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Blackbaud recently announced that support for Raiser’s Edge NXT’s database view and related functionality will end on September 15, 2027, affecting several Blackbaud products. These include Blackbaud Online Express and Blackbaud NetCommunity (BBNC). For advancement teams that have spent years building forms, pages, workflows, and other processes around the platform, this means choosing and migrating to a new platform. The prospect can feel like a lot to take on, especially if it wasn't something you'd anticipated.
If you're looking for an alternative, Almabase can help you replace the functionality you currently rely on across these products. We've already covered why teams might be thinking of a move off BBNC and how the main alternatives compare. In this article, we’ll be focusing on what happens once you've made that decision: what the migration process looks like, what your team can expect along the way, and how Almabase approaches the move.
In case you’re evaluating how Almabase stacks up against BBNC, check out our comparison blog here.
There’s also another question that comes up around a platform migration: How much is this going to cost?
This question extends beyond the immediate, visible technical costs. In fact, the technical side of the move might just be the simplest to figure out. It’s the broader, more abstract elements like shifting scopes, changing requirements, or even figuring out the right set of requirements in the first place that could end up costing the most amount of money and time, if not approached thoughtfully.
That's why we want to walk you through the Assisted Fast Pass Migration process upfront: what happens at each stage, what your team is responsible for, what our migration team handles, and where costs may come into the picture. We hope to give you a clear idea of what the move to Almabase will look like before you get started, so there are fewer surprises along the way.
Why transparency matters during a migration
A migration project always begins with an agreed-upon plan. But it’s also very likely that, a few weeks in, you discover a form that needs some additional customization or a request that seemed straightforward seems to fall outside the original scope, on second thought. These are perfectly reasonable hiccups during the migration, but if work is already underway, it could seem harder to understand what you're paying for, and even harder to plan around the rest of the project.
Clear expectations are at the heart of our migration approach, starting with total transparency around what extra requirements cost. With Almabase’s Assisted Fast Pass Migration, each stage gives you a chance to understand what's being proposed, what falls within the standard migration, and where something would require additional work.
Basically, you shouldn't find out about an extra requirement after the work has already been done. Your approval and sign-off comes first. The five steps in the migration process are built around this intention. Let’s get into them.
1. Kickoff: Getting the project off on the right foot
The migration process starts with a kickoff between your team, a dedicated CSM, and an implementation specialist. This is where we get the groundwork in place. This is usually access to your current site, your branding assets, and the dates your team needs to work around.
Another important step here is understanding your calendar and priorities. Your Giving Day, reunion, fiscal year-end, or another major event may determine what needs to happen first and we would be building the migration calendar around it. So, the migration sequence might look a little different for each institution, as each gets to choose which product goes first.
The kickoff is also a chance to flag anything unusual about your current NetCommunity setup.
After years on a platform, it's normal for your setup to have accumulated a few workarounds, custom configurations, or integrations that made sense when they were created. We don't need to solve all of those questions in the first meeting, but we do need to know about them.
That way, we can account for them during the next stage: the inventory. 🤗
Your team mainly needs to provide:
- Key dates and deadlines
- Relevant branding assets
- Access to your existing NetCommunity site
- Any known custom configurations, integrations, or unusual workflows
From there, you can let us take on the heavy lifting.
Your dedicated CSM and implementation specialist work with you throughout the migration, while your team focuses on the decisions and approvals. A migration shouldn't require your advancement team to take on managing a project full time on top of everything else they’re already handling.
Your data doesn't have to wait for the build
Your data migration is handled alongside the rest of the process. Almabase's bi-directional TrueSync integration connects with Raiser's Edge NXT and supports two-way syncing for configured entities and fields, including constituent, event, and gift data.
Admins can also decide which fields update automatically and which should be reviewed before they're pushed or pulled between systems.
That means your team doesn't have to wait until every page and workflow decision has been finalized before thinking about what happens to your data. The data side of the transition can move forward alongside the rest of the migration, with real time decisions being made.
2. Discovery and inventory: weeks one and two
Once kickoff is complete, your implementation specialist carefully starts building a complete inventory of what's currently running on NetCommunity: pages, forms, events, programs, memberships, and other key components of your site.
This process is useful in its own right, especially when taken on by someone external. After years on a platform, it's easy for a site to accumulate things that no one thinks about anymore, simply because they’re too involved in the process. The inventory gives you one place to see what's actually there, anything you might’ve forgotten about, and to make decisions about what needs to move vs what can be left behind.
Probably the most effective part of this is that it's a shared inventory that you can review alongside your specialist. If something looks outdated, doesn't need to move, or needs a closer look, you can flag it before it moves to the new product.
The inventory can surface things like:
- Duplicate or unused event pages
- Old forms or pages that are still live
- Site elements that don't need to be carried into Almabase
- Custom fields and configurations that don’t make sense on the new platform
This idea is to document your NetCommunity site so well that both teams end up on the same picture of what exists and what needs to happen next. The Almabase team handles the actual inventory work, and all you need to do is review the inventory and flag anything that should be changed, removed, or investigated.
3. Sign-off: deciding what moves forward
At this stage, the migration project starts taking on a more defined shape as you decide what you need to bring into Almabase. You and your implementation specialist review the inventory, decide what carries forward, and establish what the finished version should look like.
For each item being migrated, the team, along with you, defines the acceptance criteria before the building begins. If your existing alumni directory has eight fields and three filters, for example, those requirements can be documented as part of the scope. By the end of this discussion, everyone has arrived at the same definition of what needs to be delivered.
This is also where you’ll be able to clearly separate standard migration work from anything that requires additional effort.
If something falls outside the standard scope, you'll know before the work begins:
- What the additional work involves
- What's included and what's excluded
- The estimated effort
- The associated cost
You won’t have to decipher this from the invoice later on, because the work only moves forward once you’ve signed off on the scope.
This is exactly why your input here matters most. The Almabase team handles the building, but it’s you and your team deciding what is important enough to carry forward and what “done” needs to look like, within the standard process or with additional effort layered on.
4. Build and launch: 30 days for each product
Our team takes up building only once you’ve greenlit the scope. Each product gets its own dedicated 30-day track, with the order of products taken up built around your events and fiscal calendar.
This is to accommodate your calendar: giving days, reunions, Homecoming, we’ll build that product first so you’re ready in time for go-live day. If your immediate priority is your broader alumni site, we might begin with building that instead. The point is, even at this pace, you’re not forced to adopt a one-size-fits-all solution. Your implementation team works with you to determine what needs to come first.
The build itself happens on your Almabase pages, so you can review as it gets built while also familiarizing yourself with the new platform.
The timeline typically looks like this:
- 30-day build track: Each product moves through its own focused build.
- Weekly working session: Your team meets with the implementation team to review progress, provide input, and make decisions.
- Training as you go: Your team gets hands-on experience with the platform during the build, rather than waiting until everything is finished to start learning it.
- First launch: The fastest migrations can have their first product live around 45 days from kickoff, depending on the scope and sequencing of your project.
Having the scope agreed upon shows up in smoothness at this point: you can expect fewer decisions to make from scratch during this stage. Your team knows what's being built, your implementation specialist knows what they're working toward, and everything can move as planned, on track.
5. Cutover: moving from NetCommunity to Almabase
As you get closer to launch, the focus shifts from building to making the transition itself as smooth as possible.
The most important part of that is making sure people can still find the things they've been using. Your team receives a redirect map that pairs each carried-forward NetCommunity URL with its new Almabase destination. You'll also want to review where those old links appear outside NetCommunity: your main institutional website, email templates, QR codes, printed materials, and any other places where an old URL may still be in circulation.
The redirect map gives you a clear list of what needs to change and no one has to discover old links one by one after launch.
Before each product goes live, your team gets to review it thoroughly and explicitly approve the launch.
The aim, with these five steps, is to get your Almabase programs ready before your NetCommunity access ends, so the transition remains smooth and doesn't become a last-minute scramble.
What happens when something doesn't fit the standard scope?
Not everything that comes up during a migration falls neatly into the original plan. But there's also an important conversation to be had: what counts as additional scope and what is a limitation in the platform itself?
If something requires work beyond the standard migration scope, that's identified and quoted before the work begins. You can then decide whether you want to take it on.
But if there’s a requirement you have that Almabase cannot support yet, we’ll be fully transparent with you. Essentially, you haven’t asked for too much, we’re just not there yet. Depending on what you need, the team can look at a workaround or determine how the functionality could be addressed after launch.
This conversation is also one of the reasons the earlier stages matter. The shared inventory, defined acceptance criteria, and upfront scoping give everyone a common reference point throughout the project.
That's really the principle behind the entire migration process. You're not expected to know every detail of what needs to happen before the project starts. The process itself is designed to show you those details early, give your team a chance to make the calls that matter, and keep the build moving while minimizing unexpected, last-minute surprises.
Ready to make the move?
A BBNC migration may not have been on your roadmap, but that also doesn't mean it has to become a project that takes over your team's calendar.
With a clear process, an agreed scope, and the right support, you can move the parts of NetCommunity that matter to your team and work for your institution without having to figure everything out as you go. The Almabase team handles the build and migration work, while your team stays in complete control of the decisions, priorities, and final approvals.
And because the scope and any additional costs are addressed before the work happens, you can go into the migration knowing what to expect.
If you're planning your move away from BBNC, let's talk about what it could look like for your institution.
