segmentation, and goal thermometers, they surpassed their giving goal by 201%, brought 60% of alumni onto the platform, and saw a 5x increase in engaged users within five months. (Read the Boyd Buchanan case study →)
Debt absolutely shapes how younger alumni think about giving. But the survey suggests something important: Debt alone doesn’t fully explain disengagement.
Many alumni with financial pressure still choose to engage in other ways when they feel connected to the institution. Meanwhile, some financially stable alumni remain disengaged because the relationship itself feels weak. That distinction matters. Because it shifts the conversation away from "Young alumni can’t give.” Toward: “Have we created enough value in the relationship for them to want to engage at all?”
Those are very different questions.
What the data shows: 77% of alumni burdened by student debt still give to other organizations. The barrier isn't financial capacity — it's relevance and trust. This reframes the entire conversation. The question isn't "Can young alumni give?" It's "Have we created enough value in the relationship for them to want to engage at all?"
💡 The Almabase blog on younger alumni giving makes a practical recommendation that gets at this directly: acknowledge debt without making it awkward. Frame giving as collective action rather than individual sacrifice. Show alumni what the group can achieve together, and recognize every contributor regardless of gift size, as part of something larger. Institutions that make small gifts feel meaningful see stronger participation among younger alumni, even those carrying debt. (Read the blog here →)
This stood out as one of the most practical takeaways from the survey. A lot of institutions still treat giving as the primary indicator of alumni engagement. But many alumni are far more willing to give time before money.
They’ll mentor students, speak at events, offer internships, join panels, and help build regional communities. And in many cases, those experiences become the foundation for long-term donor relationships later.
The mistake is treating volunteering as secondary instead of seeing it as relationship-building. Because often, it’s the first meaningful interaction alumni have had with the institution in years.
💡 Merchant Taylors' built their advancement strategy around non-financial engagement first — volunteer and mentorship pathways that connected alumni to the institution and its students. Giving followed naturally, as a product of the relationship rather than a response to a campaign. (Read the Merchant Taylors' case study →)
A personalized subject line isn’t the same thing as meaningful relevance.
Real relevance looks like:
The institutions doing this well don’t just “segment audiences"; they build experiences around alumni needs and interests. And alumni can feel the difference.
💡 Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) shifted from broadcast messaging to relevance-based digital engagement using interest data and engagement history to match alumni with the right opportunities at the right time. The result: alumni stopped feeling like they were on a mailing list and started feeling like part of a community. (Read the RISD engagement story →)
If there’s one thing the survey makes clear, it’s this:
Advancement is more about relationship quality.
Alumni are still open to engagement, to giving, and still looking for connection and purpose. But expectations have changed. People want authenticity, relevance, transparency and community. And they want institutions to earn attention the same way every other organization now has to. That can feel uncomfortable for advancement teams because it requires moving away from long-standing assumptions. But it’s also a huge opportunity.
Because institutions that adapt early have the chance to build stronger, more resilient alumni relationships than before. These relationships are built on actual value.
The full report explores:
Whether you're making the case internally for a strategy shift or looking for specific benchmarks to anchor your next planning cycle, the full report gives you what you need.
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Spring fundraiser ideas are campaigns and events that institutions run between March and June to raise money, grow donor participation, and bring their community closer together. Spring is one of the strongest fundraising windows of the year, and the reasons go beyond good weather.
Some of the best spring fundraiser ideas include:
In this guide, we’ll break down 25+ proven ideas across different formats and audiences. The goal is to help you identify ideas that align with your campaign goals and translate into measurable participation and fundraising outcomes.
Before we get into the details of each idea, it helps to understand why spring works so well for fundraising in the first place.
Spring is the perfect time for fundraising campaigns because donors are more willing to give, the institutional calendar is full of engagement moments, and the weather makes it possible to run event formats that other seasons cannot support.
Donors show up differently in spring. They are more social, more optimistic, and many have just received tax refunds. That is a hard mix to find at other times of the year. And because spring also lines up with graduation, reunions, homecoming, and end-of-year giving pushes, the ask lands when people already feel connected to your institution.
