Using Your Database to Boost University Fundraising Results

K-12 schools and higher ed institutions, public and private alike, rely on smart fundraising strategies to generate the revenue needed to maintain and grow their operations. But planning and carrying out fundraising initiatives without the donor data to inform them can feel like a shot in the dark.

By harnessing the power of data analytics, however, educational institutions can unlock new avenues of support and establish personalized fundraising tactics that resonate with supporters on a deeper level.

In this blog post, we delve into the world of data-driven fundraising and explore what schools of all shapes and sizes need to know.

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The Value of a Data-Informed Fundraising Approach

A data-informed fundraising approach empowers school fundraisers to build and strengthen donor relationships in a rapidly changing landscape. Today, tailored engagement efforts are seeing particularly high levels of success, with personalized initiatives resonating deeply with organizations’ support networks.

In fact, according to industry research, personalized emails see open rates over 82% higher than generic emails, while segmented campaigns produce up to 760% revenue growth! 

Each contact in your CRM is a different person who has their own unique set of behaviors, preferences, and history with your school. For example, Sarah⁠ (a recent college grad and devoted alumnus who has recently begun donating to the college's scholarship fund) and John⁠ (a retired faculty member who actively participates in campus events and has supported the annual fund campaign for the past twenty years⁠) should not be engaged with in the same way.

Instead, the insights gleaned from personal interactions, surveys and forms, and third-party resources⁠—powered by smart technology⁠—can guide your efforts with individualized engagement recommendations and more.

In this guide, we’ll explore several critical donor data points and how each one can inform your school’s efforts. These include:

1. Demographic Information
2. Relation to the Institution
3. Engagement History
4. Communication Preference
5. Employment Details
6. Wealth Level
7. Affinity and Interests

The more you know, the better you can tailor your strategy for each person supporting your cause. By establishing donor-centric fundraising practices, you can create a positive giving experience that fosters long-term engagement that goes beyond any single transaction.

Demographic Information

Demographic data is some of the most basic information you can collect about a donor. And it’s the foundation of a successfully personalized strategy.

Key demographic points to look out for include a supporter’s name (full name and preferred name or nickname, if applicable), contact information (phone number, email address, social media handles, etc.), address and geographic location, age or D.O.B., and more.

How to get this data point: Ask for these details on your online donation pages. While you’ll want to limit the number of required form fields to the must-haves (typically name and email), the rest can be optional requests. Tons of donors are willing to provide additional information when asked!

Relation to the Institution

Understanding a donor or prospect’s affiliation with your school can be the key to pulling off an effectively tailored strategy. After all, it’s likely one of the primary motivations behind an individual’s giving.

For example, you’d likely take a different approach to alumni engagement than you would for a current student, faculty member, or unrelated donor. Each group has its own unique set of defining characteristics, and acknowledging a supporter’s relationship with your school can establish a more personalized giving experience.

How to get this data point: This is another piece of information you can ask for in your donation form. Consider implementing an optional drop-down field that encourages donors to mark their status as a student, alumnus, family member, friend, faculty/staff, or other.

Engagement History

A donor’s past giving patterns can be one of the largest indicators of future behavior. By tracking how your supporters are involved with your school, you can take key steps to encourage further support. For example, you’ll be able to better understand giving motivations, predict engagement trends, and even uncover major donor opportunities.

Keep in mind that engagement history should go beyond traditional donations⁠—and encompass all instances of giving, volunteering, peer-to-peer fundraising, attending events, matching gifts, and more.

How to get this data point: This information should be quick and easy to locate in your donor database. To ensure you have a thorough understanding of each individual’s engagement with your institution, regularly updating your CRM is a must.

Communication Preference

If you send donation appeals using a channel that a donor doesn’t care for, your outreach is more likely to be discarded without consideration. On the other hand, if you use an individual’s favorite means of communication, you can expect a significantly greater response.

Thus, tracking and analyzing donor communication preferences can go a long way⁠—not only in securing more gifts for your school, but also in reducing costs invested in non-responsive channels.

How to get this data point: Take a look at your recent interactions with a donor. Do they tend to be more responsive over email compared to direct mail? Do they favor phone calls or text messages? Your past campaign conversion rates can provide a ton of useful details. Alternatively, consider sending a donor survey that asks respondents to share their preferred communication channels to get straight to the point!

Employment Details

Knowing where your donors work is one of the most impactful data points you can have. Not only does employment data allow your team to uncover existing workplace giving opportunities (i.e., matching gifts, volunteer grants, annual giving stipends, and more) within your support network⁠, but it can also inform your broader corporate partnership strategy, provide wealth insights, and allow for increasingly personalized outreach.

While the employing company is the most important aspect, it also helps to have additional insights such as their job title, rank, and part-time versus full-time status. Many companies even match donations made by their retirees⁠—so don’t count them out, either!

