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Latest stories, guides, and benchmarks from the world of alumni relations, fundraising, donor engagement, advancement services, events, and higher-education philanthropy

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 →

Assisted Fast Pass Migration from BBNC to Almabase

Featured

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

Read

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.

A person with a paddle raise or auction paddle — *Photo by* *Anita Jankovic* on Unsplash

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!

Featured

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

Read

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:

The three R’s of nonprofit storytelling: resonance, relevance, and respect

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.

Featured

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.

Alyssa Jefferies

September 3, 2026

12 minutes

Read

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!

Featured

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

Read

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

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

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

Maximizing impact with minimal resources

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The Value of a Data-Informed Fundraising Approach

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

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

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

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

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

Demographic Information
Relation to the Institution
Engagement History
Communication Preference
Employment Details
Wealth Level
Affinity and Interests

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

Demographic Information

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

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

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

Relation to the Institution

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

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

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

Engagement History

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

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

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

Communication Preference

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

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

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

Employment Details

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

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

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

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

Wealth Level

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

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

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

Affinity and Interests

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

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

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

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

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

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

Data-Driven Fundraising for K12 and Higher Ed: What to Know

Discover the power of data-driven fundraising for K-12 and higher education institutions. Learn essential tips to boost your fundraising results here.

Adam Weinger

October 10, 2023

12 minutes

Read

Alumni events and reunions are essential for keeping alumni connected to each other and your school. These events present the perfect opportunity to fundraise by evoking a nostalgia of fond memories of their time at your school. So as you consider event options to bring your alumni together, consider these fundraising-savvy ideas to host an engaging and successful alumni event:

1. Auction Extravaganza

Auctions are a tried and true fundraising concept. Their appeal goes beyond charity and the support of alumni's beloved alma mater—they get the chance to engage in some friendly competition with fellow alums to win a variety of items in exchange for their generosity. Your development staff also gets to build relationships with alumni and make connections that go beyond the auction itself.

The type of auction you hold is up to you, based on your school and team’s preferences, the event the auction might accompany, and the donated items you’re able to secure. A live auction is typically reserved for bigger ticket items, such as vacations or one-of-a-kind experiences, and held at the end of a gala or charity golf tournament. In general, a silent auction boasts more numerous, but smaller, items that are bid on over the course of the event or before with the use of a mobile bidding platform. These might include gift baskets from local businesses or branded gear from your school.

First, choose what type of auction you will hold and whether or not it will be held in conjunction with another event. Next, reach out to your networks for auction item donations and sponsorships. Donated items are the key to maximizing fundraising, so utilize your connections at area businesses for donated goods and services to include in your auction. Think about items that will make your auction unique, like personalized prizes for certain graduating classes or memorabilia from your school.

If you are hosting an online or a virtual live auction, you'll need to choose an auction management platform to run the auction and make it easy for alumni to place bids on their mobile devices and pay for their winning bids. Be sure to promote the auction in your event outreach, highlighting big-ticket or exclusive items that alumni will find attractive. Finally, create baskets and displays for each item that alumni can peruse as they place bids.

2. Sports-Related Events

Nothing rallies alumni quite like sports, so take advantage of their passion by hosting a sport-related alumni event, such as:

Watch party: Host an event to watch your school or other beloved sports team play in a sporting event. Ask folks to make a donation when they RSVP or have a donation station at the event. This could be held at a sports bar, your school’s gym or arena, or other popular location.
Tailgate party: Invite alumni to get prepped for a big game by gathering before the event for fun, food, and fellowship. You can charge a flat fee for alumni to attend or find a sponsor to offset costs and make donation asks throughout the party.
Sports tournament: Tap into your alums’ competitive nature and love for activity with a tournament. For example, a golf tournament fundraiser is a great way to bring alumni together for a fun day on the course to raise money for your school. According to GolfStatus, golf tournaments attract donors and sponsors with a higher net worth and affinity to give. Other ideas might include a pickleball tournament, cornhole tournament, volleyball tournament, or a run-walk.

Gamified events also feature multiple ways to incorporate fun and lucrative revenue-boosting activities, such as hole-in-one contests for a golf tournament.

3. Alumni-led Workshops & Seminars

Your school’s network likely includes many established and successful alumni in their fields. Don’t underestimate the value of providing valuable opportunities to network and broaden professional skills. Hold a workshop, networking event, lecture, or seminar led by one or more alums. Your alumni will love to connect with their peers about topics they’re interested in and passionate about and support your school.

