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Blackbaud recently announced that support for Raiser’s Edge NXT’s database view and related functionality will end on September 15, 2027, affecting several Blackbaud products. These include Blackbaud Online Express and Blackbaud NetCommunity (BBNC). For advancement teams that have spent years building forms, pages, workflows, and other processes around the platform, this means choosing and migrating to a new platform. The prospect can feel like a lot to take on, especially if it wasn't something you'd anticipated.
If you're looking for an alternative, Almabase can help you replace the functionality you currently rely on across these products. We've already covered why teams might be thinking of a move off BBNC and how the main alternatives compare. In this article, we’ll be focusing on what happens once you've made that decision: what the migration process looks like, what your team can expect along the way, and how Almabase approaches the move.
In case you’re evaluating how Almabase stacks up against BBNC, check out our comparison blog here.
There’s also another question that comes up around a platform migration: How much is this going to cost?
This question extends beyond the immediate, visible technical costs. In fact, the technical side of the move might just be the simplest to figure out. It’s the broader, more abstract elements like shifting scopes, changing requirements, or even figuring out the right set of requirements in the first place that could end up costing the most amount of money and time, if not approached thoughtfully.
That's why we want to walk you through the Assisted Fast Pass Migration process upfront: what happens at each stage, what your team is responsible for, what our migration team handles, and where costs may come into the picture. We hope to give you a clear idea of what the move to Almabase will look like before you get started, so there are fewer surprises along the way.
Why transparency matters during a migration
A migration project always begins with an agreed-upon plan. But it’s also very likely that, a few weeks in, you discover a form that needs some additional customization or a request that seemed straightforward seems to fall outside the original scope, on second thought. These are perfectly reasonable hiccups during the migration, but if work is already underway, it could seem harder to understand what you're paying for, and even harder to plan around the rest of the project.
Clear expectations are at the heart of our migration approach, starting with total transparency around what extra requirements cost. With Almabase’s Assisted Fast Pass Migration, each stage gives you a chance to understand what's being proposed, what falls within the standard migration, and where something would require additional work.
Basically, you shouldn't find out about an extra requirement after the work has already been done. Your approval and sign-off comes first. The five steps in the migration process are built around this intention. Let’s get into them.
1. Kickoff: Getting the project off on the right foot
The migration process starts with a kickoff between your team, a dedicated CSM, and an implementation specialist. This is where we get the groundwork in place. This is usually access to your current site, your branding assets, and the dates your team needs to work around.
Another important step here is understanding your calendar and priorities. Your Giving Day, reunion, fiscal year-end, or another major event may determine what needs to happen first and we would be building the migration calendar around it. So, the migration sequence might look a little different for each institution, as each gets to choose which product goes first.
The kickoff is also a chance to flag anything unusual about your current NetCommunity setup.
After years on a platform, it's normal for your setup to have accumulated a few workarounds, custom configurations, or integrations that made sense when they were created. We don't need to solve all of those questions in the first meeting, but we do need to know about them.
That way, we can account for them during the next stage: the inventory. 🤗
Your team mainly needs to provide:
- Key dates and deadlines
- Relevant branding assets
- Access to your existing NetCommunity site
- Any known custom configurations, integrations, or unusual workflows
From there, you can let us take on the heavy lifting.
Your dedicated CSM and implementation specialist work with you throughout the migration, while your team focuses on the decisions and approvals. A migration shouldn't require your advancement team to take on managing a project full time on top of everything else they’re already handling.
Your data doesn't have to wait for the build
Your data migration is handled alongside the rest of the process. Almabase's bi-directional TrueSync integration connects with Raiser's Edge NXT and supports two-way syncing for configured entities and fields, including constituent, event, and gift data.
Admins can also decide which fields update automatically and which should be reviewed before they're pushed or pulled between systems.
That means your team doesn't have to wait until every page and workflow decision has been finalized before thinking about what happens to your data. The data side of the transition can move forward alongside the rest of the migration, with real time decisions being made.
2. Discovery and inventory: weeks one and two
Once kickoff is complete, your implementation specialist carefully starts building a complete inventory of what's currently running on NetCommunity: pages, forms, events, programs, memberships, and other key components of your site.
This process is useful in its own right, especially when taken on by someone external. After years on a platform, it's easy for a site to accumulate things that no one thinks about anymore, simply because they’re too involved in the process. The inventory gives you one place to see what's actually there, anything you might’ve forgotten about, and to make decisions about what needs to move vs what can be left behind.
Probably the most effective part of this is that it's a shared inventory that you can review alongside your specialist. If something looks outdated, doesn't need to move, or needs a closer look, you can flag it before it moves to the new product.
The inventory can surface things like:
- Duplicate or unused event pages
- Old forms or pages that are still live
- Site elements that don't need to be carried into Almabase
- Custom fields and configurations that don’t make sense on the new platform
This idea is to document your NetCommunity site so well that both teams end up on the same picture of what exists and what needs to happen next. The Almabase team handles the actual inventory work, and all you need to do is review the inventory and flag anything that should be changed, removed, or investigated.
3. Sign-off: deciding what moves forward
At this stage, the migration project starts taking on a more defined shape as you decide what you need to bring into Almabase. You and your implementation specialist review the inventory, decide what carries forward, and establish what the finished version should look like.
For each item being migrated, the team, along with you, defines the acceptance criteria before the building begins. If your existing alumni directory has eight fields and three filters, for example, those requirements can be documented as part of the scope. By the end of this discussion, everyone has arrived at the same definition of what needs to be delivered.
This is also where you’ll be able to clearly separate standard migration work from anything that requires additional effort.
If something falls outside the standard scope, you'll know before the work begins:
- What the additional work involves
- What's included and what's excluded
- The estimated effort
- The associated cost
You won’t have to decipher this from the invoice later on, because the work only moves forward once you’ve signed off on the scope.
This is exactly why your input here matters most. The Almabase team handles the building, but it’s you and your team deciding what is important enough to carry forward and what “done” needs to look like, within the standard process or with additional effort layered on.
4. Build and launch: 30 days for each product
Our team takes up building only once you’ve greenlit the scope. Each product gets its own dedicated 30-day track, with the order of products taken up built around your events and fiscal calendar.
This is to accommodate your calendar: giving days, reunions, Homecoming, we’ll build that product first so you’re ready in time for go-live day. If your immediate priority is your broader alumni site, we might begin with building that instead. The point is, even at this pace, you’re not forced to adopt a one-size-fits-all solution. Your implementation team works with you to determine what needs to come first.
The build itself happens on your Almabase pages, so you can review as it gets built while also familiarizing yourself with the new platform.
The timeline typically looks like this:
- 30-day build track: Each product moves through its own focused build.
- Weekly working session: Your team meets with the implementation team to review progress, provide input, and make decisions.
- Training as you go: Your team gets hands-on experience with the platform during the build, rather than waiting until everything is finished to start learning it.
- First launch: The fastest migrations can have their first product live around 45 days from kickoff, depending on the scope and sequencing of your project.
Having the scope agreed upon shows up in smoothness at this point: you can expect fewer decisions to make from scratch during this stage. Your team knows what's being built, your implementation specialist knows what they're working toward, and everything can move as planned, on track.
5. Cutover: moving from NetCommunity to Almabase
As you get closer to launch, the focus shifts from building to making the transition itself as smooth as possible.
The most important part of that is making sure people can still find the things they've been using. Your team receives a redirect map that pairs each carried-forward NetCommunity URL with its new Almabase destination. You'll also want to review where those old links appear outside NetCommunity: your main institutional website, email templates, QR codes, printed materials, and any other places where an old URL may still be in circulation.
The redirect map gives you a clear list of what needs to change and no one has to discover old links one by one after launch.
Before each product goes live, your team gets to review it thoroughly and explicitly approve the launch.
The aim, with these five steps, is to get your Almabase programs ready before your NetCommunity access ends, so the transition remains smooth and doesn't become a last-minute scramble.
What happens when something doesn't fit the standard scope?
Not everything that comes up during a migration falls neatly into the original plan. But there's also an important conversation to be had: what counts as additional scope and what is a limitation in the platform itself?
If something requires work beyond the standard migration scope, that's identified and quoted before the work begins. You can then decide whether you want to take it on.
But if there’s a requirement you have that Almabase cannot support yet, we’ll be fully transparent with you. Essentially, you haven’t asked for too much, we’re just not there yet. Depending on what you need, the team can look at a workaround or determine how the functionality could be addressed after launch.
This conversation is also one of the reasons the earlier stages matter. The shared inventory, defined acceptance criteria, and upfront scoping give everyone a common reference point throughout the project.
That's really the principle behind the entire migration process. You're not expected to know every detail of what needs to happen before the project starts. The process itself is designed to show you those details early, give your team a chance to make the calls that matter, and keep the build moving while minimizing unexpected, last-minute surprises.