The weather plays a role, too. Outdoor events, hybrid formats, and in-person gatherings are all easier to pull off. That means your team can reach donors through real experiences instead of relying on emails and social posts to do all the heavy lifting.
The data backs this up. According to the 2024 CASE Insights Alumni Engagement Survey, 51.8% of institutions reported increased alumni engagement. A lot of that growth is tied to seasonal programming that gives people a concrete reason to show up and participate.
This is also why many advancement teams are starting to build spring into their annual giving strategy as a dedicated campaign window. When engagement is already high, pairing it with the right giving tools and campaign infrastructure can turn participation into actual donor growth. Almabase’s ‘planning a giving day’ ebook offers a guided explanation to plan a successful giving day and is a good place to get started with a spring fundraiser.
When it comes to planning, most teams start with a basic question: What format works for us? Can we do something outdoors? Should it be virtual? How much budget do we actually have?
Here are spring fundraiser ideas grouped by format to help you figure out what fits.
Outdoor fundraisers are some of the most popular spring fundraising event ideas because the weather finally lets you bring people together in person. And when people show up, they tend to give more.
Here are a few that work well outdoors:
The most important thing with outdoor fundraisers is making sure donations do not depend entirely on who shows up. If you pair your event with an online giving page, you can collect gifts before, during, and after the event. A registration-to-donation flow helps here. The person who signs up is already interested enough to give.
Cloud County Community College did this well. Their annual scholarship auction raised $67,000 and drove 3X click rates on alumni emails because event promotion and the giving ask were connected from the start. If you want to see how event and fundraising workflows can work together, the Almabase events platform is a good reference.
Virtual fundraisers take the venue and the weather out of the picture entirely. They cost less to run, they are easier to scale, and they often reach donors who would never show up to an in-person event.
Here are a few virtual spring fundraising ideas worth looking at:
With virtual fundraisers, the donor experience on the other end decides how well the campaign performs. If someone taps a link on their phone and the giving page takes too long to load or feels clunky, you lose them. The checkout needs to be quick, work well on mobile, and feel the same on every device. Teams using Almabase run their virtual campaigns by giving pages built around this kind of fast, clean checkout experience.
The other piece that matters is social sharing. When a donor can share their gift with one tap and tag someone else to give, the campaign starts reaching people your team would never have contacted on its own.
Not every spring fundraiser needs a big budget or a large team. Some of the most effective ideas are simple ones that can go from idea to launch in a few days.
Here are a few low-cost spring fundraiser ideas that are easy to get off the ground:
These ideas are a good fit for small teams with limited budgets who need to get something going quickly. The main challenge is that even simple campaigns create manual work when your team is handling receipts, tracking gifts, and following up with donors by hand.
Automating those steps changes the math. When gift receipts, thank-you emails, and donor tracking happen on their own, your team spends less time on admin and more time running the actual campaign. The Almabase eBook on eliminating inefficiencies goes deeper into how fragmented tools create extra work and what it looks like when you bring everything into one place.
Format is one way to choose a spring fundraiser. But the right idea also depends on who you are trying to reach, which is what we will cover next.
The best spring fundraiser idea for your team depends on who you are trying to reach. Schools do well with campaigns that get students and parents involved together. Colleges and alumni programs need campaigns that work across geographies and class years. Nonprofits lean on mission-driven storytelling. Sports teams and clubs benefit from the shared identity their members already have.
Here is how spring fundraiser ideas break down by audience.
Schools have a built-in advantage when it comes to spring fundraising. Parents are already involved, students are easy to rally around a shared goal, and the school calendar gives you natural moments to build a campaign around.
Here are a few that tend to do well:
School fundraisers work in the spring because students and parents are both engaged at the same time. When both groups are active, participation tends to take care of itself. Adding gamification, like progress bars and class rankings, gives people something to track and talk about.