These events could be held alongside another fundraising or school event, such as a conference, homecoming weekend, or concert, or as a standalone event. Monetize the event by charging a registration fee and securing sponsors for the event, with all proceeds going to the alumni fund. And thanks to a myriad of webinars and other virtual event platforms, these events can easily be made virtual or hybrid, allowing you to engage a wider audience that might not be able to attend in person.

4. Galas

Who doesn’t love dressing up every once in a while? Consider throwing a black-tie or other themed gala fundraiser for an event with an upscale appeal. You might try to tailor your gala specifically to alumni with higher net worth and giving capacity, but you can also structure it to allow more people to attend. Galas can raise money in a number of ways, including ticket sales, an accompanying silent and/or live auction, table sponsorships, other sponsorships, and opportunities to make donations. You might invite a guest speaker or two, or ask notable alumni to share inspiring stories about their time at your school or take the opportunity to present awards to distinguished alumni. Choose an upscale venue, serve a delicious meal, and provide entertainment to make the entire event unforgettable—and make alumni open their wallets.
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The type of alumni fundraising event you choose is just one piece of the puzzle. Effective outreach is just as important as planning and executing the event itself. Find ways to optimize your outreach efforts to boost participation and better engage alumni. Try strategies such as segmenting your audience and tailoring messaging to each segment, or hosting social media challenges to spread awareness about the event and use individual alum’s networks to get others excited about it and jump at the chance to participate.

In the end, you’ll forge strong connections between your school and its alumni, boost fundraising, and set your school up for success in the future.

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4 Event Ideas That Raise Money & Connect With Alumni

Achieving fundraising success starts with creating effective fundraising ideas. Consider trying these event ideas to engage your alumni and raise more funds.

September 8, 2023

12 minutes

Read

We are thrilled to announce our collaboration with Louis Diez, founder of the Donor Participation Project (DPP), to host Friday Research Findings, a monthly LinkedIn Live series.

Every last Friday of the month, Louis will be hosting insightful discussions with fundraisers, advancement professionals, and industry experts. Think about it as a casual conversation between two friends who share an unwavering passion for fundraising and advancement.

Each session will delve into research discoveries, best practices, actionable insights, and real-life scenarios, all designed to enhance your strategic approaches. Whether you're a seasoned fundraising professional or a newcomer to the field, the Friday Research Findings series guarantees valuable takeaways for everyone.

For those not yet familiar with Louis, he is a seasoned authority in annual fund development and digital fundraising, bringing a wealth of experience to the table. His tenure as the former Executive Director of Annual Giving at Muhlenberg College, coupled with his contributions to esteemed organizations such as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Johns Hopkins SAIS, underscore his remarkable journey in fundraising.

The Donor Participation Project, Louis Diez's brainchild, is an initiative that convenes fundraising professionals who share two critical concerns:

Addressing the nationwide decline in donor participation (20 million US households lost between 2000-2016).
Embracing change in our fundraising practices to reverse this trend and learning from peers who are successfully driving increased participation.

The members meet for monthly meetings that take the form of Lunch Analysis sessions—a blend of a book club, scholarly discussions, brainstorming, and mutual support. Each session focuses on a specific topic related to donor participation.

Join us on the last Friday of every month to elevate your fundraising strategies. 🚀

In addition to the valuable insights you'll gain from the session, you'll also receive exclusive resources from Almabase and access to the resource library curated by DPP.
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Curious about this month's speaker and the topic? Watch out this space for more details!

About Louis Diez:

Louis Diez, a seasoned expert in annual fund development and digital fundraising, brings a wealth of experience to the table. His roles as the former Executive Director of Annual Giving at Muhlenberg College, along with his contributions to organizations like the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Johns Hopkins SAIS, underscore his remarkable journey in fundraising.

With an impressive academic background, including an MBA from CUNEF, a Ph.D. in Business Administration from Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, and an MM in Music Performance from the University of TN, Louis embodies a diverse perspective that enriches every discussion.

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Friday Research Findings: Explore Philanthropy Insights With Louis Diez, Powered by Almabase

Almabase is thrilled to announce our collaboration with Louis Diez, founder of the Donor Participation Project (DPP), to host Friday Research Findings, a monthly LinkedIn Live series. Join us on the last Friday of every month to elevate your fundraising strategies.