Ready to make the move?
A BBNC migration may not have been on your roadmap, but that also doesn't mean it has to become a project that takes over your team's calendar.
With a clear process, an agreed scope, and the right support, you can move the parts of NetCommunity that matter to your team and work for your institution without having to figure everything out as you go. The Almabase team handles the build and migration work, while your team stays in complete control of the decisions, priorities, and final approvals.
And because the scope and any additional costs are addressed before the work happens, you can go into the migration knowing what to expect.
If you're planning your move away from BBNC, let's talk about what it could look like for your institution.
Talk to the Almabase team about your BBNC migration →
Moving from BBNC to Almabase: The Assisted Fast Pass Migration
Blackbaud is sunsetting support for Raiser’s Edge NXT’s database view and related functionality in September 2027. Learn how Almabase replaces your current functionality and how our Assisted Fast Pass Migration makes for a smooth switch without disrupting your campaigns or operations.
Anwesha Kiran
September 10, 2026
12 minutes
A paddle raise (also called a fund-a-need) is a great and simple fundraising format for nonprofits. It is easy to host, fun, and similar enough to auctions that if you have experience in one, you can easily incorporate the other.
All this is to say that, with proper planning, it is one of the most effective ways to get donations for your nonprofit or a particular project.
In this blog, we’ll look at what makes a typical paddle raise work, its benefits, and the essential steps to start hosting one on your own.
What is a Paddle Raise?
A paddle raise, also often called fund-a-need, is a live, direct appeal during a fundraising event such as a gala where donors pledge a financial contribution to a nonprofit, charity, or a particular cause. This is usually done by raising paddles containing varying numbers or ‘levels’, or through bidding devices and software.
Unlike charity auctions though, there aren’t any items or art involved, and attendees will not be bidding on a piece. An ask is made, and donors willing to contribute that amount raise their paddles. Due to the simpler setup and direct contributions, paddle raises have high ROI and are generally considered to be very effective.
How does a Paddle Raise work?
Usually taking place at the peak of the fundraiser, a paddle raise takes around 10-20 minutes (it happens quite quickly). This is typically how it unfolds:
- A designated speaker or emcee gets the event rolling by showing a video or narrating a quick story that introduces and emphasizes the impact of your mission.
- The emcee announces the fundraising target for the night, or if there are multiple causes, the goals for each.
- Tiers of contributions are planned beforehand ($10k, $7.5k and so on), and the emcee starts with the highest tier and works their way down to the lower tiers. When they ask for contributions, attendees express their willingness by raising numbered paddles.
- Volunteers and staff keep track of all the pledges and note it down.
- After going through all the tiers, the pledges are processed, and the total amount raised is announced. Attendees are thanked for their contributions and the event draws to a close.
Now that we’ve gone through what a paddle raise is and how it usually plays out, let’s get to how you can run one of your own.
How to Run a Successful Paddle Raise (Step-by-Step)
While paddle raises are simple enough in concept, they do require proper planning and coordination to capture pledges accurately and create good energy overall.
Here’s how you do it:
1. Pick the right cause/project for your targets and set your targets
Paddle raises are a lot more effective if you can tie them to a specific initiative that makes donors feel like they’re making a meaningful impact. It could be an annual raise for cancer, providing education to underprivileged children, etc.
Set a tangible goal and be clear on where the money goes. Sharing this with your donors builds trust. The goal shouldn’t be so high that hitting it feels impossible. All in all, you want to set a realistic but fairly ambitious figure.
2. Decide the contribution levels or tiers
You should aim for 5-10 levels and make sure it’s inclusive of everyone’s giving capabilities. You can discuss with your pre-committed donors (more on that later) to decide amounts for the higher giving tiers (or conversely for lower giving tiers depending on the situation).
This is where having a regularly updated donor database helps greatly, as you can base your levels off of giving history and data.
A basic example would be to have $15k as the highest tier, followed by $10k, $5k, $2k and so on all the way to $50. Remember that you have to be inclusive, so don’t skimp out on small or micro-level contributions.
3. Pick your emcee or host
The emcee is critical in setting the stage and the energy before the raise begins. An enthusiastic crowd can make a massive difference in contributions. If possible, hire a professional emcee who has been on the mic for other charity events before. You know your donors best; use that knowledge to pick out a host that can connect with them and elevate the room accordingly..
Alternatively, if your organization has deep ties with the attendees, you could consider a leadership figure (directors, chair, etc.) for familiarity. Of course, they need to be a good orator as well.
4. Decide the schedule and script
Since a paddle raise is relatively short, decide when the paddle raise should take place during your fundraising event or gala. You should aim to host the raise during the peak of the fundraiser, when everyone is energetic and receptive to instructions from you or your host.
Come up with a script, including your opening statement, tier announcements, anecdotes, and expressing gratitude at the end. Have alternative scripts ready for different scenarios since you can’t always predict if you’ll hit your target, overshoot it, or come close.
5. Pick the right tools for your event
You can choose to host your paddle raise with either physical paddles or through bidding software, though incorporating the former is heavily recommended.
You’ll need to assign numbers to each attendee and give them a paddle with the corresponding number. When a certain giving tier is called out, they can choose to pledge that amount by raising the paddle while volunteers keep track of it.
If you’re opting for a digital process, look for mobile-friendly bidding platforms. There are some other options as well like scanning QR codes to pledge. However, keep your attendees’ preferences in mind and try to find a balance between their experience and your team’s feature set. This is important, since the bidding and giving data will need to be synced to your CRM.
6. Running the paddle raise itself
When opening your event, it helps to set the energy high. Start with the mission statement and targets you set earlier. Here’s where the emcee does the heavy lifting. Videos and stories with emotional angles work really well at establishing a connection with your donors and creating empathy for your cause. If you have first time donors in the mix, a quick explanation of how the paddle raise works would also be helpful.
Make sure your volunteers are in place to clearly record everything. The emcee announces the levels in succession, starting with the highest one and working their way down.
Seeing major contributions right at the start might encourage the others to go beyond what they had originally planned. Make sure that the emcee acknowledges and celebrates pledges briefly for each tier before moving on to the next one.
How your staff records the pledges is up to you. You can use an app, spreadsheets, or simply pen and paper. Choose whichever would be the most convenient and accurate for your team.
7. Gratitude and stewardship
After going through all the levels, tally the total amount raised and announce it as the event draws to a close. Celebrate the impact everyone has created on the day. Tying the money raised to a tangible outcome (for example, 50 scholarships granted for struggling children, or feeding 100 people) creates even more positivity and really drives home a sense of accomplishment and giving.
After your fundraising event, follow up with your attendees to collect the pledged amounts, preferably within a day. Include key details like their paddle number, amount they pledged, and multiple payment options. Thank all the participants, regardless of whether they donated or not.
A Few Tips to Enhance Your Paddle Raise
Here are a few extra things to ensure you get the most out of your paddle raise(s):
- Pre-committing a handful of donors: Reach out to some of your long time supporters, and ask for an early commitment to a particular level, especially the higher ones. Hesitation in the opening rounds of the raise can affect the overall contributions negatively. When attendees see paddles being raised immediately even at higher tiers, it gives them confidence to donate more.
- Host it at the right time: If your paddle raise is part of a larger fundraising event (as is most common), avoid doing it right after a meal break when attendees are a bit languid, or at the very end of the event when a lot of them have left already.
- Celebrate milestones during the raise: Every time you get significantly closer to hitting the day’s target, celebrate it. For example, if your goal is to raise $30000, then announce and celebrate when the contributions reach $5000, $15000, maybe hit a gong at $25000, and so on. Also, make sure to recognize all contributions, big or small, with equal excitement.
Almabase - A Powerful Tool for Hosting Your Paddle Raise
At its core, a paddle raise is fairly simple. But behind that simplicity is a lot of manual tracking like volunteers noting down pledges, someone tallying totals, and follow-up calls or emails to actually collect what was pledged. This is usually where a platform like Almabase can take some of that load off your team.
Instead of clipboards and spreadsheets, Almabase gives you a real-time dashboard of the event as it unfolds, so pledges don't need to be re-entered after the fact. Since collecting payment is often the trickiest part, you can also capture a guest's card at registration and charge pledges automatically once the raise wraps, rather than chasing donors down individually.
A couple of other things worth mentioning: contributions can be routed straight to the fund or project they were raised for, and everything syncs directly with your CRM so your donor records stay accurate without extra data entry.
None of this replaces a great emcee or an emotionally engaged room, but it does mean less time spent staring at numbers, and more time celebrating what you raised.
Request a personalized demo to see how this would look for you!
How to run a successful paddle raise (fund-a-need) at your event
Learn what a paddle raise is, how you can run one successfully, as well as a few tips to make your paddle raise stand out.