Archbishop Riordan High School saw this play out at scale. After switching to a mobile-friendly giving experience with real-time campaign tracking, their giving day donations grew by 550%, going from $60,646 in 2017 to $338,724 in 2018. A big part of that was social giving, 20% of gifts were influenced by donors sharing their contribution and encouraging others to do the same. For more school fundraising ideas, this Almabase guide goes deeper into what works.
Spring fundraising for colleges and alumni programs looks different from school-level campaigns. Your donors are spread across geographies, they graduated at different times, and their connection to the institution varies. The campaigns that work here are the ones that make giving feel personal and tied to something specific.
A few ideas that fit this audience well:
The execution side matters a lot with alumni campaigns. Segmenting your audience by class year, location, or past giving behavior helps you send the right message to the right group. And peer-to-peer fundraising pages give your most engaged alumni a way to bring others in without your team having to do all the outreach.
Boyd-Buchanan School is a good example. Their first giving day on Almabase surpassed its goal by 201%. What made it work was that 60% of alumni signed up on the platform before the campaign even launched, and engaged users grew 5X within five months. When alumni are already active, the giving day becomes a moment to convert that activity into actual gifts. The Almabase annual fund page covers how this works in practice, and the State of Giving Days report has benchmarks from over 150 institutions.
Nonprofit fundraising in spring is less about institutional calendar moments and more about mission. Your donors give because they believe in what you do, so the campaigns that work best are the ones that make that connection feel real.
Ideas that tend to land well for nonprofits:
Storytelling is what ties all of these together. Donors want to see the impact of their gift, so building your campaign around a specific story or outcome makes the ask stronger. Reaching donors across more than one channel helps too. Running your campaign across email, text, and social at the same time gives you more chances to land the message. The Almabase multi-channel bundle is built around this idea, helping teams run coordinated outreach without managing each channel separately.
Sports teams and clubs have something most other groups do not: a strong shared identity. Members already see themselves as part of a team, which makes fundraising feel less like an ask and more like a group effort.
Ideas that work well for this audience:
Peer-to-peer fundraising is the strongest tool here. When each team member has a personal page and shares it with their own network, the campaign reaches far beyond the team itself. The competitive nature of sports also helps. Leaderboards showing which player or group has raised the most tend to push people to do more. Teams running campaigns through Almabase can set up these personal pages and leaderboards within the same system they use for tracking gifts and donor activity.
Choosing the right idea is one part of it. The next step is figuring out how to pick the best option for your specific goals and audience.
Picking a spring fundraiser idea is easier when you start with two questions: what are we trying to achieve, and who are we trying to reach?
Before picking an idea, get clear on what success looks like for this campaign.
The right idea also depends on who you are reaching and when they are most available.
Once you have the right idea picked out, the next step is making sure your campaign is set up to perform.
A high-performing spring fundraising campaign comes down to four things: a giving page that makes it easy to donate, a peer-to-peer structure that spreads the campaign beyond your team's reach, promotion across more than one channel, and tracking that shows you what is working while the campaign is still running.
Let's break down each of those.
Your giving page is where the campaign either converts or loses people. If it loads slowly, looks generic, or asks for too many steps before someone can complete a gift, donors will drop off.
A few things that make a real difference:
Almabase's giving platform is built around this kind of setup. Branded pages, fast mobile checkout, flexible gift types, and clean CRM syncing so advancement teams can focus on running the campaign instead of fixing data after it ends.
Your team can only reach so many people directly. Peer-to-peer fundraising solves that by turning your most engaged supporters into campaign ambassadors.
What that looks like in practice:
The numbers back this up. St. Ignatius College Preparatory saw an 80% increase in giving day donations by leaning into social giving, peer-to-peer fundraising, and personalized outreach. When donors can see others giving and share their own gift easily, the campaign builds momentum that your team could not create through direct outreach alone.
Email alone is not enough as most emails go unread. The ones that do get opened are generally competing with dozens of other messages in the inbox.
The campaigns that perform best use more than one channel to get the message across:
Teams using email, text, and video together through the platform have seen 3X the impact compared to running email-only campaigns.
Once your campaign is live, you need to see how it is doing while it is still running. Waiting until the campaign ends to look at the numbers means you have already missed chances to adjust.