August 16, 2023

12 minutes

Read

AI is transforming the way we work and this means that more jobs would require people who know how to leverage AI to its maximum potential. With ChatGPT gaining its popularity among our users, we asked ChatGPT to give us some of its best prompts that will help advancement professionals.

💡 84% of C-level executives believe that they need to adopt and leverage artificial intelligence to drive growth objectives.

Here are some prompts generated by ChatGPT for ChatGPT that you can use depending on your use case:

Prompts to help organize events

Devise an exclusive donor appreciation event, combining storytelling elements to showcase the real impact of individual contributions. Create a step-by-step plan that includes unique experiential elements, personalized touches, and post-event follow-ups to strengthen donor relationships.
Create a comprehensive plan for an alumni networking event that fosters meaningful connections. Detail the event format, activities, and incentives for attendance. Include a post-event strategy to nurture relationships and encourage ongoing engagement.

Prompts to plan a social media strategy

Design an omnichannel communication strategy that segments donors based on their interests and giving history. Specify the content and frequency of interactions for each segment, with a focus on donor-centric messaging and utilizing various platforms for engagement.
Develop a data-driven social media strategy that maximizes engagement and amplifies our organization's mission. Outline a step-by-step plan including content themes, posting schedules, platform-specific tactics, and methods for measuring success. Prioritize innovative approaches that foster meaningful connections with our target audience and leverage emerging trends in social media.

Prompts for alumni engagement

Develop a mentorship program outline that includes mentor-mentee matching criteria, expected time commitments, and guidelines for successful outcomes. Implement methods to evaluate and measure the program's impact on alumni and student participants.
Brainstorm unique and impactful ways to engage our alumni community. Generate at least three out-of-the-box ideas that leverage technology, experiential events, and collaborative platforms. Focus on fostering networking, knowledge sharing, and emotional connections among alumni while ensuring scalability and long-term sustainability.

Prompts for writing grant proposals

Craft a compelling and concise narrative for a specific grant proposal. Highlight our organization's distinct approach, measurable outcomes, and alignment with the grantmaker's mission. Emphasize leveraging data and success stories to substantiate the proposal's effectiveness.
Identify three high-potential grant opportunities for our organization. Conduct in-depth research on each grantmaker's priorities, historical funding patterns, and application requirements. Prepare a comparative analysis to determine the best fit.

Prompts for fundraising campaigns

Brainstorm and evaluate three distinct virtual fundraising events, each targeting a different demographic or interest group. Outline the strategies to promote participation, generate excitement, and provide a seamless online donation experience.
Design a gamified peer-to-peer fundraising campaign that incentivizes supporters to recruit others and hit specific fundraising milestones. Include visual assets and user-friendly templates to enable easy sharing across social media platforms.

Prompts to make data-driven decisions

Analyze the past year's fundraising data to identify seasonal trends in giving. Create a data visualization that presents the findings and outlines recommendations for optimizing fundraising efforts throughout the year.
Evaluate the success of the last major fundraising campaign by comparing initial goals to actual results. Use the data to propose actionable insights and strategies for future campaigns, considering both successful and unsuccessful elements,

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If you want to explore more on how you can leverage ChatGPT, check out our previous LinkedIn Live, ‘Unleash the Power of ChatGPT in Advancement’ with Anne Murphy where we explored some interesting prompting and reprompting techniques for people in the advancement industry.

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ChatGPT Prompts for Advancement Professionals

With ChatGPT gaining its popularity among our users, we asked ChatGPT to give us some of its best prompts that will help advancement professionals.

August 16, 2023

12 minutes

Read

Successful school auctions require significant planning, thoughtful execution, and effective follow-through. Since they can be so involved, how do you measure their ROI? Of course, you’ll track your fundraising goals, but another underused metric can help supercharge your efforts: donor relationships.

School auctions help you increase both the quality and quantity of your donor relationships to facilitate future support, improve donor loyalty, and build sustainable engagement habits.

Maximizing Impact with Minimal Resources - redefining alumni engagement and fundraising

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Think about how you foster these relationships before, during, and following your auction. To help you get started, we’ve listed our top recommendations for making the most of your school auction. Let’s jump in!