Hari Govind
September 4, 2026
12 minutes
Modern donors expect deeply relevant, personalized communications, especially when it’s alumni hearing from their alma mater. Generic messages won’t cut it, but it can also be difficult to make your appeals stand out when you’re making the same ask every year. To develop annual fund appeal letters that drive revenue and deepen relationships, you need a strategic approach.
Annual fund appeals succeed when they have refined messaging, emotional resonance, and enough variation to win donors’ support outside of flashier, major campaigns. In this post, we’ll explore a few key ways to elevate your university’s next ask.
1. Center Authentic Student Storytelling
Donors give to people, not institutions, making personal narratives one of the most effective fundraising and marketing strategies you can use. By shifting the focus from university-wide achievements to the tangible success of individual students, you foster a direct emotional connection with your audience and demonstrate the real, lasting impact of their donations.
Instead of relying on generic asks for annual fund appeal letters, incorporate the stories of individual students and the scholarships and programs that empower them to thrive. For instance, you might share how a first-generation nursing student used a grant to complete their clinical rotations, or include a quote from a scholarship recipient about how attending your university made their dreams a reality.
No matter how you incorporate storytelling into your appeals, Meyer Partners recommends using the three R's of storytelling to make them as impactful and ethical as possible:
- Resonance: Every story should include real, humanizing details that resonate with donors. Let students tell their stories in their own words, and pair testimonials with photos whenever possible.
- Relevance: Make sure the donor can clearly understand their role in the story. Use donor-centric language that appeals directly to supporters’ values, inspiring them to become the changemakers who support the next generation of students.
- Respect: Respect both your readers and your storytellers by maintaining authenticity. Be direct and honest about what donations can achieve, and always focus on positive emotions like empowerment rather than guilt or scare tactics.
Incorporate these stories into multiple elements of your annual fund campaign to ensure maximum visibility and consistency. For example, you might include quotes from a student in your direct mail appeals, then post a selfie video of the same student telling their story on social media.
2. Highlight Impactful Giving Opportunities
To maximize revenue and increase average gift sizes, ask for more than standard, one-time cash gifts in your annual appeal letters. Offer additional giving options that provide greater flexibility and can increase donors’ long-term impact. These opportunities are often more compelling, especially for young alumni looking for accessible options and for high-capacity donors looking to make the most of their donations.
Specifically, use your annual appeals to highlight opportunities like:
Matching Gifts
The easiest way to make supporters’ donations go further is to double them. Typically, donors can double the impact of their gifts at no extra cost in one of two ways:
- Your university offers a matching donation challenge. Organizations often partner with a major donor who commits to matching every dollar donated within a set timeframe, up to a certain amount. These challenges motivate individual donors to give urgently so they don’t miss out on the match.
- Donors request corporate matching gifts from their employers. At any time, donors who work for participating companies can independently request matching donations from their workplaces. If the request meets the employer’s guidelines (e.g., a donation between $10 and $100 to a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit), they’ll match their employee’s gift.
Either way, donation matching is a powerful motivator, especially during year-end giving season. Feature matching gifts prominently in your annual fund appeals, explaining how to participate and why these donations are so impactful.
Recurring Giving
Imagine you’re a recent graduate just starting your career and trying to pay off student loans. You wouldn’t want to donate $1,000 to the university you left last year, but it might be feasible to give $20 a month. In this case, you’re much more likely to respond to an appeal that highlights recurring giving.
Recurring gifts offer a more manageable opportunity to support your university while deepening donor relationships. In your annual fund appeal letters, include the option to give monthly and provide several accessible donation tiers.
Legacy Giving
Plant the seed for long-term support by introducing planned giving and bequest options in your annual appeals, too. These avenues empower alumni to leave a lasting mark on your institution without requiring an immediate, large-scale donation.
Even if most donors aren’t ready to commit to a legacy gift right now, just including information about planned giving in your appeal can get them thinking about it. Include links in emails and QR codes in direct mail letters so supporters can easily learn more on your university’s website or request a meeting with your major gifts officer. Note each donor who shows interest in the program so you can cultivate the relationship over time.
3. Leverage Donor Data for Highly Personalized Appeals
The best fundraising strategies reflect the unique relationship each supporter has with your university. Highly personalized appeals show each donor that you value them as an individual and respect their unique contributions.
Use your donor and alumni data to tailor your asks as much as possible. Go beyond addressing recipients by their preferred names—reference their specific past involvement, giving history, and personal connections to the university. Acknowledging that an alumnus was on the debate team or that a donor consistently supports the engineering department validates their identity and gives them clear, specific reasons to give again.
Segment your donor lists in several ways to maximize relevancy, and regularly audit your donor database to ensure all contact information and engagement records are accurate before sending appeals.
If you aren’t sure how to best segment your audience, hone in on the highest-value potential donors, or match supporters with the right requests, consider professional donor analytics services. Experienced fundraising consultants who specialize in data analysis can help you optimize your strategy for this year’s annual fund appeal and well into the future.
An effective annual fund approach relies on deep personalization, authentic narratives, and a variety of flexible giving options tailored to your audience. Upgrading the underlying strategy of your communications with these tips will help you build stronger relationships with alumni and secure the financial future of your core programs.
3 Ways to Build a Better Annual Fund Appeal for Higher Ed
Asking for donations to your annual fund can feel repetitive, but your appeal letters shouldn’t be. Learn how to develop better annual fund appeals here.
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Alyssa Jefferies
September 3, 2026
12 minutes
LinkedIn continues to stay relevant for alumni outreach in 2026 as it is one of the most comprehensive self-updating directories from an advancement standpoint. Over 50% of LinkedIn’s user base holds a higher-education degree, and ~53% of US college graduates are active on the platform.
That means your alumni not only present but also likely engaging with a variety of content. But as far as reaching out to them goes, being present on LinkedIn and being reachable are two different things, and the wrong outreach strategy can disinterest or even alienate alumni.
In this blog, we’ll go through whether LinkedIn is worth your time for alumni outreach and how you can get your alumni’s attention effectively.
Is LinkedIn outreach worth the investment?
Let’s start with understanding why LinkedIn is different from the other channels
LinkedIn InMail gets a 10–25% response rate while cold email, by comparison, sits at 1–5%. The platform’s natural context is also a big factor here because when an alum receives an InMail from their alma mater, it’s in a different environment to when they’re sorting through personal emails and family messages. They log on to LinkedIn with a certain mindset, which makes them more open to professional conversations.
LinkedIn also gives outreach teams more context about who they’re reaching before they begin the process such as:
- Where an alum works currently
- What they’ve recently posted
- What groups and communities they’re in
- Who the common connections are
That’s a lot of helpful material to tailor the first message that will hopefully be the start of a donor’s journey. Combine all of this with the social media nature of the platform and you get a channel that has a lot of potential if you approach it right.
LinkedIn Alumni Outreach Strategies
Now that we’ve established that LinkedIn is at least worth a look, let’s set your team up for success so that your messages don’t go ignored.
1. Build an Active Presence Before You Send a Message
Advancement teams (and most teams in any field, to be fair) tend to treat LinkedIn outreach the same way they’d treat a cold email campaign. They find the person, write the message, hit send, and hope for the best.
But LinkedIn is, at it’s core, a social network. Your alumni notice who’s following you, who’s commenting on your posts, and whether your institution has a solid presence on the platform. If your university’s LinkedIn page hasn’t posted in months and the last post was a stock photo of a campus building, it hurts your cause already.
Before you start an outreach campaign, make sure you tick all these boxes::
- First, make sure your institution’s LinkedIn page is active. Posting once per weekday helps you reach 60% of your followers in a month. You should be aiming for consistent presence over viral content.
- Secondly, look for mutual connections, a shared connection increases reply rates by 27%. If a colleague or another alum is already connected,
- Thirdly, follow the alum you plan to message and leave a genuine comment on something they’ve posted. If possible, build and nurture your online relationship with them. You should be looking to gain a follow-back. This can be crucial since alumni who already follow your institution are 81% more likely to respond to your InMail.
2. Build a Segmented List
Use your CRM along with LinkedIn's alumni search tool to understand who you will be sending your messages to. Many alumni engagement tools also allow you to better find, segment, and automate outreach to the right people.
The segmentation itself will be crucial as personalization is a big part of making your message stand out (as we will explain later), so take your time and make sure all your segments and alumni information is updated, synced, and ready to go.
3. Get the Subject Line Right
LinkedIn InMail by default gives you a 200-character subject line limit. When an alum receives your InMail as a notification, they see roughly 25 to 40 characters before the preview cuts off.
For this reason, short, specific, and personalized subject lines can work really well. For example: “A quick question from [University]” or “Connecting with [Name] re: mentorship”.
What won’t work on the other hand, is anything that sounds like a mass email campaign. Something like “Exciting news from the alumni office!” might feel generic or may confuse recipients.