Talk to the Almabase team about your BBNC migration →
Moving from BBNC to Almabase: The Assisted Fast Pass Migration
Blackbaud is sunsetting support for Raiser’s Edge NXT’s database view and related functionality in September 2027. Learn how Almabase replaces your current functionality and how our Assisted Fast Pass Migration makes for a smooth switch without disrupting your campaigns or operations.
Anwesha Kiran
September 10, 2026
12 minutes
A paddle raise (also called a fund-a-need) is a great and simple fundraising format for nonprofits. It is easy to host, fun, and similar enough to auctions that if you have experience in one, you can easily incorporate the other.
All this is to say that, with proper planning, it is one of the most effective ways to get donations for your nonprofit or a particular project.
In this blog, we’ll look at what makes a typical paddle raise work, its benefits, and the essential steps to start hosting one on your own.
What is a Paddle Raise?
A paddle raise, also often called fund-a-need, is a live, direct appeal during a fundraising event such as a gala where donors pledge a financial contribution to a nonprofit, charity, or a particular cause. This is usually done by raising paddles containing varying numbers or ‘levels’, or through bidding devices and software.
Unlike charity auctions though, there aren’t any items or art involved, and attendees will not be bidding on a piece. An ask is made, and donors willing to contribute that amount raise their paddles. Due to the simpler setup and direct contributions, paddle raises have high ROI and are generally considered to be very effective.
How does a Paddle Raise work?
Usually taking place at the peak of the fundraiser, a paddle raise takes around 10-20 minutes (it happens quite quickly). This is typically how it unfolds:
- A designated speaker or emcee gets the event rolling by showing a video or narrating a quick story that introduces and emphasizes the impact of your mission.
- The emcee announces the fundraising target for the night, or if there are multiple causes, the goals for each.
- Tiers of contributions are planned beforehand ($10k, $7.5k and so on), and the emcee starts with the highest tier and works their way down to the lower tiers. When they ask for contributions, attendees express their willingness by raising numbered paddles.
- Volunteers and staff keep track of all the pledges and note it down.
- After going through all the tiers, the pledges are processed, and the total amount raised is announced. Attendees are thanked for their contributions and the event draws to a close.
Now that we’ve gone through what a paddle raise is and how it usually plays out, let’s get to how you can run one of your own.
How to Run a Successful Paddle Raise (Step-by-Step)
While paddle raises are simple enough in concept, they do require proper planning and coordination to capture pledges accurately and create good energy overall.
Here’s how you do it:
1. Pick the right cause/project for your targets and set your targets
Paddle raises are a lot more effective if you can tie them to a specific initiative that makes donors feel like they’re making a meaningful impact. It could be an annual raise for cancer, providing education to underprivileged children, etc.
Set a tangible goal and be clear on where the money goes. Sharing this with your donors builds trust. The goal shouldn’t be so high that hitting it feels impossible. All in all, you want to set a realistic but fairly ambitious figure.
2. Decide the contribution levels or tiers
You should aim for 5-10 levels and make sure it’s inclusive of everyone’s giving capabilities. You can discuss with your pre-committed donors (more on that later) to decide amounts for the higher giving tiers (or conversely for lower giving tiers depending on the situation).
This is where having a regularly updated donor database helps greatly, as you can base your levels off of giving history and data.
A basic example would be to have $15k as the highest tier, followed by $10k, $5k, $2k and so on all the way to $50. Remember that you have to be inclusive, so don’t skimp out on small or micro-level contributions.
3. Pick your emcee or host
The emcee is critical in setting the stage and the energy before the raise begins. An enthusiastic crowd can make a massive difference in contributions. If possible, hire a professional emcee who has been on the mic for other charity events before. You know your donors best; use that knowledge to pick out a host that can connect with them and elevate the room accordingly..
Alternatively, if your organization has deep ties with the attendees, you could consider a leadership figure (directors, chair, etc.) for familiarity. Of course, they need to be a good orator as well.
4. Decide the schedule and script
Since a paddle raise is relatively short, decide when the paddle raise should take place during your fundraising event or gala. You should aim to host the raise during the peak of the fundraiser, when everyone is energetic and receptive to instructions from you or your host.
Come up with a script, including your opening statement, tier announcements, anecdotes, and expressing gratitude at the end. Have alternative scripts ready for different scenarios since you can’t always predict if you’ll hit your target, overshoot it, or come close.
5. Pick the right tools for your event
You can choose to host your paddle raise with either physical paddles or through bidding software, though incorporating the former is heavily recommended.
You’ll need to assign numbers to each attendee and give them a paddle with the corresponding number. When a certain giving tier is called out, they can choose to pledge that amount by raising the paddle while volunteers keep track of it.
If you’re opting for a digital process, look for mobile-friendly bidding platforms. There are some other options as well like scanning QR codes to pledge. However, keep your attendees’ preferences in mind and try to find a balance between their experience and your team’s feature set. This is important, since the bidding and giving data will need to be synced to your CRM.
6. Running the paddle raise itself
When opening your event, it helps to set the energy high. Start with the mission statement and targets you set earlier. Here’s where the emcee does the heavy lifting. Videos and stories with emotional angles work really well at establishing a connection with your donors and creating empathy for your cause. If you have first time donors in the mix, a quick explanation of how the paddle raise works would also be helpful.
Make sure your volunteers are in place to clearly record everything. The emcee announces the levels in succession, starting with the highest one and working their way down.
Seeing major contributions right at the start might encourage the others to go beyond what they had originally planned. Make sure that the emcee acknowledges and celebrates pledges briefly for each tier before moving on to the next one.
How your staff records the pledges is up to you. You can use an app, spreadsheets, or simply pen and paper. Choose whichever would be the most convenient and accurate for your team.
7. Gratitude and stewardship
After going through all the levels, tally the total amount raised and announce it as the event draws to a close. Celebrate the impact everyone has created on the day. Tying the money raised to a tangible outcome (for example, 50 scholarships granted for struggling children, or feeding 100 people) creates even more positivity and really drives home a sense of accomplishment and giving.
After your fundraising event, follow up with your attendees to collect the pledged amounts, preferably within a day. Include key details like their paddle number, amount they pledged, and multiple payment options. Thank all the participants, regardless of whether they donated or not.
A Few Tips to Enhance Your Paddle Raise
Here are a few extra things to ensure you get the most out of your paddle raise(s):
- Pre-committing a handful of donors: Reach out to some of your long time supporters, and ask for an early commitment to a particular level, especially the higher ones. Hesitation in the opening rounds of the raise can affect the overall contributions negatively. When attendees see paddles being raised immediately even at higher tiers, it gives them confidence to donate more.
- Host it at the right time: If your paddle raise is part of a larger fundraising event (as is most common), avoid doing it right after a meal break when attendees are a bit languid, or at the very end of the event when a lot of them have left already.
- Celebrate milestones during the raise: Every time you get significantly closer to hitting the day’s target, celebrate it. For example, if your goal is to raise $30000, then announce and celebrate when the contributions reach $5000, $15000, maybe hit a gong at $25000, and so on. Also, make sure to recognize all contributions, big or small, with equal excitement.
Almabase - A Powerful Tool for Hosting Your Paddle Raise
At its core, a paddle raise is fairly simple. But behind that simplicity is a lot of manual tracking like volunteers noting down pledges, someone tallying totals, and follow-up calls or emails to actually collect what was pledged. This is usually where a platform like Almabase can take some of that load off your team.
Instead of clipboards and spreadsheets, Almabase gives you a real-time dashboard of the event as it unfolds, so pledges don't need to be re-entered after the fact. Since collecting payment is often the trickiest part, you can also capture a guest's card at registration and charge pledges automatically once the raise wraps, rather than chasing donors down individually.
A couple of other things worth mentioning: contributions can be routed straight to the fund or project they were raised for, and everything syncs directly with your CRM so your donor records stay accurate without extra data entry.
None of this replaces a great emcee or an emotionally engaged room, but it does mean less time spent staring at numbers, and more time celebrating what you raised.
Request a personalized demo to see how this would look for you!
How to run a successful paddle raise (fund-a-need) at your event
Learn what a paddle raise is, how you can run one successfully, as well as a few tips to make your paddle raise stand out.
Hari Govind
September 4, 2026
12 minutes
Modern donors expect deeply relevant, personalized communications, especially when it’s alumni hearing from their alma mater. Generic messages won’t cut it, but it can also be difficult to make your appeals stand out when you’re making the same ask every year. To develop annual fund appeal letters that drive revenue and deepen relationships, you need a strategic approach.
Annual fund appeals succeed when they have refined messaging, emotional resonance, and enough variation to win donors’ support outside of flashier, major campaigns. In this post, we’ll explore a few key ways to elevate your university’s next ask.
1. Center Authentic Student Storytelling
Donors give to people, not institutions, making personal narratives one of the most effective fundraising and marketing strategies you can use. By shifting the focus from university-wide achievements to the tangible success of individual students, you foster a direct emotional connection with your audience and demonstrate the real, lasting impact of their donations.
Instead of relying on generic asks for annual fund appeal letters, incorporate the stories of individual students and the scholarships and programs that empower them to thrive. For instance, you might share how a first-generation nursing student used a grant to complete their clinical rotations, or include a quote from a scholarship recipient about how attending your university made their dreams a reality.
No matter how you incorporate storytelling into your appeals, Meyer Partners recommends using the three R's of storytelling to make them as impactful and ethical as possible:
- Resonance: Every story should include real, humanizing details that resonate with donors. Let students tell their stories in their own words, and pair testimonials with photos whenever possible.