What to keep an eye on:
Almabase gives advancement teams real-time reporting across engagement, events, and donations within the same platform. That means your team can track performance and act on it without pulling data from separate tools into a spreadsheet.
With the right idea, the right audience, and the right campaign setup in place, the last step is putting it all together.
Spring gives you a window where donors are more open, the calendar is on your side, and the format options are wide. The ideas are the starting point. The results come from picking the right campaign for your goals, reaching the right audience, and having the tools to execute it cleanly.
Whether you are running a giving day for alumni, a walkathon for parents, or a peer-to-peer challenge for students, what matters most is how easy you make it for people to give and how well you track what happens after they do.
If you want to see how that comes together in one system, book a demo with Almabase to see how it would fit your setup.
Giving days with matching gifts, auction events, and crowdfunding campaigns tend to bring in the most revenue. These formats create urgency and attract larger gifts, especially when paired with a clear goal and a deadline.
Read-a-thons, bake sales, classroom competitions, and dress-down days are easy to set up and run. They need minimal budget, get students and parents involved quickly, and can go from idea to launch in a few days.
Start by setting a clear goal, whether that is participation, revenue, or donor acquisition. Then pick a format that fits your audience and budget. Set up a branded giving page, plan your promotion across multiple channels, and build in tracking from day one.
Virtual 5Ks, online auctions, digital giving days, and livestream fundraising events all work well as virtual spring fundraisers. They cost less to run, scale easily, and reach donors who would not attend an in-person event.
Use peer-to-peer fundraising so your supporters spread the campaign through their own networks. Add leaderboards and challenges to create friendly competition. Promote across email, text, and social instead of relying on one channel alone.
Look for a platform that covers giving pages, peer-to-peer fundraising, event management, multi-channel promotion, and real-time reporting in one place. CRM integration matters too so gift data stays accurate without manual entry.
25+ Spring Fundraiser Ideas That Actually Work in 2026
Explore 25+ spring fundraiser ideas for schools, colleges, nonprofits, and clubs. Includes ideas by format, audience, execution tips, and campaign tools.
Fundraising
Almabase
May 22, 2026
12 minutes
Do you remember the first time you volunteered? I do.
It was for an NGO where I volunteered to teach kids at a school that was running low on staff. I remember walking into that classroom for the very first time, taking my first-ever class, and feeling a sense of connection I had never felt before. It genuinely felt like I had made a difference. And as I continued over the years, giving back to that organization financially became the easiest decision I ever made. Not because anyone asked me the right way, but because I had seen the work firsthand. I believed in it. I was part of it.
Through that experience, I also built something I hadn't expected: lasting friendships and a network of people who were equally passionate about making a difference. When that organization makes an ask today, I don't think twice.
That's a personal story. But when you extrapolate it, volunteering is a life-changing experience for many. No matter the form it takes. From participating in a small fundraiser to serving on an advisory committee, volunteering quietly paves the way to some of your most loyal and generous donors.And most institutions are leaving this pathway almost entirely untapped.
This isn't based on feeling alone. The 2026 National Alumni Survey, led by Howard Heevner and Sarah Kleeberger and co-sponsored by Almabase, surveyed over 82,000 alumni across 31 colleges and universities. The findings on volunteering are striking.
Alumni who recently volunteered with their alma mater are, simply put, a different category of donor.
The connection isn't coincidental. Volunteering builds the exact conditions that make giving feel natural: emotional investment, awareness of impact, and a sense of belonging. Alumni who volunteer don't give because they're asked well. They give because they care deeply, and they care deeply because they showed up first.
💡RISD’s “Life after RISD” initiative, for example, created flexible ways for alumni to mentor students, participate in career conversations, and support networking communities. [Learn More]
The honest answer is that most volunteer programs were designed for a different era. Traditional offerings like alumni events, leadership committees, and reunion committees were built around older models of engagement that assumed alumni had the time, proximity, and interest to commit to open-ended roles.