4. Keep the Message Short and Simple
LinkedIn’s own data shows that InMails under 400 characters get higher response rates. Many institutions sometimes write messages much longer than this and have their messages scrolled past.
For your first message, your alums only need enough to understand what you’re asking and if it's worth their time. If you have more context to give and more reasons to say why this outreach matters, that can follow later.
Write a ~300-character message that asks one clear question. The message can address the basics such as who you are, why you’re reaching out, and your one specific question.
5. Personalize Beyond the Name
Alumni can tell if a message was written for them or if someone just replaced a mail merge field, so you’ll want to go further than just swapping people’s first names. Here’s a few things that might help with personalization:
- Spend a couple of minutes on the alum’s profile; personalized InMails increase acceptance rates by about 40%, according to LinkedIn data. Mention a recent post they made, a project they were publicly credited for, a career transition they just went through, or a shared connection.
- Find a good natural connection between what you discover about them and what you’re reaching out about. If you’re inviting them to a career mentorship panel and they’ve been posting about early-career development, mention that. If you’re reaching out around their 10-year graduation anniversary, you definitely want to acknowledge it.
- Avoid mentioning generic and obvious things like “I see you graduated from [University].” Good personalization shows you’ve paid attention to their life after graduation and you have a brief window that you want to make the most out of, especially for less-engaged alumni.
6. Templates for Common Outreach Scenarios
Here are some templates that you could borrow and build on to personalize your next outreach message on LinkedIn:
General reconnect:
"Hi [Name], congrats on the move to [Company]. I'm on the alumni relations team at [University]. We're putting together a small group of alumni at your career stage to get some honest input on our programs. Would a 15-minute call work?"
Mentorship opportunity:
"Hi [Name], I work in alumni relations at [University]. Saw your recent post on [topic] and thought you'd be a great fit for our mentorship program. We're matching alumni with students in [field]. Would you have 30 minutes to hear more?"
Upcoming event:
"Hi [Name], I'm with alumni relations at [University]. We're hosting a small dinner for [City] alumni on [date] and wanted to make sure you were on the list. Can I send you the details?"
Giving day:
"Hi [Name], [University]'s giving day is [date]. This year all gifts are going toward [initiative]. Wanted to reach out personally before things kick off. Can I send you a bit more context on what it supports?"
What each of these has in common is one clear ask and customization that shows the sender did their homework before reaching out.
7. Time Your Outreach Well
LinkedIn data shows that Friday and Saturday see 4% and 8% fewer than average responses, respectively. Your alumni may want to relax and disconnect from the professional world on the weekends, so Monday through Thursday is a good window. However, depending on your event calendar, and past alumni engagement data, this can vary a bit so do double check!
Going back to the mentioned window, Sprout Social's analysis of nearly 2 billion engagements across major social platforms points to Tuesday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., as LinkedIn's peak activity window. That's when professionals are most actively checking and responding on the platform, so it's your best shot at being seen before your message gets buried.
8. What to Do When Alumni Reply
Your next message after an alum replies sets the tone for the entire conversation that follows and the subsequent relationship. So here’s a few things to keep in mind:
- Reply quickly, ideally within a few hours of seeing their response.
- Thank them by name and reference something specific from their reply.
- Remember that this is a conversation on a social platform.
The goal should be to establish that your team and, by extension, your institution has a real interest in keeping in touch with them after graduation. For this reason, you’ll want to:
- Find out what they’re working on.
- Ask follow-up questions.
- Make it clear that there is no immediate ask attached.
💡This doubles as an opportunity to get updated information in case their profile information hasn’t been updated in a while.
Alumni who are connected to their institution are 23 times more likely to donate than those who aren’t. That connection, however, has to be built through consistent, genuine interaction over time. So, when it’s time to make an ask, it’s coming from the context of the conversation.
Build a LinkedIn Alumni Community (and not just another contact list)
At the end of the day, one-on-one outreach can only take you so far. Advancement and alumni relations teams that are able to keep alumni engaged are also building environments where alumni feel like they want to stay engaged.
If we are sticking to the platform at hand, LinkedIn Groups are a great way to do this. You can organize alumni groups around:
- Your institution
- Graduation cohorts
- Academic departments
- Regional chapters
- Donor groups
- Matching gift opportunities
…and much much more
AdvancementForm looked at what the institutions running active alumni groups have in common. Here are the main takeaways:
- Stay active every day: Keith Hannon of Cornell University shared that two-thirds of alumni relations professionals running thriving LinkedIn communities log in daily. That includes posting, answering questions, responding to comments, and engaging with what other members are sharing.
- Give alumni the spotlight: Spotlighting a graduate's career achievement or resharing something they wrote brings their audience into your content. Even the simple act of tagging alumni where needed will ensure that their network is notified as well.
- Share career resources such as job postings, industry reads/insights, career advice for alumni at different stages and make sure they are updated frequently. This is the content that consistently performs well as it provides a clear reason to engage.
- Mix up your content formats: Posts with images get a 98% higher comment rate than those without, and posts with YouTube videos (that play directly in the feed) get a 75% higher share rate. Varying your formats will keep the feed from feeling like a broadcast channel.
- Ask alumni to help current students: Academic Impressions flags this as an especially meaningful way to engage alumni because it gives them an opportunity to give back give back, even without a financial element. Posting something like "What do you wish someone told you in your first year in [industry]?" gets replies from alumni who would otherwise never comment on, say, an event announcement.
- Run polls: Lebanon Valley College asked their alumni "What career field are you currently in or looking to enter?" and it sparked a lively, ongoing discussion among their alumni. Polls can be a great icebreaker and contextualizing them to recent events, career stages, or other segmented needs is even better!
- Add in the nostalgia angle: Questions and posts about campus memories or institutional history give alumni interactive content that serves as a break on their feed from the usual LinkedIn content while also reminding them of why they feel connected to their school.
Finally, if you're thinking about content ratios, keep it weighted toward value-first content, career resources, alumni recognition, and conversation, with campaigns and event promotion playing a supporting role, not leading the feed.
Measure Your Progress and Know Your Blind Spots
You need to know whether your efforts are paying off. So, if you’re running structured outreach campaign on LinkedIn, here are the metrics which will help you track what's working:
- Connection acceptance rate: You generally want to aim for ~20% or above. If you're below that, check whether you're warming up contacts before sending requests and whether your institution's page looks active and credible.
- InMail response rate: With personalized, well-targeted outreach, this should sit between 10–25%. Single-digit numbers are an indication to look at your message length, your subject line preview, and how specific your personalization is.
- Conversation-to-action rate: This tracks what percentage of replies converts into whatever your goal is, whether that’s an event registration, a scheduled call, or a gift.
The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) tracks alumni engagement across four modes: philanthropic, volunteer, experiential, and communications.
LinkedIn activity can feed into your experiential and communications metrics. If you’re not tracking LinkedIn engagement as part of your overall alumni engagement scorecard, you should consider starting now.
A few common blind spots that can be avoided include:
- Reaching out only when there's an ask: If alumni only hear from you around giving day or annual fund season, the outreach feels transactional. Only 27% of alumni who donate give to their alma mater. The most common reason others don't give is because they don't feel connected enough to make it a priority.
- Writing LinkedIn messages like emails: Avoid long messages, formal language, attached PDFs when LinkedIn is conversational. Keep messages short, and the tone conversational.Save the documents for follow-up conversations.
- Ignoring alumni who engage with your posts: When an alum comments on something your institution shared, respond to them, thank them by name, and if appropriate, send a connection request with a brief personal note referencing what they said.
- Not knowing what comes next when someone replies: Replying to a message without a clear next step might waste the opening you had spent time and effort on. Know what you’re trying to accomplish before you send the first message so that when someone replies, you’re ready to take the conversation forward.
Final Thoughts
We hope we’ve been able to give you and your team plenty of things to keep in mind. While LinkedIn outreach may seem like a simple game of numbers at first glance, any outreach campaigns involving social media rarely tend to be so predictable and you definitely want to keep that in mind.
To wrap things up, keep personalization (and segmentation by extension) at the heart of your strategy, have a consistent presence on LinkedIn just as you probably do with Facebook or Instagram, and make sure you are thinking about how to take the conversation forward many weeks ahead of time so that alumni feel appreciated after reacting to your outreach.
If you are looking for an alumni engagement platform to help you plan, execute, and measure your alumni outreach and engagement strategy, Almabase is built just for that so feel free to book a personalized demo with us!
How to Reach Out to Alumni on LinkedIn and Get Responses
Our article takes you through LinkedIn alumni outreach and how your team or institution can ensure that your alumni don't ignore your messages.