1. Research Auction Attendees in Advance

To tailor your outreach approach, research potential attendees in advance to determine who you should prioritize inviting and engaging with. Reference your data and be sure to invite previous attendees with:

Previous giving history: Has this individual given to your school or any other charitable organization in the past?
Previous engagement: Have they attended or volunteered at previous fundraisers or other school events?
Relevant connections: Are they still connected to your school in some way? Aim to target supporters who have either recently graduated or still have children enrolled.

Pay special attention to your most recent audience data that dates back about two years. Using this data, you can identify your high-impact donors and tailor your outreach and auction format to engage them. For example, you might recognize their impact from the previous year and ask them if they have any auction items they would like to see at this upcoming auction.

2. Pay Attention to Business Affiliations

While researching individuals to invite to your auction, note their business affiliations. These connections will help you uncover valuable insights into other opportunities for potential guests to contribute to your school.

Here are a few opportunities business affiliations can present:

Auction item procurement: You may have donors that work for or run companies with products or services that are appropriate auction items. The best way to ask a company to donate an auction item is with an effective procurement letter sent to the right contact. Even if your donor won’t be the ultimate decision maker, they can likely help you identify the correct person to contact.
Sponsorships: Donors may work for companies that have corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs or grant initiatives that align with your school’s mission. You can leverage these connections to initiate conversations for partnerships that could benefit both parties.
Matching gifts: Several companies have matching gift programs that match their employees’ donations at a 1:1 or 2:1 ratio, which would double your supporters’ impact. By identifying your donors’ business affiliations, you can encourage them to use tools like advanced matching gift autosubmission to streamline the giving process.
Expanded networks: Even if a donor’s employer may not have CSR objectives that align with your school’s initiatives, they might have professional contacts that they can introduce you to that can help your school in other ways.

Reference these business affiliations when preparing a live auction. For instance, you might create a seating chart with two (friendly) business competitors side by side to increase healthy competition.

3. Create a Pre-Event Buzz

Leading up to your school auction, lay the groundwork for building lasting donor relationships that engage your community. Doing this will open the door to opportunities for long-term connections. To increase anticipation before your auction, consider:

Sending out personalized invites: After narrowing your prospective attendees, craft personalized invitations that clearly communicate your auction’s purpose and why an attendee’s presence will be valued. For instance, you might mention that this year’s auction will fund your school’s athletic department and invite alumni who were student-athletes to enjoy a night of friendly auction competition.
Posting social media promotions: Post updates leading up to your auction on social media. You might spotlight a few enticing items like an inclusive weekend getaway or concert tickets, or you could recognize a sponsor to thank them before your event begins.
Sharing testimonials from previous events: Dive into your school’s fundraising history to share moments that helped you achieve success. Was there a new theater program or building addition in the last couple of years? Recognize your previous successes and remind your attendees that you can’t do it without them.
Planning an attention-grabbing email marketing campaign: Write a series of well-crafted emails sharing regular updates, countdowns, and exclusive sneak peeks to potential participants and registered attendees. Encourage your recipients to forward these communications to their personal networks to reach more supporters and increase the hype surrounding your auction.

According to SchoolAuction.net, pre-auction event planning and promotion can define your auction’s success as promotion is the first step in inviting donors into a productive relationship. In other words, effective event promotion will widen your reach which can positively impact your donor acquisition efforts.

For best results, stick to posting on channels that your alumni and other potential guests are already active on. For instance, many schools have active Facebook groups you can leverage to get the word out about your upcoming auction.

4. Leverage auction software

During the auction, have your team mix and mingle with guests freely. That means you should avoid spending time supervising check-in, check-out, and other bidding procedures. To streamline auction logistics, use comprehensive auction software.

Use software that offers the following features to streamline your event:

Item procurement tracking: Keep track of item requests and results and send receipts within one centralized system.
Multiple ways to give: Text-to-give and recurring giving options are a must to make donating during your fundraiser flexible and accessible.
Mobile bidding: Use software to get rid of paper bidding sheets and allow attendees to bid using their phones.
Speedy checkout: Look for an auction software provider with an easy-to-use self-checkout feature that lets guests quickly review their cart and checkout from their phone using a secure credit card processor.

These features are essential for providing an unforgettable guest experience. You might consider partnering with an auction provider whose software is also format flexible, so you can easily transition in-person auctions to hybrid or online formats. Built-in gamification features like countdowns and outbid notifications are also useful tools for enhancing the bidding experience and spurring friendly competition.