Today's alumni, particularly younger ones, don't see themselves in those formats. They want flexibility. They want to contribute a skill, not fill a seat. And critically, they want to see the impact of what they do. Not months later in an annual report, but in a way that feels immediate and personal.
When those conditions aren't met, volunteering quietly falls off the list. And with it, so does the pathway to giving.
The shift doesn't require a program overhaul. It requires rethinking what "volunteering" means and who it's designed for. Here's where to start:
Short, virtual, time-bound engagements like a one-hour career conversation, a Giving Day ambassador role, or a single mentoring session lower the barrier dramatically for younger alumni and first-time volunteers who aren't ready to commit to standing roles.
💡Pacific Northwest University, featured in CASE Insights on Giving Day 2026, expanded Giving Day participation beyond donations by introducing opportunities like mentorship, admissions support, and preceptor roles, reinforcing the idea that engagement often comes before giving [Read More]
Career advising, project-based consulting, and issue-focused advocacy align closely with how many alumni want to contribute today. Findings from the 2026 National Alumni Survey suggest that alumni interests vary across communities and lived experiences, with some gravitating toward career-focused engagement and others toward service-oriented involvement. Offering multiple pathways allows institutions to meet alumni where they are.
After every volunteer interaction, close the loop. Share what happened as a result. Connect their contribution to a student outcome, a program milestone, or a real story. Volunteers who see their impact are far more likely to return and to give.
Once an alumnus has volunteered and seen the work, the transition to giving should feel like a natural next step, not a separate ask. Design the journey intentionally, from first engagement to first gift.
💡Institutions like Concordia College have focused on creating more continuous and accessible alumni engagement experiences through digital communities, events, and ongoing participation opportunities. The result is a stronger sense of connection over time, where fundraising becomes part of an existing relationship rather than a one-time campaign ask. [Read more]
Timely, personalized acknowledgment matters more than formal recognition programs. Peer shoutouts, digital acknowledgment tied to specific impact, and authentic storytelling go further than plaques and event mentions.
The 2026 National Alumni Survey makes one thing clear: alumni haven't disengaged from generosity. They've simply redirected it toward causes and organizations that make them feel connected, informed, and like they genuinely matter.
Volunteering is the fastest, most human way to create that feeling.
Your best future donors may not be donors yet. But there's a good chance they're willing to show up, if you give them the right reason to.
👉 Explore the full 2026 National Alumni Survey findings on how volunteering shapes donor behavior.
How Alumni Volunteers Become Donors
Learn how alumni volunteering drives alumni giving, strengthens engagement, and builds long-term donor relationships according to the 2026 National Alumni Survey.
Fundraising
Sushmitha
May 19, 2026
12 minutes
I fall right between Gen Z and Millennials, a Zillennial, if you want to get specific.
I'm not starting my day with matcha every morning, but I appreciate the vibe. Memes are definitely a love language, but so is a well-organized Excel sheet.
Writing this piece felt oddly personal. Because I am both generations at once.
So when the data on alumni giving from younger graduates landed in front of me, I didn't just analyze it. I recognized myself in it.
Here's what the numbers actually say, and what university fundraising teams need to hear.
The short answer to why Millennials and Gen Z aren't giving to their alma mater: they are giving. Just not to you.
And before you take that personally, it's worth understanding why.
The 2026 National Alumni Survey, gathered from over 82,000 alumni voices across 31 colleges and universities, makes the picture clear:
That's a signal right there.
When Millennials and Gen Z give, they give to causes that feel immediate, personal, and visible.
Here's what that looks like in practice:
The pattern is clear: younger alumni gravitate toward giving that feels direct. They want to see a face, a story, a specific person whose life changed because of their contribution. Broad, abstract institutional appeals simply don't compete with that.
This isn't a generational quirk. It's a logical response to how younger alumni experience the world and institutions.
Let's break it down:
1. They need to see visible impact.Younger alumni don't give out of tradition or obligation. They give when they can connect their contribution to a real, tangible outcome, like a scholarship that put a first-generation student through graduation or an emergency fund that kept someone from dropping out. When the impact is invisible, so is the motivation to give.