Prajnya Yelamali
September 2, 2026
12 minutes
In the ever-evolving landscape of higher education advancement, the role of technology is more critical than ever. If you’re an advancement professional, you likely rely on various software solutions to manage your database, organize events, raise funds, and engage with your community. It’s a given that having the right technology in place can streamline your day-to-day operations, enhance your effectiveness, and improve constituent engagement and fundraising outcomes.
However, many institutions find themselves grappling with tools that, rather than simplifying processes, introduce complexities that consume valuable time and resources. The irony is palpable: while we invest in technology to solve problems, we often end up spending more time troubleshooting and managing these tools than actually leveraging them to achieve our goals.
This raises a crucial question: Are your current tools truly helping you, or are they slowing you down?
Consider these potential signs of outdated technology:
1. Excessive Manual Work: If your team spends significant time on tasks that could be automated - such as updating contact information, processing donations, or compiling reports manually - it may indicate a need for more efficient systems.
2. Fragmented Data: When information is scattered across multiple platforms, it can lead to inconsistencies and a lack of a unified view of your constituents' engagement.
3. Limited Personalization: In an era where personalized experiences are expected, just a "Hi {FirstName}" may no longer suffice. Modern constituents often expect more tailored interactions.
4. Missed Engagement Signals: Outdated systems may fail to capture important signals like website visits, social media interactions, and event participation - valuable indicators of constituent interest and potential donor behavior.
5. Staff Frustration: If your team spends more time troubleshooting technology than focusing on core tasks, it can lead to reduced productivity and morale.
Modern advancement tools offer solutions to these challenges, providing:
• Seamless data integration across systems
• Advanced personalization capabilities
• Automated tracking of engagement metrics
• AI-powered predictive analytics for donor identification
• User-friendly interfaces that free up staff time for strategic tasks
While the prospect of upgrading technology can seem daunting, the long-term benefits often outweigh the short-term challenges of implementation. Institutions that embrace modern engagement tools frequently report improved efficiency, enhanced constituent relationships, and better fundraising outcomes.
To explore this topic in greater depth, we've prepared a comprehensive ebook: "Hidden Costs of Sticking with Outdated Technology." Here’s what you can takeaway:
- The true cost of maintaining outdated systems
- The advantages of modern advancement tech
- Strategies for overcoming resistance to change
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Are Your Engagement Tools Slowing You Down?
Are Your Alumni Engagement Tools Slowing You Down? Discover How to Streamline and Boost Productivity!
Alumni Engagement
As humans, we are attracted to narratives. It helps us make sense of the world and connect the dots in things we see and hear about. Storytelling has also become an important aspect of fundraising. Potential donors understandably need a good reason to contribute. Nonprofits that use storytelling in their fundraising efforts have a donor retention rate of 45? That's compared to 27% for organizations that do not focus on storytelling. In this blog, we’d like to equip you with the know-how to turn storytelling into a key part of your next fundraiser.
Is Storytelling in Fundraising Worth It?
Instead of simply explaining it, we’d like to provide a couple of examples for you to feel the impact of storytelling:
1. University of San Francisco
The University of San Francisco has applied the power of storytelling since 2015 as part of their $300 million comprehensive campaign. By sharing authentic stories about philanthropy, they have engaged more audiences, especially alumni and donors, as they move towards the public phase of the campaign. In 2016 and 2017, the philanthropy stories consistently had a higher readership than other university news, demonstrating the effectiveness of their storytelling approach. Read more about it here.
2. John Crosland School
The John Crosland School in California successfully reinvented its fundraising gala by shifting the focus of the event from being about the school to being all about the kids. They included anecdotes about the kids, their struggles, and their accomplishments in the event program. During the event, they started talking about how the school’s mission would improve the children’s future. During the gala and throughout the dinner, they had pictures of the students rolling on a slideshow. Read more about it here.
These examples are just a small glimpse into the power of storytelling. But how do you reach that point where storytelling gives you the impact you otherwise could? Let’s start by segmenting and personalizing your engagement with your potential donors.
Before You Tell Your Story: Segmentation and Personalization
Each alumnus is different, and they are much more likely to donate to a cause that resonates with their work or personal interests. This is where segmentation comes in. To put it plainly, segmentation is the process of creating specific groups of target audiences so you engage them in a way they would prefer. Let’s take an example:
Telling Your Story: What Goes Into It
There are countless ways you can tell your story to make it special, but for now let’s take a look at the essential bits. We took some inspiration from this insightful article by Ioan Marc Jones for Charity Digital to outline some of the basic components of a good fundraiser story:
- Setting: It’s an easy choice to have your story set around your institution’s location. However, depending on the story you are going for, try to mix things up. You generally want to show the location of your impact. If you are raising funds to buy lab equipment for an upcoming science fair, try to include scenes set in your laboratory and use videos or photos from similar events from the past.
- Characters: Whether your characters are from your advancement team or a spotlight on a donor, they provide you a great opportunity to make your story relatable. Ioan suggests having characters in action or showing character development. Your audience resonates with your characters succeeding, struggling, overcoming challenges, and feeling the impact of your efforts.
- Plot: The plot is where you can get creative and tell the narrative you want to. There are two time-proven parts to any good plot:
- Conflict: The problem that your fundraiser is aiming to help alleviate. Let’s say you are fundraising for your college’s soccer team. Showcase how the problem areas, such as lack of equipment or proper infrastructure, have impacted them in the past. Are any interested students or players willing to share their frustrations?
- Resolution: How can your fundraiser help solve the conflict? Are there any early actions being taken that you can highlight? Taking the same example above, if you could include a video where staff members are discussing plans to help the soccer team, that would show your potential donors that this is something in the works that they can help become a reality.
Remember that all things need to lead back to why you are reaching out to your alumni for a fundraiser in the first place. Tie things up by talking about how your fundraiser will help provide the ideal ending before directing them to your CTAs.
Where Should Your Alumni See Your Story?
Today, advancement teams have a wide array of mediums and platforms to promote their fundraisers. That means there’s just as much choice when it comes to the stories. Our recommendation is to take advantage of all the channels available to you while focusing on your segmented target audiences. A good starting point is to consider your demographics. For example, Gen X and older generations may prefer written communication through email much more than younger generations, who are more open to social media and mobile platforms. Remember that which channel you use forms a part of your storytelling.
Your Alumni Are Interested. Now What?
Today, a simple donate button won’t always cut it. You can take it a step further by helping your potential donors make an informed decision they will be happy with. Give clear objectives or milestones wherever you can. Let’s say you are fundraising for a mentorship program. Mention how long the mentorship will be, and whether you can guarantee opportunities based on it, or even further plans based on success.
Finally, ensure that your donors do not get left on an island. Keep them updated. Provide milestone updates. Celebrate your successes with them and inform them of any notable updates. Invite them for a big launch or send gifts. After all, the ultimate goal is to bring alumni closer to their alma mater.
This proactive approach to fundraising also creates better opportunities in the future. You could build online communities based on donor segments, a great source of user-generated stories. Satisfied donors who are kept engaged don’t just contribute to great stories but are also more likely to donate in the future.
We hope we have given you a decent broad overview of the power of storytelling in fundraising and how you, too, can use it to make your donors feel truly connected to your efforts.
The Power of Storytelling in Fundraising and How to Master It
Organizations have taken advantage of storytelling for decades. We’d like to equip you with the know-how to make storytelling a key part of your fundraisers.
Fundraising
In 2019, CASE introduced the Alumni Engagement Metrics survey, now known as CASE Insights on Alumni Engagement. This initiative was designed to help institutions measure alumni engagement across four key areas: Philanthropic, Volunteer, Experiential, and Communications. The goal was simple—provide a straightforward way to capture various types of alumni engagement annually.
Fast forward five years, and it’s time to reflect on how well we’ve implemented these metrics. Are we truly using the data to drive decisions and improve engagement strategies? Or are we just scratching the surface of what’s possible?
To effectively track and utilize alumni engagement data, having the right technology in place is crucial. Without it, gathering data from multiple sources, analyzing it, and making sense of it all becomes a daunting task. The right tech solutions allow us to automate data collection, integrate various data points seamlessly, and generate insightful analytics. Without these tools, we’re left guessing rather than making data-driven decisions.
But it’s not just about having the right tools. Another significant challenge is dealing with multiple systems that don’t communicate with each other, leading to data silos. When data is stored in separate, disconnected systems, it’s nearly impossible to get a comprehensive view of alumni engagement. This fragmentation leads to inefficiencies, inconsistencies, and missed opportunities to engage with alumni in meaningful ways.
Here’s how almabase simplifies tracking, reporting, and analyzing alumni engagement metrics:
1) Identify and categorize key touchpoints:
Almabase lets you easily track all the meaningful interactions alumni have with your institution. Whether you're running a mentorship program, planning a homecoming event, or hosting a giving day, you can identify and categorize touchpoints that matter most to you. You can even customize these touchpoints to fit your needs—like tracking who viewed an event page, opened an email, or made a donation. With Almabase, all this data is automatically captured and organized, making it easy to see the full picture without any manual data entry.