- Relevance: Make sure the donor can clearly understand their role in the story. Use donor-centric language that appeals directly to supporters’ values, inspiring them to become the changemakers who support the next generation of students.
- Respect: Respect both your readers and your storytellers by maintaining authenticity. Be direct and honest about what donations can achieve, and always focus on positive emotions like empowerment rather than guilt or scare tactics.
Incorporate these stories into multiple elements of your annual fund campaign to ensure maximum visibility and consistency. For example, you might include quotes from a student in your direct mail appeals, then post a selfie video of the same student telling their story on social media.
2. Highlight Impactful Giving Opportunities
To maximize revenue and increase average gift sizes, ask for more than standard, one-time cash gifts in your annual appeal letters. Offer additional giving options that provide greater flexibility and can increase donors’ long-term impact. These opportunities are often more compelling, especially for young alumni looking for accessible options and for high-capacity donors looking to make the most of their donations.
Specifically, use your annual appeals to highlight opportunities like:
Matching Gifts
The easiest way to make supporters’ donations go further is to double them. Typically, donors can double the impact of their gifts at no extra cost in one of two ways:
- Your university offers a matching donation challenge. Organizations often partner with a major donor who commits to matching every dollar donated within a set timeframe, up to a certain amount. These challenges motivate individual donors to give urgently so they don’t miss out on the match.
- Donors request corporate matching gifts from their employers. At any time, donors who work for participating companies can independently request matching donations from their workplaces. If the request meets the employer’s guidelines (e.g., a donation between $10 and $100 to a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit), they’ll match their employee’s gift.
Either way, donation matching is a powerful motivator, especially during year-end giving season. Feature matching gifts prominently in your annual fund appeals, explaining how to participate and why these donations are so impactful.
Recurring Giving
Imagine you’re a recent graduate just starting your career and trying to pay off student loans. You wouldn’t want to donate $1,000 to the university you left last year, but it might be feasible to give $20 a month. In this case, you’re much more likely to respond to an appeal that highlights recurring giving.
Recurring gifts offer a more manageable opportunity to support your university while deepening donor relationships. In your annual fund appeal letters, include the option to give monthly and provide several accessible donation tiers.
Legacy Giving
Plant the seed for long-term support by introducing planned giving and bequest options in your annual appeals, too. These avenues empower alumni to leave a lasting mark on your institution without requiring an immediate, large-scale donation.
Even if most donors aren’t ready to commit to a legacy gift right now, just including information about planned giving in your appeal can get them thinking about it. Include links in emails and QR codes in direct mail letters so supporters can easily learn more on your university’s website or request a meeting with your major gifts officer. Note each donor who shows interest in the program so you can cultivate the relationship over time.
3. Leverage Donor Data for Highly Personalized Appeals
The best fundraising strategies reflect the unique relationship each supporter has with your university. Highly personalized appeals show each donor that you value them as an individual and respect their unique contributions.
Use your donor and alumni data to tailor your asks as much as possible. Go beyond addressing recipients by their preferred names—reference their specific past involvement, giving history, and personal connections to the university. Acknowledging that an alumnus was on the debate team or that a donor consistently supports the engineering department validates their identity and gives them clear, specific reasons to give again.
Segment your donor lists in several ways to maximize relevancy, and regularly audit your donor database to ensure all contact information and engagement records are accurate before sending appeals.
If you aren’t sure how to best segment your audience, hone in on the highest-value potential donors, or match supporters with the right requests, consider professional donor analytics services. Experienced fundraising consultants who specialize in data analysis can help you optimize your strategy for this year’s annual fund appeal and well into the future.
An effective annual fund approach relies on deep personalization, authentic narratives, and a variety of flexible giving options tailored to your audience. Upgrading the underlying strategy of your communications with these tips will help you build stronger relationships with alumni and secure the financial future of your core programs.
3 Ways to Build a Better Annual Fund Appeal for Higher Ed
Asking for donations to your annual fund can feel repetitive, but your appeal letters shouldn’t be. Learn how to develop better annual fund appeals here.
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Alyssa Jefferies
September 3, 2026
12 minutes
LinkedIn continues to stay relevant for alumni outreach in 2026 as it is one of the most comprehensive self-updating directories from an advancement standpoint. Over 50% of LinkedIn’s user base holds a higher-education degree, and ~53% of US college graduates are active on the platform.
That means your alumni not only present but also likely engaging with a variety of content. But as far as reaching out to them goes, being present on LinkedIn and being reachable are two different things, and the wrong outreach strategy can disinterest or even alienate alumni.
In this blog, we’ll go through whether LinkedIn is worth your time for alumni outreach and how you can get your alumni’s attention effectively.
Is LinkedIn outreach worth the investment?
Let’s start with understanding why LinkedIn is different from the other channels
LinkedIn InMail gets a 10–25% response rate while cold email, by comparison, sits at 1–5%. The platform’s natural context is also a big factor here because when an alum receives an InMail from their alma mater, it’s in a different environment to when they’re sorting through personal emails and family messages. They log on to LinkedIn with a certain mindset, which makes them more open to professional conversations.
LinkedIn also gives outreach teams more context about who they’re reaching before they begin the process such as:
- Where an alum works currently
- What they’ve recently posted
- What groups and communities they’re in
- Who the common connections are
That’s a lot of helpful material to tailor the first message that will hopefully be the start of a donor’s journey. Combine all of this with the social media nature of the platform and you get a channel that has a lot of potential if you approach it right.
LinkedIn Alumni Outreach Strategies
Now that we’ve established that LinkedIn is at least worth a look, let’s set your team up for success so that your messages don’t go ignored.
1. Build an Active Presence Before You Send a Message
Advancement teams (and most teams in any field, to be fair) tend to treat LinkedIn outreach the same way they’d treat a cold email campaign. They find the person, write the message, hit send, and hope for the best.
But LinkedIn is, at it’s core, a social network. Your alumni notice who’s following you, who’s commenting on your posts, and whether your institution has a solid presence on the platform. If your university’s LinkedIn page hasn’t posted in months and the last post was a stock photo of a campus building, it hurts your cause already.
Before you start an outreach campaign, make sure you tick all these boxes::
- First, make sure your institution’s LinkedIn page is active. Posting once per weekday helps you reach 60% of your followers in a month. You should be aiming for consistent presence over viral content.
- Secondly, look for mutual connections, a shared connection increases reply rates by 27%. If a colleague or another alum is already connected,
- Thirdly, follow the alum you plan to message and leave a genuine comment on something they’ve posted. If possible, build and nurture your online relationship with them. You should be looking to gain a follow-back. This can be crucial since alumni who already follow your institution are 81% more likely to respond to your InMail.
2. Build a Segmented List
Use your CRM along with LinkedIn's alumni search tool to understand who you will be sending your messages to. Many alumni engagement tools also allow you to better find, segment, and automate outreach to the right people.
The segmentation itself will be crucial as personalization is a big part of making your message stand out (as we will explain later), so take your time and make sure all your segments and alumni information is updated, synced, and ready to go.
3. Get the Subject Line Right
LinkedIn InMail by default gives you a 200-character subject line limit. When an alum receives your InMail as a notification, they see roughly 25 to 40 characters before the preview cuts off.
For this reason, short, specific, and personalized subject lines can work really well. For example: “A quick question from [University]” or “Connecting with [Name] re: mentorship”.
What won’t work on the other hand, is anything that sounds like a mass email campaign. Something like “Exciting news from the alumni office!” might feel generic or may confuse recipients.
4. Keep the Message Short and Simple
LinkedIn’s own data shows that InMails under 400 characters get higher response rates. Many institutions sometimes write messages much longer than this and have their messages scrolled past.
For your first message, your alums only need enough to understand what you’re asking and if it's worth their time. If you have more context to give and more reasons to say why this outreach matters, that can follow later.
Write a ~300-character message that asks one clear question. The message can address the basics such as who you are, why you’re reaching out, and your one specific question.
5. Personalize Beyond the Name
Alumni can tell if a message was written for them or if someone just replaced a mail merge field, so you’ll want to go further than just swapping people’s first names. Here’s a few things that might help with personalization:
- Spend a couple of minutes on the alum’s profile; personalized InMails increase acceptance rates by about 40%, according to LinkedIn data. Mention a recent post they made, a project they were publicly credited for, a career transition they just went through, or a shared connection.
- Find a good natural connection between what you discover about them and what you’re reaching out about. If you’re inviting them to a career mentorship panel and they’ve been posting about early-career development, mention that. If you’re reaching out around their 10-year graduation anniversary, you definitely want to acknowledge it.
- Avoid mentioning generic and obvious things like “I see you graduated from [University].” Good personalization shows you’ve paid attention to their life after graduation and you have a brief window that you want to make the most out of, especially for less-engaged alumni.
6. Templates for Common Outreach Scenarios
Here are some templates that you could borrow and build on to personalize your next outreach message on LinkedIn:
General reconnect:
"Hi [Name], congrats on the move to [Company]. I'm on the alumni relations team at [University]. We're putting together a small group of alumni at your career stage to get some honest input on our programs. Would a 15-minute call work?"
Mentorship opportunity:
"Hi [Name], I work in alumni relations at [University]. Saw your recent post on [topic] and thought you'd be a great fit for our mentorship program. We're matching alumni with students in [field]. Would you have 30 minutes to hear more?"