How to get this data point: Employment information is another data point that can be collected directly within the online giving experience. But our #1 recommendation is to integrate your fundraising platform with an innovative matching gift tool⁠—like Double the Donation’s partnership with Almabase!

Leveraging a solution like this empowers your school to collect employment data from donors as they reach the confirmation screen. Plus, it allows you to screen contact information for corporate email addresses and trigger automated post-donation outreach⁠—each of which provides your team with employer insights.

Wealth Level

Asking for too much from your donors can lead to extra “no’s,” while asking for too little often leaves available dollars on the table. Thus, having a basic understanding of an individual’s wealth level and capacity to give can help your development team tailor gift requests with optimal donation suggestions that resonate with the prospect.

This information can also help uncover major donation opportunities that already exist in your network⁠—you just might not know it yet!

How to get this data point: Conduct a wealth screening of the donors, prospects, and alumni in your database to identify those with the ability to contribute substantial gifts. Take a look at common wealth markers like stock ownership, real estate holdings, past giving, and previously uncovered employment details to estimate an individual’s capacity to give.

Affinity and Interests

Beyond a donor’s financial giving abilities, another key tenet of prospect research includes looking into the person’s affinity to give. In other words⁠—do they take a natural liking to your cause?

If an individual has an existing relationship with your school (i.e., student, alumnus, faculty member, family, etc.), that connection often does produce an affinity to support your efforts. However, you’d want to note that a chemistry student would likely be more inclined to donate to an expansion of the college’s science wing rather than a scholarship fund for incoming art classes.

How to get this data point: Make a note in your donor database after each meeting with a major donor or prospect. If they mention any particular interests, jot it down to have on record going forward. If an individual is an alumnus of your institution, their major or field of study can provide some insight into their personal and professional interests.

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As the educational fundraising landscape continues to evolve, data-driven fundraising becomes increasingly essential to unlocking untapped potential. 

The invaluable insights gleaned from supporter data can empower your institution to make the most of available resources, identify and engage effectively with high-value prospects, and enhance donor retention⁠—from first-time donors to life-long supporters.

Make sure your development team has the tools and the strategies in place to collect, store, and analyze the data available to you. Don’t let that resource go to waste!

Picture this: You’re the director of fundraising and development at a well-known higher education institution. You’ve recently had a ton of money coming in to support your larger-scale initiatives. A private grant-giving foundation is providing your team with the money required to open a high-tech computer lab, and a major donor is funding the building of a new wing at the school.

But what about your other day-to-day operations? You need funds to keep your institution above water, continue paying staff salaries, and invest in behind-the-scenes technology that allows your university to continue running smoothly. Oftentimes, major gifts and grant funding don’t cover those needs.

And that’s where your annual fundraising strategy comes in! In this guide, we’ll explore four powerful tips for boosting this particular type of fundraising. As you begin planning your upcoming campaign, be sure to:

1. Review your previous year’s strategy.
2. Set strategic fundraising goals.
3. Diversify your annual appeal channels.
4. Double donations with corporate matching gifts.

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All sorts of mission-driven organizations rely on annual fundraising to help ⁠manage their in-between needs—and when it comes to university and other education-based institutions, your alumni are likely to be your biggest supporters!

Are you ready to uncover how you can position your school for the greatest annual fundraising success going into 2022? Let’s get started.

1. Review your previous year’s strategy

Fundraising organizations have learned a lot about effective fundraising strategies (and the way that they’re always changing) from the highs and lows of 2021. And before that, 2020. Going in 2022, reviewing efforts and results from previous years can give you a head start toward success.

To get started, take a look at where your fundraising flourished in the past year, as well as where you see room for improvement. If you notice that your efforts in the corporate giving arena could use some extra work, for example, consider prioritizing corporate fundraising in the upcoming year.

Here are some other key performance indicators (or KPIs) you might look at:

• The total amount of fundraising revenue
• Total number of donors
• Average donation size (and average increase over time)
• Percentage of repeat donors vs. one-time and lapsed givers
• Donations made through your website, direct mail, in-person, phone, events, and more

As you craft your newest annual fundraising strategy, make sure to prioritize the avenues that have historically been your most profitable while also giving extra care to channels that may be lagging behind.

2. Set strategic fundraising goals

A significant element of successful fundraising involves setting fundraising goals beforehand. Otherwise, how will you determine “success” in the first place?

You’ll want to choose lofty objectives that inspire donors and fundraisers alike while ensuring you don’t aim too high that it can seem unrealistic or like a “lost cause.” To find the perfect medium between the two, the best and most effective goals often follow the SMART framework.

As you craft your upcoming objectives, make sure they are:

• Specific. Your fundraising team (and donors) should know exactly what the goal is and how to reach it.
• Measurable. Ensure you choose quantifiable metrics that can easily be measured to determine success.
• Attainable. Again, unrealistic goals can set you up for failure. Make sure your goal is attainable, given your team and available resources.
• Relevant. Your fundraising goals should be directly related to fundraising⁠—and specifically, your annual fundraising campaign.
• Time-bound. Set a clear time period in which your annual campaign will run. This instills urgency among donors and allows you to determine whether you’ve reached your goal by the end.