2. Dive deeper with granular segmentation:
Almabase’s robust reporting tools allow you to generate specific reports with custom filters, so you can get as detailed as you need. Whether it's seeing who engaged with a particular campaign or tracking participation in events, you have the power to create reports that give you the insights you need. Plus, with pre-populated reports ready to use, you can hit the ground running without any extra hassle.
3. Create custom program reports:
Almabase makes it simple to see how all your digital engagement initiatives are performing with custom program reports. In just three steps, you can tie together all your data—select your audience, choose what to track (emails, events, forms, etc.), and define what counts as participation. This way, you get a clear view of how each effort contributes to your overall goals.
4) Benchmark your progress:
Almabase also helps you understand how your engagement efforts compare to those of other institutions. By leveraging AI-driven data from peer institutions, you can see where you stand and identify areas for improvement. These insights are based on factors like institution type and contactable record size, helping you refine your strategies based on what’s working well for others.
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With Almabase, you have everything you need to track, analyze, and improve your alumni engagement efforts, all in one place. Whether you’re looking to simplify data collection, generate detailed insights, or benchmark against peers, Almabase makes it easy.
How Almabase Empowers You to Track Alumni Engagement Metrics
Identify and categorize key touchpoints, dive deeper with granular segmentation, create custom program reports, and benchmark your progress with Almabase to increase alumni engagement and drive results.
Alumni Engagement
In today’s digital-first world, having a well-designed, functional website is crucial for educational institutions. Often, institutions using outdated tools lack the flexibility, aesthetics, brand consistency, and functionality required to meet the expectations of today’s digital-savvy users.
Almabase now offers a powerful integration with WordPress, the world’s most popular content management system (CMS). This integration allows institutions to enhance their online presence with a highly customizable website while ensuring top-notch security and seamless support. This level of customization is crucial for standing out in a crowded digital landscape and ensuring that your website truly reflects your institution’s identity.
In this blog, we’ll explore what this integration entails, the benefits it offers, and the design services available to help you create a website that truly reflects your institution’s identity across all your webpages.
Seamless Integration with WordPress: What’s Included?
By default, Almabase comes with a default homepage with essential customization options like color schemes and logos to align with your school’s branding.
WordPress integration is a game changer for institutions that want advanced customization and flexibility. It unlocks advanced customization options, allowing you to either modify the default theme or create a unique theme tailored to your institution’s specific needs. This means you can fully leverage WordPress’s vast ecosystem of themes, plugins, and design tools to build a website that stands out.
Here are a few examples of our customers' WordPress pages:
1. Washburn University Alumni Association and Foundation
2. Illinois Institute of Technology
3. Punahou School
Furthermore, all the features unlocked by the integration are available to every user at no additional charge. Whether you choose to customize the theme yourself or build a new one from scratch, you have the freedom to create a website that perfectly aligns with your institution’s branding guidelines.
For institutions that prioritize branding but may lack the time or staff to handle website design, Almabase offers professional design services to help bring your vision to life.
• Homepage Development: Whether you want to redesign your homepage or replicate another reference site, we offer tailored services to meet your needs.
• Internal Page Design: Help you create custom pages that resonate with your audience.
• Page Template Design: Help you build reusable templates that simplify content updates.
For users with or without WordPress experience
Whether you're familiar with WordPress or new to the platform, Almabase’s integration has you covered.
For Users with WordPress Experience:
1. Start with the default WordPress theme offered by Almabase.
2. Customize the branding, update the design of the header and footer, and modify the content of the homepage to highlight key programs.
3. Take advantage of features like:
• Access to Elementor Pro, a popular WordPress page builder
• WordPress front page customization
• Header and footer customization
• Access to paid plugins, like social media feeds
• Using WordPress for internal pages and posts
If you prefer, you can also purchase additional design services to replicate styling from another website or to assist with content migration.
For Users without WordPress Experience:
1. Start with the default WordPress theme offered by Almabase.
2. Easily add, remove, or modify content to reflect the key programs you want to highlight.
3. If needed, purchase additional design services to assist with styling replication and content migration, ensuring your website meets your expectations.
Regardless of your experience level, Almabase’s WordPress integration offers the customization flexibility you need to create a website that reflects your institution’s identity.
Robust Security & Compliance
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Infrastructure
• Isolation: WordPress is installed in a separate, isolated virtual network, completely disconnected from Almabase’s production environment.
• Network Security: All workloads in the WordPress cluster use network security groups and appropriate firewall rules. Internet traffic is managed through gateway servers, allowing only HTTP(s) traffic.
Data Security
• Encryption at Rest: Data and OS disks are encrypted at rest using Azure Disk Storage Server-Side Encryption.
• Encryption in Transit: Data is encrypted in transit using TLS v1.2 or above, with HTTP requests redirected to HTTPS.
Data Backup and Recovery
• Regular Backups: Customized WordPress pages are backed up regularly to ensure quick recovery in the event of data loss.
Security Testing
• Routine Checks: We conduct regular security assessments and internal hackathons to identify and address potential vulnerabilities.
Application Security
• Restricted Access: Only authenticated users can access WordPress sites. Non-internet access from the WordPress cluster to the production cluster is disabled.
Almabase’s integration with WordPress provides institutions with an unmatched opportunity to create a highly customized, secure, and professional website. Whether you’re new to WordPress or an experienced user, Almabase offers the tools and support you need to build a site that enhances your alumni engagement efforts. With our expert support and robust security measures, you can focus on what matters most—building lasting connections with your alumni community.
How Almabase's Advanced Branding and Customization Set You Apart with WordPress Integration
Discover how Almabase's WordPress integration empowers educational institutions with advanced branding and customization, enhancing your online presence and meeting modern digital expectations.
Product updates
From one-person teams to well-staffed offices, advancement, and alumni relations teams today take a variety of sizes and forms. The advancement space has never really had a frame of reference for what an ideal team should look like, as institutions can vary wildly in size and resources.
By looking back at the past several years, we would like to provide some characteristics that every forward-thinking advancement team today should look to incorporate in their approach to have a successful alumni program.
What Do We Mean by a “Modern” Team?
Ideally, an advancement team today should consist of people who are agile, data-driven, and technologically adept. They also need to have a good understanding of the evolving needs of a wide range of alumni. The pandemic and post-pandemic scenarios highlighted the need for teams that can innovate and ditch tradition when needed. Modern teams are ideally driven by digital tools and data analytics to make informed decisions, personalize interaction engagement, and be able to collaborate with other teams effortlessly.
If that all seems a bit too ideal, that is because, for many teams, it often is. The ideal modern advancement team takes years to develop to the level that they can reach, and it takes even more consistency to stay at that level. Below, we’ll break down some of the key components and pitfalls on the road to reaching your advancement team’s true potential.
Essential Parts of Every Modern Advancement Team
Here are some things that you can look to incorporate. Remember that there is no one-size-fits-all all for advancement and that these are just the basics that you need to watch out for as you map your team’s journey:
• The right tool(s): Whether you are just starting to consider your long-term tools, or have some you have been using for a while, you need to choose the right tools. Take into account the resources, staff size, and staff expertise available to you
• Data-driven approach: Data is at the heart of most if not all alumni-centric communication, engagement, fundraisers, and so much more today. Having a reliable database and a CRM to make the most of your data is crucial for any modern advancement team. If you see your alumni base increasing exponentially in the future, you need to have the right infrastructure to scale alongside it as well.
• A Strong Global Alumni Network: A silver lining for advancement teams that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic was the shift towards virtual and hybrid alumni engagement. The trends from that period have been carried over today to engage local, national, as well as international alumni to form strong global networks filled with regional enclaves of well-engaged alumni.
• Scalable Personalized Engagement: While personalization has become a core part of any alumni program, communicating with alumni while having personalization efforts that can scale with an increasing number of alumni is another issue that institutions are currently tackling. From segmentation and automation to collecting feedback, ensure that your institution’s alumni engagement is not just personalized but also able to personalize a growing alumni base meaningfully.
• Omnichannel Capabilities: Alumni nowadays expect some level of value even if they are located halfway around the world. Routine webinars alone will no longer do to engage these alumni segments. Modern advancement teams need to be able to take advantage of physical, online, and hybrid channels simultaneously and importantly, make each channel feed an overall goal. For example, how can you engage remote alumni in a way they feel equally as valued as your local alumni? Are you just relying on social media to reach them, or are you making communities, providing opportunities, and constantly making them feel just as appreciated?