Upcoming event:
"Hi [Name], I'm with alumni relations at [University]. We're hosting a small dinner for [City] alumni on [date] and wanted to make sure you were on the list. Can I send you the details?"
Giving day:
"Hi [Name], [University]'s giving day is [date]. This year all gifts are going toward [initiative]. Wanted to reach out personally before things kick off. Can I send you a bit more context on what it supports?"
What each of these has in common is one clear ask and customization that shows the sender did their homework before reaching out.
7. Time Your Outreach Well
LinkedIn data shows that Friday and Saturday see 4% and 8% fewer than average responses, respectively. Your alumni may want to relax and disconnect from the professional world on the weekends, so Monday through Thursday is a good window. However, depending on your event calendar, and past alumni engagement data, this can vary a bit so do double check!
Going back to the mentioned window, Sprout Social's analysis of nearly 2 billion engagements across major social platforms points to Tuesday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., as LinkedIn's peak activity window. That's when professionals are most actively checking and responding on the platform, so it's your best shot at being seen before your message gets buried.
8. What to Do When Alumni Reply
Your next message after an alum replies sets the tone for the entire conversation that follows and the subsequent relationship. So here’s a few things to keep in mind:
- Reply quickly, ideally within a few hours of seeing their response.
- Thank them by name and reference something specific from their reply.
- Remember that this is a conversation on a social platform.
The goal should be to establish that your team and, by extension, your institution has a real interest in keeping in touch with them after graduation. For this reason, you’ll want to:
- Find out what they’re working on.
- Ask follow-up questions.
- Make it clear that there is no immediate ask attached.
💡This doubles as an opportunity to get updated information in case their profile information hasn’t been updated in a while.
Alumni who are connected to their institution are 23 times more likely to donate than those who aren’t. That connection, however, has to be built through consistent, genuine interaction over time. So, when it’s time to make an ask, it’s coming from the context of the conversation.
Build a LinkedIn Alumni Community (and not just another contact list)
At the end of the day, one-on-one outreach can only take you so far. Advancement and alumni relations teams that are able to keep alumni engaged are also building environments where alumni feel like they want to stay engaged.
If we are sticking to the platform at hand, LinkedIn Groups are a great way to do this. You can organize alumni groups around:
- Your institution
- Graduation cohorts
- Academic departments
- Regional chapters
- Donor groups
- Matching gift opportunities
…and much much more
AdvancementForm looked at what the institutions running active alumni groups have in common. Here are the main takeaways:
- Stay active every day: Keith Hannon of Cornell University shared that two-thirds of alumni relations professionals running thriving LinkedIn communities log in daily. That includes posting, answering questions, responding to comments, and engaging with what other members are sharing.
- Give alumni the spotlight: Spotlighting a graduate's career achievement or resharing something they wrote brings their audience into your content. Even the simple act of tagging alumni where needed will ensure that their network is notified as well.
- Share career resources such as job postings, industry reads/insights, career advice for alumni at different stages and make sure they are updated frequently. This is the content that consistently performs well as it provides a clear reason to engage.
- Mix up your content formats: Posts with images get a 98% higher comment rate than those without, and posts with YouTube videos (that play directly in the feed) get a 75% higher share rate. Varying your formats will keep the feed from feeling like a broadcast channel.
- Ask alumni to help current students: Academic Impressions flags this as an especially meaningful way to engage alumni because it gives them an opportunity to give back give back, even without a financial element. Posting something like "What do you wish someone told you in your first year in [industry]?" gets replies from alumni who would otherwise never comment on, say, an event announcement.
- Run polls: Lebanon Valley College asked their alumni "What career field are you currently in or looking to enter?" and it sparked a lively, ongoing discussion among their alumni. Polls can be a great icebreaker and contextualizing them to recent events, career stages, or other segmented needs is even better!
- Add in the nostalgia angle: Questions and posts about campus memories or institutional history give alumni interactive content that serves as a break on their feed from the usual LinkedIn content while also reminding them of why they feel connected to their school.
Finally, if you're thinking about content ratios, keep it weighted toward value-first content, career resources, alumni recognition, and conversation, with campaigns and event promotion playing a supporting role, not leading the feed.
Measure Your Progress and Know Your Blind Spots
You need to know whether your efforts are paying off. So, if you’re running structured outreach campaign on LinkedIn, here are the metrics which will help you track what's working:
- Connection acceptance rate: You generally want to aim for ~20% or above. If you're below that, check whether you're warming up contacts before sending requests and whether your institution's page looks active and credible.
- InMail response rate: With personalized, well-targeted outreach, this should sit between 10–25%. Single-digit numbers are an indication to look at your message length, your subject line preview, and how specific your personalization is.
- Conversation-to-action rate: This tracks what percentage of replies converts into whatever your goal is, whether that’s an event registration, a scheduled call, or a gift.
The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) tracks alumni engagement across four modes: philanthropic, volunteer, experiential, and communications.
LinkedIn activity can feed into your experiential and communications metrics. If you’re not tracking LinkedIn engagement as part of your overall alumni engagement scorecard, you should consider starting now.
A few common blind spots that can be avoided include:
- Reaching out only when there's an ask: If alumni only hear from you around giving day or annual fund season, the outreach feels transactional. Only 27% of alumni who donate give to their alma mater. The most common reason others don't give is because they don't feel connected enough to make it a priority.
- Writing LinkedIn messages like emails: Avoid long messages, formal language, attached PDFs when LinkedIn is conversational. Keep messages short, and the tone conversational.Save the documents for follow-up conversations.
- Ignoring alumni who engage with your posts: When an alum comments on something your institution shared, respond to them, thank them by name, and if appropriate, send a connection request with a brief personal note referencing what they said.
- Not knowing what comes next when someone replies: Replying to a message without a clear next step might waste the opening you had spent time and effort on. Know what you’re trying to accomplish before you send the first message so that when someone replies, you’re ready to take the conversation forward.
Final Thoughts
We hope we’ve been able to give you and your team plenty of things to keep in mind. While LinkedIn outreach may seem like a simple game of numbers at first glance, any outreach campaigns involving social media rarely tend to be so predictable and you definitely want to keep that in mind.
To wrap things up, keep personalization (and segmentation by extension) at the heart of your strategy, have a consistent presence on LinkedIn just as you probably do with Facebook or Instagram, and make sure you are thinking about how to take the conversation forward many weeks ahead of time so that alumni feel appreciated after reacting to your outreach.
If you are looking for an alumni engagement platform to help you plan, execute, and measure your alumni outreach and engagement strategy, Almabase is built just for that so feel free to book a personalized demo with us!
How to Reach Out to Alumni on LinkedIn and Get Responses
Our article takes you through LinkedIn alumni outreach and how your team or institution can ensure that your alumni don't ignore your messages.
Prajnya Yelamali
September 2, 2026
12 minutes
The holiday season is just around the corner. As the festive season brings your alumni home to visit their loved ones, it also presents one of the best opportunities for your institution to connect with your alumni on a deeper level and lay the lego blocks for lifetime relationships.
The festive spirit is high in the air but the 2020 holiday season is one-of-a-kind in its truest essence. The pandemic might have affected several segments of your alumni differently - confining some to work tirelessly from their homes while balancing their social lives, exposing frontline healthcare workers to massive risks, robbing some of their jobs and even near and dear ones due to the virus. At a time like this, it's particularly important for your institution to support your alumni and deliver the highest value.
So, how do you best leverage this holiday season to drive more alumni engagement? After observing hundreds of schools driving success with their alumni network over the years, we've found these top 5 strategies that can help your school, college, or university boost alumni engagement rates this holiday season:
1. Conduct Professional Networking Events
2020 has already set a landmark record for one of the highest unemployment rates in the United States. The alarming numbers projected by the US. Bureau of Labour Logistics is a clear indicator of why your alumni need your support now more than ever.
With the pandemic resulting in the worst job market since the Great Depression, your younger alumni are at an even larger risk as they lose their on-campus jobs, internships, and are already witnessing dwindling job opportunities.
Amidst all this chaos, professional networking events are one of the surest ways to provide value to your alumni and help them in these dire times of need. Corporate jobs respect recommendations, and applicants actively seek social connections and support. Leverage your existing network and motivate influential alumni to help their peers out in these dire times of need.
Your alumni network has a wealth of knowledge that your current students and graduates, both can benefit greatly from. Get your community together for webinars, discussion panels, podcasts, workshops, and much more to lead the way towards professional growth for your alumni.
Here's how Fordham University's Alumni: Help A Ram Today campaign supports Class of 2020 graduates by encouraging alumni to hire these young grads for a full-/part-time job or an internship.
2. Host a Virtual Holiday Party
What are holidays without holiday parties? The landscape this year might look somewhat different due to the pandemic but that shouldn't rob your alumni of the opportunity of connecting with long-lost peers, toast to each other's good health, and ring in the holidays from the comfort of their homes.
A great alternative to continuing with the tradition of hosting holiday parties this year is to do it virtually. Holidays are the perfect time to get your alumni together over a couple of drinks and celebrate over an e-party. A surefire way to grab more alumni attention and drive attendance is to create themes like 80′s retro or a Christmas Character Party. To make it easy for you to manage and even easier for your alumni to participate, host your virtual party over Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or another common video conferencing tool.
3. Raise Funds to Support Your Community
With the pandemic leading to forced furloughs, students having to drop out of schools, and many small businesses shutting down, your constituents need your support now more than ever. Make the most of the holiday spirit and find ways to fundraise for your community.