💡For example, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts moved from a “one day, one fund” model to offering over 40 donor-choice funds during Giving Day. [Read More]
2. They prefer immediacy over schedules.Nearly one in three younger alumni give on an "as needed" basis, responding when a cause needs support right now. Only 17% give on a regular schedule, compared to 38% of older alumni. Annual fund cycles and fiscal year deadlines don't map to how this generation thinks about generosity.
3. Institutional trust isn't automatic.Older giving models assumed loyalty. Younger alumni don't start from a place of institutional trust. They extend it based on evidence, transparency, and whether they feel genuinely seen. According to the 2026 National Alumni Survey, 40% of alumni feel disconnected from their institution, and nearly half feel ill-informed about what it's doing. That's not a foundation for giving.
🔥In our recent webinar with Dr Amanda Shoemaker, we unpack what drives young alumni to give. [Watch here]
4. They expect frictionless, digital-first giving.43% of younger alumni give via digital wallets like Apple Pay or Venmo, compared to just 14% of older graduates. If your giving process has friction, you've already lost them.
Here's what you need to know: most advancement teams are still running playbooks written for a different generation of donors.
Annual fund appeals, broad unrestricted messaging, and campaigns built around institutional pride may work for older alumni but they land flat with younger ones. Generic outreach doesn't answer the question younger alumni are silently asking:
"What does this have to do with me, and what will actually change because of my gift?"
Impact storytelling is often delayed, buried in newsletters, or framed around the institution rather than the people it serves. That's the opposite of what works.
The good news is that the data doesn't just diagnose the problem. It points clearly toward what moves younger alumni.
1. Lead with cause-based campaigns.Replace broad annual fund appeals with specific, values-driven opportunities like student emergency funds, mental health services, first-generation initiatives, and campus food pantries. These are the areas where younger alumni see themselves and their values reflected.
Here's what the data shows about which funding areas resonate most by age group:
The gap on mental health services, first-gen initiatives, and emergency funds is especially telling. These are causes younger alumni care about deeply, often from personal experience, and they are chronically underpromoted in most alumni giving campaigns.
2. Tell real stories about real people.The shift toward GoFundMe-style giving is a signal, not a trend to dismiss. Younger alumni want to know who they are helping. Put a name, a face, and a specific situation at the center of your ask. The institution is the vehicle. The person is the story.
💡Alumni Association of the School of Medicine of Loma Linda University saw success by tying campaigns to real outcomes and beneficiaries, helping donors understand not just what they’re giving to, but who they’re helping. [Learn more]
3. Make online giving frictionless.Offer digital wallet options and mobile-first experiences that simplify online giving. Create time-bound, shareable campaigns like Giving Days that feel communal and immediate. Younger alumni are more likely to give in the moment than on a schedule, so meet them where they are.
4. Acknowledge debt without making it awkward.Student loan debt is a real factor for younger alumni, particularly alumni of color and women. But here's what the survey found: 77% of those burdened by debt still give to other organizations. The barrier isn't financial capacity. It's relevance and trust. Acknowledge competing financial pressures in your messaging without pressure or apology, and focus the ask on collective impact rather than individual sacrifice.
💡Is Your Higher Ed Website Meeting Gen Z’s Expectations? Audit your higher ed website with this self-assessment.
The 2026 National Alumni Survey puts it plainly: younger alumni haven't disengaged from generosity. They're selective about where it goes, and they're directing it toward causes and organizations that earn their trust, show their impact, and respect their agency.
Higher education hasn't lost their goodwill. It just hasn't earned their giving yet.
The gap is closeable. But it closes through relevance, transparency, and real human connection.
👉 Curious about what motivates alumni giving across institutions? Explore the full 2026 National Alumni Survey findings to see how your institution compares.
Why Millennials and Gen Z Aren't Giving to Their Alma Mater (And What Actually Works)
Why Millennials and Gen Z aren’t giving to their alma mater and what actually works. Insights from the 2026 National Alumni Survey on how younger alumni give differently.
Alumni Engagement
Sushmitha
May 11, 2026
12 minutes
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