5. Engage Donors Beyond the Auction

Your work is not over after the auction! Engage your auction guests and communicate that your school is willing to go the extra mile even after securing support. To make your guests feel valued, follow these best practices:

Send post-auction surveys: Ask for feedback following your auction. Doing this will help you improve future fundraising efforts by taking note of what worked well. It also indicates that your school values your guests’ opinions and is making an effort to prioritize their satisfaction.
Share impact reports: Donors want to know how their contributions helped your school reach its fundraising goals. Use your school’s newsletter to include how their donations helped your school purchase new athletic equipment, build out your arts program, or improve a department’s educational materials.
Express gratitude and offer recognition: Send personalized appreciation notes to donors thanking them for their participation. With their permission, you can also publicly recognize individuals who made a large impact.

Advancement Playbook - Alumni engagement and Fundraising

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Your recognition and gratitude efforts will vary according to the donor. For instance, you might mention major sponsors in your newsletter updates, call them personally on the phone to express gratitude, or plan an appreciation event to celebrate their generosity.

By considering which donors to invite, how you’ll invite them, and how you’ll engage them, you can set the stage for long-term relationships. Use tools like prospect research and auction software to plan and execute your auction. That way, you can expand your network and streamline your event. To your fundraising success!

5 Tips for Building Donor Relationships at School Auctions

Are you ready to improve your school’s auction fundraising potential and build lasting donor relationships? Read this short guide for top recommended tips!

Roger Devine

July 13, 2023

12 minutes

Read

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

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

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

Key Highlights:

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

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

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

Preview Profile Recommendations & Scores Before You Hit Send

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

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

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

View Impact in Real-Time

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

A Brief Look Inside The AI Engine

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

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

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

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

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

Ready to boost alumni networking without manual effort?

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

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

July 12, 2023

12 minutes

Read

For higher-education institutions, maintaining strong relationships with alumni is key to securing the necessary vocal and financial support to thrive year after year. While many of your alumni may have traveled away from campus to pursue their career goals after graduating, the distance doesn’t have to diminish their fondness for your institution.

With an effective strategy for engaging these former students, you can ensure that they remain invested in your school’s success for decades to come. One crucial way to maintain strong relationships with your alumni is by enhancing your institution’s website. This is where all alumni, no matter where they’re located, can go to stay connected with their alma mater and offer their support.

In this guide, we’ll discuss five essential tips for designing your school website to cultivate meaningful and lasting connections with alumni:

Choose the right CMS.
Leverage storytelling.
Add compelling calls to action.
Encourage alumni to deepen their engagement.
Review your website metrics.

A well-designed alumni website demonstrates to graduates that you’d like for them to be a part of your institution’s future. By revamping your website content and design, you’ll be able to better appeal to your alumni around the world and expand your base of long-term supporters.

1. Choose the right CMS

Designing a high-quality website begins with assembling the right tools for the job. To set your website up for success, your school should equip itself with a website builder, or content management system (CMS), that is tailor-made for the education sector. According to Morweb’s rundown of school website builders, the CMS you choose should be able to facilitate:

Designing engaging web pages using customizable templates.
Building an accessible website that allows users to make adjustments to aspects of the content, from font size to coloring, with an accessibility widget.
Maintaining consistent branding across the entire website, from logos to images.
Structuring your website for easy navigation to maximize visitor engagement.
Optimizing your website for mobile users, so alumni can access it whenever and wherever is most convenient for them.

The right CMS should also be able to integrate easily with software that your school uses regularly, like your class registration software or your alumni relations software. With the right CMS at your disposal, you can focus on providing the content and resources that alumni will appreciate, while your website builder will take care of creating a positive user experience.

2. Leverage storytelling

One impactful way to connect with your alumni is to remind them of their experience at your institution. Whether you’re looking to raise more funds or encourage more graduates to attend events, storytelling allows you to reach them on a more personal and emotional level. NPOInfo’s donor cultivation guide recommends emphasizing the impact of donor contributions through statistics and stories to inspire more support.

For instance, consider sharing a story about a current student who, thanks to a scholarship made possible by alumni gifts, is currently excelling in their studies. This helps graduates understand just how they have made and can continue making a difference in students’ lives. For more powerful storytelling ideas to add to your school website, consider featuring:

Alumni success stories.
Quotations from alumni donors, explaining their reason for giving.
Stories highlighting the campus culture.
Photo galleries of alumni donors and volunteers at events.
Video testimonials of students who’ve benefited from alumni support.