Riding high on the giving spirit this holiday season, also urge your community to come in support of your institution’s cause by helping with emergency needs and in bracing the impact of the pandemic.
Planning your annual holiday drive to raise funds for academic continuity or to support your community are perfect examples of fundraising asks for this year.
4. Send Seasons Greetings E-Cards
A simple gesture such as sending creative e-cards is a great way to express festive greetings, gratitude, and acknowledgment for your alumni network's contribution to your institution. Include this as part of your yearly holiday activity to drive engagement and foster lasting alumni relationships.
The example from the University of Westminister works as the perfect inspiration here. The school rolled out 30-second animated e-cards to wish happy holidays and thank their alumni for their ongoing support.
5. Leverage Social Media Platforms to the Fullest
Social media is a dominant tool today and has a lot of potential for alumni engagement. Young alumni especially spend considerable time scrolling their feeds daily.
If your institution has an online presence on these platforms, use them to encourage higher participation. If you’re unsure about where to start, you can consider looping in student volunteers to ramp up your social media presence and start driving engagement with your alumni online.
Drive more engagement online by conducting live chats, contest giveaways, and posting yearbook pictures to evoke nostalgia and create a buzz amongst your alumni community. You can even encourage alumni to post their 'throwbacks' with the right hashtags and repost them on your channels.
Ugly sweater contests have also become a yearly trend, with universities and other schools creating innovative rules and giveaways to attract greater participation. Take cues from Boston University's Annual Ugly Holiday Sweater Contest to create one for your community this holiday season.
Make the Most of This Holiday Season
With the holidays arriving soon, there are many opportunities to express unconditional support and boost alumni relations and engagement.
Your alumni are your family and the holidays are the perfect time of the year to showcase solidarity.
Want To Drive Higher Alumni Engagement This Holiday Season? Tap Into These 5 Go-To Strategies
The holiday season is just around the corner and it presents one of the best opportunities for your institution to connect with your alumni on a deeper level. Take a deep dive into the top 5 strategies that can help your school, college, or university boost alumni engagement rates this holiday season.
Alumni Engagement
As an alumni association professional, one of your most crucial responsibilities is to secure fundraising revenue. Giving days, such as Giving Tuesday, are a prime opportunity to raise a large amount of funds quickly.
While giving days last just 24 hours, you should begin preparing for Giving Tuesday far in advance. For universities today, attracting attention on Giving Tuesday requires a strong online presence and digital fundraising strategy. Using popular hashtags like #GivingTuesday is a step in the right direction. However, attracting alumni who will continue to give long-term requires developing engaging content, presenting it strategically, and maintaining communication to build a long-term relationship.
Based on years of experience assisting nonprofits and educational institutions in developing their Giving Tuesday fundraising strategies, here are four key best practices alumni associations can use next Giving Tuesday.
1. Use data to optimize your outreach.
Set your alumni fundraiser up for success by conducting prospect research beforehand. Prospect research is the practice of evaluating your organization’s prospective donors by their capacity and affinity to give.
Essentially, prospect research allows your organization to identify alumni who are in the best financial position to donate, and that have the strongest affinity toward your organization. Ask yourself the following when evaluating prospects:
- Does this alumnus participate in alumni association activities, such as events and mentorship programs?
- Has this alumnus given to our university in the past?
- Is this alumnus employed, and do they have secure financial footing?
Use this information to focus your fundraising efforts. However, keep in mind that it can still be worthwhile to contact lower-earning recent graduates and alumni to begin building relationships for future engagements.
2. Select your marketing channels based on alumni data.
The more potential supporters you can get in touch with, the more your Giving Day fundraiser will raise. To reach more alumni, your university should take a multi-channel approach by marketing the campaign on a variety of platforms.
NXUnite’s guide to starting a fundraiser suggests several different outreach channels to market on:
- Email is the most direct way to reach alumni online. Create segmented email lists based on each alumni’s past interactions with your university and the prospect research you conducted in the previous step. Track your email appeals by monitoring open and clickthrough rates, which can provide information about the effectiveness of your subject lines and the body content of your messages, respectively.
- Your website should host essential information about your Giving Day fundraiser, such as your fundraising goal, what the donations will help your university accomplish, and if there are any matching gift opportunities. Monitor your overall traffic, as well as bounce rate and time-on-page to determine if your website is attracting alumni and interesting them enough to engage them.
- Peer-to-peer outreach can be useful for attracting supporters outside of your university’s core community. Recruit students and alumni to become peer-to-peer fundraisers and direct them to request donations from their friends and family on your university’s behalf. Encourage each of your fundraising volunteers to set a goal for themselves, whether it’s the total raised or the number of potential donors they reached out to. These goals will help motivate your volunteers and allow your organization to monitor their progress.
- Your blog helps you keep your most dedicated supporters engaged. Create posts promoting your upcoming Giving Day fundraisers and follow-up articles reporting on its success afterward. Ensure you also have a variety of other engaging content to keep alumni interested in participating in your organization long-term.
- Social media is one of the core marketing tools for GivingTuesday campaigns. Research which sites your alumni use and those platforms’ conversion rates. For example, reports show Facebook has a 9% conversion rate, Instagram 18%, and TikTok 2.3%. However, if the majority of your alumni primarily use Facebook that platform may be the most useful for your fundraising efforts even if it has a lower average conversion rate than Instagram.
Managing multiple communication channels can be a strain on your resources, and not all platforms will produce the same return on investment. When selecting your outreach channels, consider your data from past marketing campaigns to determine which platforms yielded the highest engagement rates.
3. Provide creative outlets for alumni to give back.
Straightforward outreach through phone calls, direct mail, and email are all core parts of fundraising. However, you can leverage your technology to further engage your alumni and provide them with creative, memorable ways to give.
For example, many Giving Day campaigns include an event. Hosting an event provides a tangible reason why alumni should give on that specific day while also inviting them to participate in fun activities and engage with your university.
To make these events accessible to your entire alumni community, consider how you can take your Giving Day event online. Let’s walk through an example of a popular but often complex fundraiser, the silent auction. To encourage more bidding on your giving day, use gamification strategies like:
- Leaderboards. Invoke friendly competition by using your auction site to display which guests have bid the most, are currently the top bidder for big-ticket prizes, or have given the most in donations overall. Ensure your leaderboard is updated in real-time so participants who want to climb it can see their name rise with each bid.
- Push notifications. For silent and online auctions, it’s easy for participants to walk away from an item and subsequently forget to keep bidding on it. Use auction software that sends guests automatic alerts when they’re outbid or when your auction is about to close. You can gamify these notifications by adding sound effects and creating a special negative display screen for when they’re outbid and a uniquely positive one for when they are winning again.
- Strategic bidding features. Allow participants to craft a bidding strategy with auction features like the ability to automatically outbid up to a certain amount or offer a “buy it now” option for a few prizes. This encourages participants to think more critically about which items they want and how they’ll respond to potential bidding wars, increasing their engagement.
If you have never hosted an event like an auction virtually before, consider meeting with a technology consultant who can help you set up your event platform and step in quickly to resolve any technical issues that may occur during the event.
4. Focus on offering value through strong content.
Recently alumni donations have been decreasing. This is due to a variety of factors, including economic instability, new legislation, and the fact that 93% of alumni organizations provide no benefits or only content that alumni do not find worthwhile.
Avoid this for your association by offering valuable content in exchange for alumni gifts. While alumni may no longer attend classes at your university, you can still demonstrate your value in their lives by publishing informative content, hosting networking events, and sharing stories about current students.
Effective data management can help you identify pertinent topics. Look into your database and find survey answers, demographic information, and more to base your content on. Then, host events and create content on subjects that are relevant to your alumni, such as current events or topics related to specific professions.
In your donation appeals, consider what content you can offer your alumni. For example, you could provide webinars or panels on current challenges your alumni might face in the workplace—such as how to succeed in a hybrid workplace—or virtual happy hours where they can connect with one each other. Consider getting faculty involved to provide their subject matter expertise and give former students the chance to talk with their former professors.
Giving days are an opportunity to rally your university’s community together and raise funds to continue providing current and former students with the resources they need to succeed professionally. Focus on your approach and engage alumni by using your data to guide outreach and event hosting.
About the author:
Carl Diesing, Managing Director – Carl co-founded DNL OmniMedia in 2006 and has grown the team to accommodate clients with ongoing web development projects. Together DNL OmniMedia has worked with over 100 organizations to assist them with accomplishing their online goals. As Managing Director of DNL OmniMedia, Carl works with nonprofits and their technology to foster fundraising, create awareness, cure disease, and solve social issues. Carl lives in the Hudson Valley with his wife Sarah and their two children Charlie and Evelyn.
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Alumni Fundraising For Giving Days: 4 Technology-Driven Tips
Technology can transform your university’s fundraisers to help you connect with alumni and raise more. Learn how to leverage your technology for giving days.
Fundraising
With the overwhelming success that Giving Tuesdays have shown to have brought to schools and universities across the globe, it is time we started talking about how to make the most of your Giving Tuesday.
Giving Tuesday, widely recognized as an annual day of giving, is a great opportunity for your school or university to engage with potential donors and raise funds.
With Giving Tuesday 2021 just around the corner, here’s our checklist to help you plan an awesome Giving Tuesday.
Plan ahead & set clear goals
1. Choose your core team, define responsibilities, and have regular meetings to plan and track execution
2. Set a defined structure, target audience, and actionable goals while creating the plan
3. Finalize the budget
4. Identify and begin to solicit prospective donors and other sponsors
5. Create a branded donation page to showcase your school spirit. Data shows that donors are much more comfortable to donate on a donation page that looks like yours than to an unbranded Venmo or Paypal page.