Here’s an example of a SMART goal for an upcoming campaign - “To collect $10,000,000 in individual contributions to fund university operations by 12/31/2022.”

To contrast, a poorly crafted goal might look like this - “To raise a lot of money in the next few months.”

The former sample is much clearer and will ultimately result in greater success, while the latter is subjective and vague. When your annual fundraising objectives incorporate each element listed above, you can ensure your team is positioned for success.

3. Diversify your annual appeal channels

The more fundraising strategies and tools develop, the more comprehensive your campaigns are expected to be. As a result, organizations are encouraged to integrate multiple channels to spread the word about their annual fundraising efforts far and wide.

The particular avenues you choose to leverage for your annual campaign can vary depending on your donors’ preferences and your team’s strong points. However, they will likely incorporate a combination of the following:

• Website
• Email
• Direct mail
• Social media
• Phone calls
• Text messages
• Face-to-face

Several years ago, you may have been able to reach your goals solely through phone and in-person solicitation efforts. Now, it’s essential that you take a multichannel approach⁠—both to meet donors where they already are and to stand out from other organizations seeking your audiences’ attention.

4. Double donations with corporate matching gifts

Did you know that more than 26 million people work for companies with corporate matching gift programs? It’s likely that many of these individuals are your alumni, donors, and other key supporters.

Before you can expect a solid flow of corporate matches coming in, however, you’ll need to enact specific matching gift marketing strategies to raise awareness of this powerful opportunity. Because although 26+ million individuals are eligible for company matches, more than 78% of this group is completely unaware.

To incorporate corporate matching gifts into your annual fundraising strategy, consider these best practices:

• Share general matching gift information on social media.
• Incorporate matching gift appeals in your donation solicitations.
• Highlight matching gift opportunities directly in your online giving process.
• Follow up with match-eligible donors after receiving their initial gifts.
• Provide company-specific matching gift program guidelines with donors whose employers you know.

For you, matching gifts mean that your school has the potential to collect two donations for the cost of soliciting one. And for your donors, they get to know their contributions went twice as far.

You can’t do the big things (like your overall mission impact) without being able to fund the little things as well. An effective annual fundraising strategy allows your team to collect the dollars you need to bankroll every part of your school’s operations⁠—from the most glamorous of tasks to the most mundane.

Luckily, integrating these best practices into your strategy will allow you to raise more funding for your institution and better situate your team for ongoing success. Good luck!

Securing the data of constituents is a principal duty of institutions

The year 2020 served as a warning that anyone can be the victim of a data breach. More than 120 non-profit organisations learnt that their data was at risk after a breach in Blackbaud's platforms by a ransomware attack. Millions of donors, customers, and staffers were affected, and the incident became the most impacting data breach of 2020. 

The ransomware fiasco necessitates reiterating the principal duty of educational institutions to secure the data of their trusting constituents.

Advancement leaders are custodians of data of thousands of alumni and donors, and securing their data must be their highest priority. A lapse in security can have a damaging effect on advancement, as years of relationship-building can be undone by one moment of vulnerability. It is, therefore, the responsibility of institutions to reaffirm their seriousness towards security by adapting secure systems to solidify their constituent's trust in them. 

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Passwords are a threat to security

Today, passwords are also a threat to our security. Traditional password authentication is susceptible to threats such as data breaches and phishing. According to a report conducted in 2020, 63% changed their passwords due to a security breach. 

In addition to external risks, our heedless habits with managing and sharing passwords increase their risk of exposure.

• 75% of American between ages 18 and 24 used passwords that belonged to someone else to gain access to a service or device. 
• 34% of consumers have shared their password with others. 
• 59% re-use their passwords across sites. 
  

Our habits with passwords coupled with the looming risk of attacks prove that passwords are no longer a safe way of authentication.

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Almabase moves to password-less authentication to provide alumni with a safe space online

At Almabase, we have taken proactive measures to secure the data of its customers and their constituents. 

We have integrated with Auth0 to upgrade our login mechanism to become completely password-less. By replacing passwords with single-use codes, this mechanism immunes itself from threats. 

This partnership with Auth0 moreover aims to improve the experience of members. Single-use codes will help even the most infrequent users log in without the need to remember their passwords. The platform now also supports SSO (Single-sign-on) via Facebook, Linkedin, and Google, in addition to allowing members to log in using any of the multiple emails listed on their records.

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On top of improving the login experience and making it robust, the platform now also supports moderation of access to content and resources to segments of users based on criteria admins set. 

With these upgrades, millions of alumni across hundreds of institutions will access their data securely online. We hope that institutions take data security seriously across all their systems, allowing for this relationship to build on greater trust.