Feel free to get creative with your storytelling—infographics, GIFs, and podcasts can all elevate your content and motivate more alumni to discover the impact of their support. Be sure your CMS has multimedia capabilities that optimize your content for the web.

3. Add compelling calls to action

Once you’ve caught your alumni’s attention, make it easy for them to take action by incorporating compelling calls to action (CTAs) across your institution’s website. These eye-catching buttons will direct graduates to relevant web pages, such as your giving page. Your CTAs can direct alumni to take actions such as:

Donating to your institution.
Reading more about a student’s or alumnus’s story.
Registering for upcoming alumni events.
Exploring volunteer opportunities.
Subscribing to receive texts from your school.
Becoming a mentor to a current student.

Remember to follow best practices when crafting calls to action to maximize their impact. Keep your wording brief, clear, and urgent so your alumni visitors don’t delay engaging with your institution. For example, you could write, “Give back today” or “Become a mentor now,” as possible CTAs. For further guidance, take a look at nonprofit website templates to see how they organize and display CTAs across each page.

4. Encourage alumni to deepen their engagement

There are many ways for your alumni to stay involved with your institution, from giving to attending events to volunteering. To nurture connections that last, encourage these graduates to expand their involvement. Make sure your most important resources are clearly visible and accessible on your alumni website so that visitors are aware of all possible engagement opportunities. It should be easy for alumni visitors to find information on:

Career guidance and professional development
Upcoming alumni events
Networking opportunities
Volunteering opportunities

Furthermore, invite graduates to interact with your institution beyond its website. You can use your CMS to add a social media widget that features your latest posts, alongside icons that allow visitors to share your content or follow your school on social media. If you have an alumni newsletter, asking alumni to subscribe can be another great way to keep your institution fresh on their minds.

5. Review your website metrics

After you’ve finished designing your school website, remember to keep track of relevant metrics to measure its performance over time. Just as your institution fosters growth among its students, it’s important to adopt that same mindset and learn from your alumni website engagement efforts to boost your results over time. For instance, your pageviews, bounce rate, and conversion rates can all reveal valuable insights into how effectively your website is engaging alumni.

Use the data you collect to identify how to better connect with graduates in the future. Fortunately, if you decide you’d like to further enhance your alumni website later on, there are many stellar nonprofit websites you can turn to for inspiration online.

Your website serves as an all-important hub for alumni to stay up-to-date on your institution, provide financial support, and ultimately, maintain the connection they forged when they first stepped foot on campus.

Remember to show your appreciation to graduates, so they’ll always feel like a valued part of your school. In addition to popular appreciation ideas such as sending school merchandise and hosting appreciation events, spotlight alumni supporters on your website. This way, they’ll always be reminded of their meaningful connections to your institution.

Inspiring alumni websites you should see

Now that you know the basics, let’s look at some great alumni websites to take inspiration from.

Washington University in St. Louis

When you enter the alumni website of the Washington University in St. Louis, you are immediately welcomed by the slogan “You are WashU yesterday, today, forever” using an attractive slideshow design. It then follows it up with with clear pathways for alumni to find directories, events, and networking opportunities in a very natural manner with clear CTAs for everything.

University of Kansas

University of Kansas has an alumni page that really leans into clean and intuitive design. A sliding hero banner takes center stage and highlights most of the major alumni programs. Just below are the major programs and networks. This is followed by their main content hub where they display great effort at showcasing their alumni stories and events. The final section is filled with more focused CTAs to inspire action after the bulk of the programs and stories have been mentioned.

Howard University

If you’re looking for inspiration on an alumni website that’s all about inspiring donors and highlighting events, Howard University’s alumni website is a great example. It heavily leans into making sure people and successful events stand front and center. Seeing videos and pictures of happy and committed crowds, alumni, and students really helps drive home the sense of community that’s inseparable from any alumni program, especially one that’s looking to emphasize on fundraising.

Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)

RISD’s alumni website is everything you’d expect from a design school. It makes great use of website animations and feels like walking into a virtual display. It doesn’t take long to scroll to the bottom but manages to insert a lot of information without making the website feel cluttered. The CTAs towards the end are very intent-focused and helpful for alumni visiting the website for a specific purpose.