Build a compelling campaign theme
1. A unique and compelling theme helps your donors connect better and acts as an incentive for them to donate to a cause that they believe in. One of our customers, Don Bosco Prep High School raised more than $25K, asking its alumni to donate towards the specific cause of building a Wellness Center for its students.
2. Build all of your communication collateral about the Giving Day around it
3. Create a unique hashtag to help spread the word about your Giving Day further and faster on social media.
Mobilize your ambassadors
1. Bring your ambassadors on board to promote your Giving Day and take ownership or share your team’s responsibilities
2. Solicit personal appeals from influential people of your school like teachers, famous alumni, board members, etc. further inspiring donors to donate
3. Spread the word about your Giving Day extensively amongst your faculty and staff inclusive of board members, class representatives, and chapter admins
Ensure a smooth giving experience
1. With recent trends suggesting that an increasing number of donations are being made from mobile devices, ensure that your platform is mobile compatible
2. Enable peer-to-peer solicitation for your donors to reach out to their network
3. Display challenges and leaderboards to help donors get a sense of their contribution and encourage more participation through healthy competition
Leverage social media marketing
1. Create a detailed communication plan and calendar much ahead of your Giving Tuesday
2. Build a social media toolkit to help your team and ambassadors promote your Giving Tuesday campaign
3. Use Facebook or Instagram Live scheduling to actively engage with your donors and share with them live updates on the day itself to influence bigger contributions.
Leverage different content formats & multiple channels
1. You don’t have to necessarily stick to one format or channel. Experiment with multiple formats such as images, videos, or long-form captions.
2. Videos can help a great deal in the promotion of your Giving Tuesday campaign and encourage donors. Just a short video created with a smartphone can create a more personalized approach aimed at your donors. Try to involve the head of school or faculty in creating these videos.
3. Utilize offline channels to promote your campaign. Publishing updates in your print newsletter and distributing flyers in local coffee shops are some of the techniques you can try to publicize your campaign offline.
Thank all those who contributed
Sending a simple and short thank you email to your donors at the end of the day is a great practice to let them know how thankful you are for their contribution. Ensure that this note doesn’t ask for another donation and instead, only is a means of expressing gratitude. The thank-you gesture has shown to have increased the chances of the same donors contributing again.
Giving Tuesday has become a global movement that celebrates and supports giving and philanthropy with events throughout the year.
We wish your team make it BIG and make the best of this Giving Tuesday.
Need more pointers on planning your Giving Day?
Check out our Comprehensive Guide on Planning A Giving Day for Schools & Universities.
How to make the most of Giving Tuesday?
Get this GivingTuesday checklist for hosting a successful campaign for your school, college, or university in 2021. Boost alumni donations & drive peer-to-peer fundraising.
Fundraising
If you work in higher-education, you’re probably ramping up for Giving Tuesday, but if your organization is not already doing that, you better get started. If you’ve never heard of this day that’s filled with philanthropic spirit, no worries! Giving Tuesday, a day devoted to charitable giving, marks the beginning of the year-end giving season. It falls on the Tuesday directly after Thanksgiving and is one of the most highly-anticipated days of giving across the world.
This day alone brings in millions of dollars for higher education institutions, so it’s important to leverage it in your fundraising strategy. Specifically, the higher ed market stands to gain substantial sums of money from alumni and other major givers on this day.
This year, Giving Tuesday is in December, but it’s never too early to start prepping! To ensure your institution or organization reaches its maximum Giving Tuesday potential, do the following:
1. Create a reasonable timeline
2. Set aspirational goals
3. Communicate before, during, and after
4. Enable multiple donation platforms
5. Inquire about matching gifts
6. Rely on volunteer fundraisers
If you need a refresher on why the giving season is so important, visit this end-of-year fundraising guide.
Ready to have the best giving season ever? Let’s get started!
1. Create a Reasonable Timeline
As with any fundraising endeavor, your institution can’t wait until the last minute to plan. Otherwise, you’ll wind up with a chaotic mess that doesn’t come anywhere close to its potential.
While it may just be one day of the year, it’s the most important day of the year for fundraising. So treat it as such. Crafting your Giving Tuesday plan requires a lot of careful planning and communication.
Specifically, you’ll need to engage two main groups of people before the big day: your employees and your supporters (both current and potential). Before you can even conduct outreach, your team needs to be on the same page. That means fully planning your campaign by doing the following:
- Setting goals and timelines. Remember, this day kicks off end-of-year giving. Span your timeline over the course of giving season, with the biggest goals set on Giving Tuesday. Read on to learn about the types of goals you should set.
- Planning your outreach strategy. Before contacting any prospects, you should plan your strategy. This means planning your posts, emails, and so on and determining what they’ll say. For posts after Giving Tuesday, plan outlines for different types of end results. For instance, you should outline separate posts for meeting your goals, not quite reaching your goals, and exceeding your goals.
When you plan ahead and consider multiple campaign outcomes, you set your institution up for fundraising success!
2. Communicate goals with your team
Your Giving Tuesday ideas (get inspiration here!) might be more creative than any other campaign you’ve ever created, but creativity means nothing without communicated goals. You need to make sure that your entire team is on the same page so that everyone is working towards the same overarching goal.
There are a number of goals you can set. For instance, your institution may set the following goals:
1. Financial goals
2. Total number of donors
3. Number of recurring donors
4. Number of new donors
5. Percentage of participating alumni
While these goals can be measured via metrics, there are others that don’t rely on numbers. While you should implement measurable goals, consider making qualitative objectives, too. For instance, maybe you want to provide donors with opportunities to actively engage with you. Perhaps you want to simply spread the word about your higher education organization. Regardless of the goals you choose, they should be aspirational but still attainable. That way, you don’t sell yourself short, but you don’t create goals that are impossible to reach, either.
3. Communicate before, during, and after
As you’ve learned, before even launching your campaign, you should communicate the goals and explain the fundraising strategies to your team. Once the campaign is fully planned, your employees will need to conduct outreach to both current and potential supporters. Outreach should continue throughout the entire campaign. Throughout your campaign, keep both your staff and supporters updated on the progress. That way, they know when they need to step up their efforts to reach your goals.
Remember, whatever goals you choose, your employees need to be on the same page. That means continuous communication. Otherwise, neither your employees nor your donors will have a solid understanding of what they’re trying to achieve. Then, once your campaign wraps up, thank your donors personally via email, so they feel valued. Additionally, use social media to announce the end totals in relation to your goal.
Your campaign isn’t over until you announce your end totals. Since the giving season continues over the course of the next several months, you shouldn’t wrap up quite yet. Instead, you should post an update once Giving Tuesday ends and say where your organization stands in relation to its total goal for the rest of the giving season.
4. Enable multiple donation platforms
Planning, communication, and aspirational goals mean nothing if your donors don’t have a way to give! To ensure that your college or university receives the most funds possible on Giving Tuesday, you’ll need to enable multiple donation platforms. You likely already have the basics set up, like an online donation page or direct mail giving. However, if you don’t enable other ways to give, you won’t make as much revenue as you possibly can.
To start, look at the types of donations you allow. In other words, don’t just allow credit and debit card donations. Allow cash donations, check donations, donor-advised fund gifts, foundation giving, and so on. Also, for those who have the affinity to give but not the capacity, provide volunteer opportunities for events. By encouraging the philanthropic spirit, you let them know their efforts are recognized. Then, if they ever acquire the funds to donate, they’ll be more likely to give! Text-to-give is also on the rise. Get creative with your ways to give. Don’t limit your donors! Multiple donation platforms shouldn’t exist only on Giving Tuesday. Rather, you should enable several platforms year-round to accommodate all donors. That way, you boost your fundraising potential!
5. Inquire about matching gifts
If you’re not already aware, corporate philanthropy has changed the fundraising game for all players in the nonprofit world. When an employee of a company with a matching gift program donates, the employer then matches that donation, so long as the donation meets the company’s criteria. In other words, eligible contributions might be doubled, or maybe even tripled depending on the program guidelines! Some major companies will even match the donations that your volunteers raise from their friends and family on your behalf! It’s all about locating those opportunities, so you don’t miss out on any revenue opportunities.
A good way to start the conversation about matching gifts is to create a dedicated matching gift page on your website. You can also add information about corporate giving on your Ways to Give page. From here, start devoting time to making matching gift appeals, such as direct mail, emails, social media posts, and so on. When valuable supporters learn their donations can be multiplied without reaching back into their own pockets, they’ll likely take an extra five minutes to fill out the necessary forms. As a higher education institution with a substantial donor base, you are undoubtedly missing out on major revenue opportunities. However, if you leverage dedicated software, you can pinpoint all of your matching gift opportunities.
Remember, Giving Tuesday produces substantial amounts of revenue for colleges and universities, so if you can multiply your donations through matching gifts, do it.
6. Rely on volunteer fundraisers
Just like corporate philanthropy, peer-to-peer fundraising is on the rise, too! Giving Tuesday is the perfect opportunity to reach out to your supporters to raise money on your behalf. Since your institution likely has more donors than the average organization, you stand to gain major revenue from volunteer fundraising.