• Providing Diverse Engagement Opportunities: Providing value lies at the heart of any modern advancement strategy. Your team needs to be aware of upcoming trends to freshen up and diversify your offerings. If an alumni is excited about publishing their first research paper, an email will help. But if you also invited them for a guest lecture or in a workshop panel, they might feel even more appreciated.
• Adaptability: Over the past few years, the pandemic and the constant fears of economic recessions have made clear the need for advancement teams to adapt to both expected and unexpected changes. With AI usage on the rise, it also raises the question of adapting to new technology and whether it is worth it. These are questions any competent advancement teams today will need to be on top of and make the right call on.
Pitfalls to Watch Out For
While aiming to be data-centric, your advancement team must have a thought-out data strategy that can handle alumni data for years to come. When it comes to having a data strategy, it is usually the sooner the better as data is always being added or modified as time goes.
We also cannot stress enough the importance of having tools that communicate well with each other. Having multiple tools or features is well and good until they all present a piece of the puzzle that you have to put together manually each time. Any new additions to your online toolset must be integrated into a well-connected software environment. This also gives your staff a good overview of where they are as a team and as an institution.
A common and perhaps under evaluated problem is how strategies and long-term planning are always talked about when the reality is often that advancement staff often get caught up in an endless loop of daily tasks and don’t get enough time to strategize creative initiatives. In a space where creativity can really engage alumni, it is important that your staff have time for both their daily tasks as well as to innovate.
Finally, it is important to know when to be stubborn and when to take a new path. Take periodic checks on the products you use and if they still fit your needs. Do the update cycles of the provider fit your needs? What do your staff think about their experiences within the past quarter? Will your current set of tools fit your needs in the next 5 years? These are just a few examples of questions that you need to keep asking yourself to stay on top of your game.
Ultimately, the goal is to create a dynamic, responsive advancement team that can effectively support your institution's mission while providing genuine value to your alumni community. Remember that alumni want an authentic human connection to their alma mater. A modern advancement team simply uses the best strategies and tools to build and maintain that connection.
What Makes a Modern Advancement Team?
We compiled our learning from the past several years to give you a quick look at what a modern advancement team should look and function like in this blog.
Fundraising
The past decade has seen data become a focal point across all industries, and that is no different for alumni relations and advancement services today. Your institution might already have a well-built CRM system that ensures you have up-to-date information on your alumni and events. In this blog, we’ll take a look at how data today can not just contribute but drive a successful fundraising campaign.
The Essentials
Your data is only as useful as your overall strategy. Before you can have a truly data-driven fundraising campaign, you need to make sure your institution has the right parts:
- Robust Database: Your centralized source for all records and data. Your database should include detailed records of alumni interactions, past donations, and demographic information. Depending on your current setup, you may already have all you need or you may need some additional features. It is crucial to remember that your database is the heart of any data-driven campaign, fundraising or not.
- Data Management Tools: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems are the interface with which your staff uses your database. It is important to have a CRM that is intuitive, flexible to new features and needs, and easy to use for staff members. With some experience, these tools can help you automate processes and enhance user experiences for both staff and alumni.
- Clear Objectives: As an institution, you will need a solid idea of what key objectives you want to target as this will decide which data you collect and analyze. Keep in mind the database infrastructure available to you as well as the size and capabilities of your staff.
What Kind of Data Should You Consider Collecting?
To maximize the effectiveness of your fundraising campaigns, you need to collect a variety of data that provides insights into your alumni's behaviors, preferences, and giving potential. Here are some of the commonly collected types of data for fundraisers:
• Demographic Data: This includes basic information such as age, gender, location, and graduation year. Demographic data helps you segment your audience and tailor your messaging to specific groups.
• Engagement Data: Track how alumni interact with your institution. This could include event attendance, email open rates, social media interactions, and website visits. Engagement data helps you identify highly active alumni who may be more likely to donate.
• Giving History: Understanding an alum's past donation behavior is critical. This includes the frequency, amount, and timing of their donations.
• Interest and Affinity Data: Collect information on what causes or programs your alumni care about. This can be gathered through surveys, social media, or past donations. Interest data allows you to create targeted campaigns that resonate with specific donor interests.
• Real-Time Insights: Real-time data refers to information that is available immediately, as events occur. This can include monitoring web traffic, social media interactions, or live updates from email campaigns. The advantage of real-time data is that it allows you to respond quickly to donor actions. For instance, if an alum shows interest in a particular fundraising campaign by clicking a link in an email, you can follow up with personalized content or a phone call shortly thereafter.
• Intent Data or Intent Signals: Intent data provides insights into the likelihood of a donor making a future gift based on their current behavior. This data is collected from various touchpoints, including website visits, content downloads, and email interactions. For example, if a donor frequently visits your scholarship donation page, this could indicate a strong intent to give toward that cause. With this knowledge, you can prioritize outreach to these high-intent donors, increasing your chances of securing a donation.
Making the Most of Your Data
Once you've collected the data you’ll need, the next step is implementation. Here’s how to effectively put your data to work:
• Segmentation: Use your database to segment alumni into groups based on giving history, demographics, and engagement. Tailor your messaging to resonate with each group’s interests.
• Donor Journey Mapping: Map out the typical donor journey for each segment. Understand the touchpoints and interactions that lead to increased giving. Use this information to optimize the donor experience.
• Personalization: Craft personalized communication strategies. Address alumni by name and reference their past interactions with the institution to create a more engaging experience.
• Targeted Campaigns: Develop specific campaigns for different segments. For example, create a campaign focused on younger alumni that highlights the impact of their contributions on current students.
• Predictive Modeling: If you have the resources for it, you can also use predictive analytics to identify potential major donors and forecast future giving trends. This allows you to focus your resources on the most promising prospects and plan your campaigns more strategically.
Data Visualization
Data visualization is essential for making complex data more accessible and actionable. By presenting data in visual formats like charts, graphs, and dashboards, you can quickly identify trends, patterns, and outliers.
Effective data visualization will benefit your staff at all stages of any fundraiser. For example, instead of donations received over the past 5 years, your staff may benefit from being able to view donations received from fundraisers in the summer season specifically. This is just an example and what you need and how you can implement it may vary wildly depending on your CRM.
Turning Data into Fundraising Success
It would be a shame to have all the parts you need only for it to not work as intended. Once you have the data you need and know how you would like to use them, it is time to ensure that your approach is optimized for efficiency. Here are some things to always keep in mind at every stage of your fundraiser:
• Are you using the right kind of tool for your institution?
• Do you need any additional tools or feature upgrades for your fundraiser?
• Is your data centralized? If not, can you get centralized reports from your tools?
• Are your tools/features communicating with each other well?
The key takeaway is that you need to have the right tools and a data strategy to tie it all together. If you are using multiple tools that do not communicate well with each other, you will be wasting time and efficiency when the same set of tools or features could have given you a perfect overview of all your campaigns with just a little bit more planning.
Maximizing Donations with Data-Driven Fundraising Campaigns
What goes into a truly data-driven fundraiser? What kind of data do you need to collect? How can you use that data effectively? All this and more in our blog.
Fundraising
When it comes to personalization, we all know that a simple “Hi, {{${first_name}}}” is no longer enough. It involves understanding their interests, history with the institution, and current needs to deliver relevant and timely communication
While the topic of personalizing alumni engagement is no longer new to any of us, scaling personalization efforts is an increasingly important follow-up problem that needs solving. With thousands of alumni across different backgrounds, locations, and careers, how can institutions create a truly tailored experience for each individual?
In this blog, we’ll explore some strategies and tools that can help institutions scale their alumni engagement personalization efforts.
Strategies for Personalizing Alumni Engagement at Scale
1. Segment Your Alumni Base
Start by segmenting your alumni based on various criteria such as graduation year, degree program, geographic location, and past engagement levels. Advanced segmentation can also include career fields, personal interests, and giving history. By creating detailed alumni profiles, you can tailor your messages to resonate with specific groups. If you already have all the required information you need, make sure that it is organized effectively for analytics tools to read from.
2. Leverage Data and Analytics
Utilize data analytics to gain insights into alumni behavior and preferences. This includes tracking event attendance, email open rates, social media interactions, and donation patterns. Let’s say you noticed that 30% of your alumni have browsed the mentorship program but haven't enrolled. With this insight, you can send targeted emails highlighting the benefits of joining, featuring success stories, and offering a simple sign-up process to boost participation. Analytics can help identify trends and identify gaps or pain points in your engagement strategy, allowing for more targeted and effective communication.
3. Automate Personalized Communications
Invest in a robust CRM system that supports automation. Automated workflows today can trigger very well-personalized messages based on alumni actions or milestones. For example, an automated email congratulating an alum on their promotion could have details on their employer, how long they’ve been there, what roles they’ve worked there, and also mention any institution events or resources that they might be interested in.