Conclusion

With the above tips and examples to take inspiration from, we hope you’re ready to build (or revamp) your alumni website. Remember to keep your institution’s goals and your alumni’s sentiments in mind and we hope to see even more exciting alumni website designs in the future.

Designing School Websites that Connect with Alumni: 5 Tips

A well-designed website can strengthen your relationships with alumni. Boost their engagement by learning these five tips for designing school websites.

June 30, 2023

12 minutes

Read

“It’s an irrelevant stat when you look at the big picture.”

“I’m indifferent to the announcement as a whole.”

“I think this is a great change!”

“It’s the end of higher-ed fundraising as we know it.”

Although a minor change in an age-old, controversial ranking system for higher-ed institutions, we’ve heard a myriad of different opinions on the matter. While some welcomed the change, others were a bit wary of the ramifications of the declining alumni participation rate (a rather worrying trend for the last decade).

But what does U.S. News & World Report’s latest change mean for the fundraising landscape in the US educational space? What do we think about this change? And are we about to see a significant shake-up to the rankings? Let’s take a look.

What did U.S. News & World Report change with their methodology?

Every year, U.S. News & World Report releases a list of the best colleges based on a multitude of ranking factors. The main purpose of this list is to help prospective students make more informed choices about where they choose to pursue their higher education.

The ranking was based on a variety of factors, including an institution’s alumni participation rate (APR, % of active, contactable alumni that give back to their alma mater). Towards the end of May 2023, the media organization released a statement announcing that this metric would no longer impact the rankings of colleges and universities.

How significant is this change?

From a ranking point of view, APR wasn’t a very significant contributor to the position of an institution, so removing it from the methodology isn’t too big a change. APR accounts for about 3% of an institution’s overall score. According to their statement, U.S. News wants to remove this metric to make way for other related measures that embrace student diversity.

However, for advancement offices in institutions that worked on or cared for this metric, this change could have several ramifications.

Loss of motivation to improve APR: An institution would naturally gravitate towards initiatives that would lead to a better APR, as that would boost its ranking among other institutions. With the metric no longer a factor to consider, this could mean that higher-ed fundraising takes a hit.
No more skewed metrics: Determining an institution’s APR isn’t easy, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Every institution has its own way of arriving at this number, and there have also been instances where numbers have been manipulated to juice up the APR. Getting rid of the metric can eliminate situations like this altogether.
Reframing of messaging: Institutions that previously emphasized the connection between giving and rankings will need to rework their messaging. Instead of highlighting how alumni giving impacts rankings, they should focus on the broader impact of giving. This includes emphasizing the significance of alumni contributions in enhancing the student experience, enabling transformative education, and more.

While APR won’t be a part of what ultimately decides an institution’s ranking, it will still be prominently visible as one of the stats on their profile.

The (possible) Future of Alumni Relations and Fundraising

It’s at times like these that we wish we had a crystal ball or a clairvoyant person on our team. While we have neither of those, we’d like to take an educated guess at what this means for the future.

Engagement will trump giving: With this change, advancement teams can focus less on a metric that’s hard to measure and more on how to make an impact by engaging with a wider spectrum of alumni. Leaders can focus on holistic engagement programs instead of playing short-term transactional fundraising games.
More inclusive metrics: While it’s a decent gauge to measure graduate/alumni satisfaction, APR still has its shortcomings as a metric. For one, it only considers actual gifts made and not the potential to give in the future. It also excludes other signs of a strong affinity to the alma mater – recommendations, positive word of mouth, purchasing tickets to events, volunteering, and so on.
Focus on building a healthy pipeline: Advancement teams may now start focusing on building a strong pipeline of future donors. This could include focusing on a long-term game, where programs cater towards creating a rapport with alumni and strengthening relationships, as opposed to raising as much as possible in a short time frame.
A (slight) shift in rankings: As we mentioned earlier, APR didn’t account for a major percentage of an institution’s ranking on the list. It will definitely shift a few rankings around, but the top would most likely remain unchanged. A common critique against the rankings is about the obsession with elite status rather than a school’s specific fit for a particular student. While the outgoing metrics are making way for ones that focus on the diversity of students, we’re still yet to learn more about them and how they’d impact overall rankings.

What U.S. News & World Report’s Big Change Means For Higher-Ed Fundraising

Discover the potential impact of U.S. News & World Report's recent change to the higher-ed ranking system on the fundraising landscape in the US educational sector.

June 16, 2023

12 minutes

Read

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