If you’re unfamiliar with peer-to-peer fundraising, here’s how they typically work:
1. Your fundraising team sets goals and timelines like any other campaign
2. You choose a peer-to-peer fundraising platform
3. Your team recruits and trains your volunteers
4. Participants create personalized pages where they’ll fundraise for you
5. Volunteers share their pages and encourage friends and family to donate
Volunteer fundraising ensures that you’re reaching the widest possible audience. Instead of only reaching your current supporters, you’ll reach supporters’ friends and family, too! To kick off your peer-to-peer research, check out these six proven peer-to-peer fundraising strategies that bring success.
Plus, you can incentivize participants to raise more with gamification tools. Gamification can mean anything from leaderboards to badges to fundraising thermometers. Leaderboards show your participants those who have earned the most, and badges show up on participants’ profiles when they reach certain milestones. On the other hand, fundraising thermometers show overall financial progress toward your goal. There are several peer-to-peer fundraising platforms and tools on the market. Choose the ones that best align with your institution and its goals. That way, you enable your volunteer fundraisers to do the best campaigning possible!
The whole point of Giving Tuesday is to boost funds, but your institution can experience a number of other benefits, such as new donor acquisition and alumni engagement. The point is, the giving season represents a major opportunity for every organization in the nonprofit sector, including major schools. Remember, fully plan your campaign, set aspirational goals, and communicate effectively throughout the entire giving season. You should have multiple ways of giving, look for matching gift opportunities, and rely on your volunteers year-round. However, these strategies are especially important on Giving Tuesday. As always, remember to thank your supporters. Now, get out there, and plan for your institution’s best giving season ever!
About the author:
Adam Weinger is the President of Double the Donation, the leading provider of matching gift tools to nonprofit organizations and educational institutions. Adam created Double the Donation in order to help nonprofits increase their annual revenue through corporate matching gift and volunteer grant programs.
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Prepping for Giving Tuesday: How to Get Ready for the Most Philanthropic Day of the Year
Giving Tuesday is the most philanthropic day of the year. Boost your school, college, or university's funds on GivingTuesday 2020 by leveraging these best practices & exclusive strategies adopted by fundraising experts around the world.
Fundraising
As another year approaches its end and the holiday spirit hangs high in the air, how prepared are you to leverage this holiday season to double the impact of your donations?
Gift matching programs are a great way to drive revenue for your institution - they allow your donors to increase their donation amounts through employer benefits instead of their own wallets. Despite this, there is an estimated $4 to $7 billion in matching gifts that go unclaimed each year. Academic institutions could really benefit from that cash - so why aren’t they taking advantage of it?
Well, many organizations and donors alike are not very familiar with matching gift programs. In fact, 78% of match eligible donors don’t know anything about their gift matching programs. That means they are certainly not taking the extra step of submitting matching gift requests. So the most important thing to know about gift matching is that not enough donors know about gift matching programs.
Once you know that it is an awareness gap and not a motivation gap that stands in the way of matching gift revenue, it becomes easier to educate your donors and encourage them to drive their matching gift requests to completion.
This holiday season, leverage these 3 matching gift strategies to fuel your institution's fundraising efforts and upgrade your alumni programming.
Strategy #1: Educate Donors to Drive Awareness
As mentioned above, the main reason that your organization does not reach its potential in matching gifts is because donors are not aware that they are eligible for gift matching programs. As a nonprofit organization, it is your job to educate these donors because it can result in a lot of extra cash for your mission.
One of the best places to educate your donors is on your donation confirmation screen. Many matching gift requests are time sensitive, so it is important to educate your donors quickly, and the easiest way to do that is, of course, directly after their donation has been made.
Educating your donors on the confirmation screen also allows you to target them while they are still in the giving mindset. The donor obviously feels connected and committed to your organization, so they will welcome additional ways to increase their initial contribution.
To do this, simply add a couple of sentences about gift matching on your confirmation page. You can even use tools like 360MatchPro by Double the Donation to allow donors to search for the name of their employer and then read more about their own specific gift matching program.
By placing matching gift information directly onto your confirmation pages, you can target donors quickly and efficiently while they are still feeling connected to your organization. This increases the chances that they will learn more about employer gift matching and then pursue a matching gift request.
Strategy #2: Encourage Action Through Automated Outreach
After your donor learns more about gift matching, you still want to ensure that they take action and submit their matching gift request. That is why our next must-know strategy also involves direct donor communication. This time, however, it entails using automated emails to follow up with donors after the donation process.
Email messages are a great way to provide additional gift matching information that might not fit on your confirmation page. It also provides a second chance for your donor to submit their gift matching request. There are many automated email stream options that allow you to send matching gift emails to donors after the donation process.
If you use gift matching software like 360MatchPro, you can even automate these messages to contain gift matching information that is specific to your donor’s employer.
These messages contain specific guidelines based on the information that your donor entered on the confirmation page.This can include employer match amounts, eligibility and a link to submit a gift matching request. This makes it easy for the donor to learn more about gift matching and take the final step of driving their gift to completion.
Automated emails that contain general matching gift information are especially important because even if your donor did not enter their employer into the gift matching tool you’re using, they might still be eligible for a matching gift. They might have simply neglected to read the confirmation page or they did not think that matching gift programs applied to them, which could be based on the awareness gap that we discussed before.
Most nonprofits choose to customize this email so that it matches their brand’s unique voice. Automated email outreach is a lucrative strategy that encourages donors to complete gift matching requests. It is a great way to further educate donors and help them secure extra funding for your organization.
Strategy #3: Track Insights to Plan Future Initiatives
The gift matching process produces valuable insights about your donors. This can include where they work, their matching gift eligibility and their response to automated outreach. It is important to keep track of this data so that you can better develop your ongoing fundraising strategies.
That is why the final need-to-know strategy involves tracking donor insights. By tracking the information that is produced from matching gift strategies, you can tailor future outreach and ensure that you are creating an effective matching gift approach.
360MatchPro can actually track all of these insights for you using its automated technology. While you could manually record all of this data, the 360MatchPro dashboard stores it for you in one, easy-to-navigate space.
Using this information, you could thank your donors for their matching gift request, or you could automate follow up emails to donors who did not open your first message. For example, if you have a donor named Jenny from the Home Depot who submits a matching gift request, you could wait to receive the gift, then send Jenny a personalized message that thanks her for her request and explains how it helped your organization. You could then track Jenny’s future contribution habits to see how this positively affected her donor behavior. Keeping track of this information is vital to maintaining a lucrative gift matching strategy.
The fundraising strategies don’t stop there! While you just learned about the most important matching gift strategies for the year-end holiday season, there are certainly more tools to explore. For example, if you are interested in learning more about which companies have the best matching gift programs, check out this page. This list details the most impressive matching gift programs, and it can help you target the most profitable matching gift employees.
You can also check out Double the Donation’s educational blog to discover more matching gift resources. Happy fundraising!
About the author:
Adam Weinger is the President of Double the Donation, the leading provider of matching gift tools to nonprofit organizations and educational institutions. Adam created Double the Donation in order to help nonprofits increase their annual revenue through corporate matching gift and volunteer grant programs.
Everything You Need to Know About Matching Gifts to Fuel Your Fundraising Efforts This Holiday Season
Fuel your fundraising efforts and drive revenue for your institution by leveraging these 4 matching gift strategies that have brought success to institutions across the globe.
Fundraising
Back in 2020, advancement teams across the country had to shift to rethink their programming to find unique ways of engaging alumni and donors. Fundraising professionals have since leveraged virtual platforms to engage donors through more accessible programs and events. With the fall spirit of giving upon us, now's the right time to start thinking about ways to boost donations at your Fall Giving Day 2024.
Giving Day is a powerful online fundraising campaign conducted for 24 hours with the purpose of raising money and finding new donors. Giving Days provide alumni with the ideal opportunity to serve their alma mater by helping the institution in a time of need.
As the pandemic continues, it's evident that Giving Day 2026 will be unlike any of the previous traditional Giving Days. With advancement teams shifting their focus to raising money online at their fall Giving Day and upcoming Giving Tuesday, here are 5 innovative strategies to help them get started.
1. Build up to the day
It's always a best practice to start promoting your Giving Day as early as possible and build-up to the day of the event. While you can't invite your alumni to campus to let them know about your fall Giving Day, countdown posts on social media are a great way to spread the word.
Instead of merely creating posters or event notifications at intervals like, say, 15, 10, and 5 days before the Giving Day, think of ways to incentivize donors to participate. For instance, along with every countdown post, you can also share testimonials of past donors on social media. Seeing a friend believe in your institution’s cause can be a strong motivator for more alumni to donate.
Including photos and videos of how your institution has utilized funds raised at past fundraising events is another great way to motivate potential donors. Scranton Preparatory School's fundraising campaign is an excellent example of how they leveraged countdowns to their benefit.
2. Connect With Your Donors at a Personal Level
As the pandemic forces us to be confined to our homes, now more than ever, is the perfect time for your institution to invest greatly in building and growing an online community that your constituents can benefit from.
While an online community is great for driving engagement, not all potential donors will react the same way to your fundraising asks. For instance, an alum who's been working as an investment banker for 10 years might be more receptive to your fundraising ask this Giving Day than a young alum who's just graduated college and is still reeling under the pressure of repaying his student loan.
Personalizing your fundraising asks, therefore, plays a crucial role in building a unique connection with each constituent and paving the way for lasting relationships. Check out Archbishop Riordan High School's campaign that encouraged alumni to contribute towards improving their school campus.
Use dynamic segmentation to segregate your constituents based on class year, location, donation history, interests, etc. and personalize your emails right from the first message to the final thank you.