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4. Personalize Content
Customize the content of your communications to align with alumni interests and engagement history. This could involve sharing news about specific academic departments, highlighting alumni success stories in relevant industries, or inviting them to events in their area based on their availability. Personalization should extend to all touchpoints, including emails, social media, and direct mail.
5. Use Dynamic Content
Dynamic content allows you to tailor the information presented to each alum based on their profile. For example, an email newsletter can have different sections that change according to the recipient’s interests or past interactions. This ensures that each alum receives content that is most relevant to them.
6. Offer Personalized Engagement Opportunities
Provide alumni with engagement opportunities that match their interests and availability. This could include virtual events, mentorship programs, volunteer opportunities, or exclusive alumni groups depending on their professions, years of experience, past participation, etc. By offering a variety of options, you cater to diverse preferences and increase overall participation.
7. Engage Through Multiple Channels
Different alumni prefer different communication channels. While some may prefer emails, others might be more active on social media or prefer text messages. Use a multi-channel approach to ensure you reach alumni where they are most comfortable and likely to engage. Be sure to maintain an active presence and make your institution as approachable as possible.
8. Gather Feedback and Iterate
Surprisingly, 52% of alumni organizations have never conducted a survey of their alumni. Regularly seek feedback from your alumni to understand what’s working and what’s not. Surveys, focus groups, and direct conversations can provide valuable insights. Use this feedback to continuously refine and improve your personalization strategies.
Choosing the Right Tools to Support Scalable Personalization
Most modern alumni engagement tools today support personalization to a good extent. However, you need to think of a long-term strategy when you consider scalability. [Whether you prefer to work with an integrated tool or multiple best-in-class tools], you need to make sure that it fits in with your existing systems and staff. Products/software such as Almabase also give you the choice of choosing a few features to complement your setup such as [automated emails], as well as a modular approach if you want something more extensive. If you plan to build a platform that your alumni will love engaging with, you need tools that centralize data, create effective segments, and enable personalized communication at scale, streamlining your engagement efforts.
Today, making your efforts at personalizing alumni engagement scalable is not only possible but also essential for building lasting relationships and fostering a loyal alumni community. By taking advantage of data, automation, and strategic segmentation, institutions can deliver tailored experiences that enhance engagement, drive participation, and strengthen the bond between alumni and their alma mater.
How can you personalize alumni engagement at scale?
Every institution knows the value of personalizing alumni engagement. But how can you scale your personalization efforts as your alumni base grows?
Alumni Engagement
Before we get into the HOW, let’s look at the WHY.
Blanket messaging no longer works in today’s era of personalized communication. Alumni want to feel that their connection with their alma mater is meaningful and tailored to them. By segmenting alumni, you can
- Tailor your messaging to align with alumni interests, needs, and experiences.
- Improve engagement rates by sending relevant content that resonates with each group.
- Enhance donor experience by making them feel valued and understood, which increases the likelihood of giving.
- Maximize fundraising results by targeting the right alumni with the right message at the right time.
Now, let’s explore the various ways to segment alumni and how this can supercharge your fundraising efforts.
1. Segment by Graduation Year
One of the simplest ways to segment alumni is by their graduation year or class year. This allows you to tailor communications to different generations of alumni, addressing their unique concerns and perspectives.
Why it works: Alumni from different eras have distinct experiences with the institution and likely have different capacities and interests when it comes to giving. Younger alumni may need more nurturing before becoming donors, while older alumni might be more financially stable and ready to make significant contributions.
How to use it: Create targeted messages for specific generations. For example, for recent graduates, focus on career support or networking opportunities. For older alumni, focus on legacy giving, reunion events, or updates on how the institution has grown since their time there.
2. Segment by Engagement Level
Not all alumni have the same level of connection with your institution. Some may be actively involved, attending events, volunteering, or giving regularly, while others may have limited or no engagement since graduation. Segmenting alumni by their level of involvement allows you to prioritize your efforts where they’ll have the most impact.
Why it works: Engaged alumni are more likely to contribute financially because they already have a strong connection to your institution. By identifying those who are less engaged, you can also develop strategies to re-engage them and turn them into potential donors.
How to use it: Break alumni into tiers such as highly engaged, moderately engaged, and inactive. For highly engaged alumni, you can focus on major giving campaigns or leadership opportunities. For less engaged alumni, offer opportunities to reconnect, such as attending events, joining regional chapters, or participating in mentorship programs.
3. Segment by Geographic Location
Where alumni live plays a significant role in their ability to attend events, contribute to local initiatives, or participate in fundraising campaigns. By segmenting alumni based on location, you can create region-specific appeals and engagement opportunities.
Why it works: Alumni are more likely to participate in activities and donate to causes that are locally relevant to them. Whether it’s hosting a local event or showcasing the impact of alumni contributions in their community, geography-based segmentation can create a more personal connection.
How to use it: Identify geographic clusters of alumni and tailor your communications accordingly. For example, alumni living in major cities might be invited to regional events or gatherings, while alumni living abroad might receive updates on international initiatives or virtual engagement opportunities.
4. Segment by Career/Professional Interests
Another effective way to segment alumni is by their career or professional interests. Understanding what alumni do professionally helps you tailor your fundraising efforts to appeal to their passions, industries, or expertise.
Why it works: Alumni are more likely to give if they feel that their contribution will make an impact on the areas they care most about. For instance, if you know that a segment of alumni works in healthcare, you can appeal to them by highlighting fundraising campaigns that support health-related programs or research.
How to use it: Use career data to identify key segments such as healthcare professionals, entrepreneurs, educators, or tech industry leaders. You can then personalize your outreach with relevant projects, opportunities, or networking events that align with the alumni’s professional interests.
5. Segment by Giving History
Alumni who have donated in the past are valuable prospects for future campaigns. Segmenting alumni based on their giving history allows you to tailor your messaging to past donors differently from non-donors.
Why it works: Past donors are more likely to give again, especially if they’ve had a positive experience with your institution. By acknowledging their previous contributions and showing the impact of their donations, you can increase the likelihood of repeat giving.
How to use it: Create segments for first-time donors, repeat donors, and non-donors. For first-time donors, send personalized thank-you messages and show how their gift made a difference. For repeat donors, offer opportunities to increase their impact through matching gift programs or major giving. For non-donors, consider sharing stories of how alumni support has driven significant change at the institution.
6. Segment by Affinities and Interests
Alumni who were involved in specific activities, clubs, or academic programs often maintain a strong connection to those areas post-graduation. By segmenting alumni based on their affinities and interests, you can tap into their passion for a particular cause or community within the institution.
Why it works: Alumni are more likely to contribute to areas that hold personal significance, such as the athletic program they were part of, the student organization they led, or the academic department that shaped their career path.
How to use it: Leverage affinity data to create targeted campaigns for athletics, arts, specific academic programs, or other affinity groups. For example, if an alumnus was involved in the music program, consider asking for their support in funding scholarships or facilities for the arts.
💡 Discover how American University fosters stronger connections through alumni affinity groups and networks [Read more]
7. Segment by Wealth/Capacity
Another powerful segmentation method is to assess the wealth or giving capacity of your alumni. Understanding their financial ability can help you tailor your asks and ensure you’re approaching alumni with appropriate, respectful appeals.
Why it works: Tailoring your ask to someone’s giving capacity ensures that you’re not asking for too much or too little, increasing the chances of a positive response.
How to use it: For those with higher capacity, focus on major gifts, planned giving, or naming opportunities. For alumni with lower capacity, emphasize smaller, recurring gifts that add up over time or suggest other ways they can contribute, such as volunteering.
8. Segment by Life Stage
Alumni at different stages in their lives may have different priorities, capacities, and interests when it comes to giving. By segmenting alumni based on their life stages, such as young professionals, mid-career professionals, retirees, or parents of current students, you can create more relatable and appealing messages.
Why it works: Alumni in different life stages have different motivations. A young alum may be interested in networking or career support, while a retiree may be more focused on leaving a legacy or giving back to future generations of students.
How to use it: Tailor your campaigns to life stages. For young alumni, emphasize career support or paying it forward. For mid-career professionals, focus on networking opportunities or targeted programs. For older alumni, highlight legacy giving or opportunities to make a lasting impact through scholarships or endowments.
Manually creating these segments can be time-consuming and increase the workload. That’s why it’s crucial to have the right tech stack that automates these filters, allowing you to effortlessly create highly segmented lists and tailor your initiatives, requests, and communications.
Here’s how you can easily create and use segmented lists on Almabase:
For example, if you want to host a young alumni meetup for those living near California and invite them, here’s how you can do it using Almabase:
How to Segment Your Alumni Audience for Better Fundraising Outcomes
Want better fundraising results? Segment your alumni! Discover simple ways to tailor your messaging by graduation year, engagement level, location, and more. Learn how to make your outreach more personal and effective with easy-to-use strategies.
Fundraising
See how leading institutions put these ideas into action