3. Host Virtual Events
While promoting your Giving Day via in-person events does not look likely this fall, an increasing number of advancement teams are contemplating virtual events.
In the past couple of years, the industry has seen a ton of successful virtual events being implemented by institutions, big and small. Many have seen a steady rise in participation at virtual events because they're easily accessible irrespective of location or time. Virtual events, therefore, can help you tap into a wider network of donors and be a valuable addition to your marketing plan for Giving Day 2026.
As an added tip, you can use virtual event management software to engage alumni and drive participation at your fall Giving Day 2026.
4. Make Every Channel Count
As online engagement becomes pivotal for a successful Giving Day campaign in 2026, it is equally important to make the best use of the channels at your disposal.
Social media is the ideal place to meet and connect with new people, with platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook enabling you to explore potential donors. Calvert Hall College's picture slideshow on Facebook went viral to help them boost their fundraising campaign.
While you may already be connected with some of your donors on shared groups, use the network of your existing supporters to influence new donors. In addition to social media, emails and personal one-on-one calls are popular channels employed by most institutions for fundraising asks. If you are worried that alumni might ignore your email requests, here are some tips for you.
While driving more donors online may be your priority, also ensure that the online giving experience is smooth and flexible.
5. Encourage Peer-to-Peer Crowdfunding
Now that you have done your bit to promote the campaign, how can you leverage your supporters to maximize the impact? Your donors are the ones who can carry your fundraising campaign forward by spreading the word through their networks.
You can find ways to make social sharing easy for donors and create more incentives for them to influence others in their network. For example, encourage your supporters to broadcast and share their contributions on social media. Offer them a customized template and prompt them to share this message on social media right after they've completed a gift.
You can also create a filter for Instagram or Facebook that donors can apply to their profile photos. Seeing their peers support their alma mater's cause can act as a strong driving factor for other constituents to contribute to the same cause. Here are other ways to build stronger online communities in today's times.
Gamification techniques like leaderboards, challenges, and tributes are some additional great ways for invoking a healthy sense of competition amongst various constituent groups and amplifying the impact of gifts at your Giving Day. Need more information on how to run crowdfunding campaigns? Learn more here.
Planning a Giving Day has never been an easy task, but, with the pandemic leaving a majority of institutions around the world with a severe financial crisis, Giving Day 2026 is a big opportunity.
5 Fundraising Tips for Fall Giving Day in 2026
As institutions across the country start preparing for their Fall Giving Day 2026 and Giving Tuesday campaigns, here are 5 fundraising strategies to help them engage donors and boost donations this year.
Fundraising
It’s that special time of the year again - Homecoming! For schools, colleges, and universities across the country, the Homecoming weekend is a grand, festive celebration where students, alumni, and faculty come together to show their school pride. For alumni, homecoming is a truly memorable experience as they look forward to meeting their old friends, teachers, mentors, current students and making new memories. The nostalgia associated with homecoming also encourages alumni to give back to their alma mater and learn more about the philanthropic possibilities.
While the pandemic has definitely made it difficult to host a traditional Homecoming this year, it is incredible to see how institutions are coping up to deliver the best experience to their communities via a virtual or a hybrid format. As raising funds become all the more crucial amidst a pandemic, schools, and universities are leveraging creative opportunities to maximize fundraising profit potential at their Virtual Homecoming this fall.
Here are the top 5 fundraising ideas to boost alumni donations at your Homecoming this year.
Virtual Talent Show Fundraiser
A virtual talent show is a great, fun-filled way to encourage your alumni to showcase their talents and are perfect for making small fundraising appeals. Inspire alumni to flaunt their artistic side, be it singing, dancing, music, or even magic. Set a theme that your alumni would be excited to perform to and collect registrations well in advance. You could also use an event management tool to create a branded event page with details about the theme, attendees, timings, and urge alumni to make a donation on the page.
Make the event more interesting by conducting a live poll amongst your alumni to decide the winner. You can also live stream the event on Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram to boost engagement during the event and appeal to those engaged online to make a gift. In addition to making fundraising appeals a part of your event registration process and promotions during the online event, you can also add a payment link to your communications (emails and social media) after the event.
Online Retail Store
As the pandemic has forced everyone to stay confined to their homes for a majority of the year, health, and wellbeing has become a priority across the globe. So, this homecoming is a wonderful opportunity to help your alumni take actionable steps towards their health and well-being with a virtual race/walk-a-thon/marathon.
Post inspiring posts on your event page, garner support from alumni volunteers, and create awareness via social media. Also, remind your alumni that your institution too needs the support of their loyal donors to be able to power through this economic crisis. You can charge just a nominal fee per ticket for participants and also encourage alumni during the course of the event to support your cause.
See how Manchester University in Indiana hosted a 30-day Virtual 5K race at their Homecoming 2020, encouraging alumni to embrace the community spirit by joining the event along with their family and friends.
Watch Party Fundraiser
Since the onset of the pandemic, people have missed going out to movies with their friends. Bring the movie watching experience home to your alumni this homecoming by organizing a watch party. Take a poll to select the movie and set a designated time for the watch party. Connect your alumni over a Zoom call, so they can watch the movie together while being able to chat with each other real-time. You can also have all your alumni assemble on the call and then assign breakout rooms for different class years to have their own watch parties while they get to talk to their friends.
You can create a ticketed virtual event and encourage alumni to make a contribution to support your cause. Choosing a compelling theme and making a personalized appeal for donations can go a long way in boosting your fundraising this Homecoming.
Drive-through Dinner Fundraiser
Good food and conversations are a usual part of homecoming, but this year calls for a different approach. As your alumni cannot come together for a dinner party, you could organize a drive-through dinner to comply with the social distancing guidelines in your state.
Set up your registration page early and inform your alumni about what they should be expecting. From tacos to hot dogs, take your pick and promote the drive-through via social media, emails, and your alumni website. To spice it up, you can even create a themed-dinner and your volunteers can go live on Facebook or YouTube right before the event starts to boost engagement. It is also integral to let your alumni know how you plan on using the proceeds from their purchases.
5 Fundraising ideas for your Virtual Homecoming
As schools and universities turn to host their 2020 Homecoming virtually, here are the top 5 best practices employed by Alumni Relations & Fundraising teams to maximize fundraising profit potential at their Virtual Homecoming this fall.
Events
2020 has been a rough year, particularly for Liberal Arts Colleges. The resulting disruption has caused advancement teams across the country to rethink their programming and find unique ways to engage alumni and donors. With the fall spirit of Giving upon us, now's the right time to start thinking about ways to boost donations at your fall Giving Day 2020.
Giving Day is a powerful online fundraising campaign conducted for 24 hours with the purpose of raising money and finding new donors. Giving Days provide alumni with the ideal opportunity to serve their alma mater by helping the institution in a time of need.
As the pandemic continues to unfold, it's evident that Giving Day 2020 will be unlike any of the previous Giving Days. With Liberal Arts Colleges like yours shifting their focus to raising money online at their fall Giving Day and upcoming Giving Tuesday, here are 5 innovative strategies to help you get started.
1. Build up to the day
It's always a best practice to start promoting your Giving Day as early as possible and build-up to the day of the event. While you can't invite your alumni to campus to let them know about your fall Giving Day, countdown posts on social media are a great way to spread the word.
Instead of merely creating posters or event notifications at intervals like, say, 15, 10, and 5 days before the Giving Day, think of ways to incentivize donors to participate. For instance, along with every countdown post, you can also share testimonials of past donors on social media. Seeing a friend believe in your institution’s cause can be a strong motivator for more alumni to donate.
Including photos and videos of how your institution has utilized funds raised at past fundraising events is another great way to motivate potential donors.
2. Connect With Your Donors at a Personal Level
As the pandemic forces us to be confined to our homes, now more than ever, is the perfect time for your institution to invest greatly in building and growing an online community that your constituents can benefit from.
While an online community is great for driving engagement, not all potential donors will react the same way to your fundraising asks. For instance, an alum who's been working for 10 years might be more receptive to your fundraising ask this Giving Day than a young alum who's just graduated college and is still reeling under the pressure of repaying his student loan.
Personalizing your fundraising asks, therefore, plays a crucial role in building a unique connection with each constituent and paving the way for lasting relationships. Use dynamic segmentation to segregate your constituents based on class year, location, donation history, interests, etc. and personalize your emails right from the first message to the final thank you. Almabase can help you boost your fundraising with dynamic alumni groups and personalized email outreach. Talk to a fundraising expert today.
3. Host Virtual Events
While promoting your Giving Day via in-person events does not look likely this fall, an increasing number of Liberal Arts Colleges are contemplating virtual events.
2020 has seen a ton of successful virtual events being implemented by Liberal Arts Colleges, big and small. Many have seen a steady rise in participation at virtual events because they're easily accessible irrespective of location or time. Virtual events, therefore, can help you tap into a wider network of donors and be a valuable addition to your marketing plan for Giving Day 2020.
As an added tip, you can use virtual event management software to engage alumni and drive participation at your fall Giving Day 2020.
4. Make Every Channel Count
As online engagement becomes pivotal for a successful Giving Day campaign in 2020, it is equally important to make the best use of the channels at your disposal.
Social media is the ideal place to meet and connect with new people, with platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook enabling you to explore potential donors. While you may already be connected with some of your donors on shared groups, use the network of your existing supporters to influence new donors. In addition to social media, emails and personal one-on-one calls are popular channels employed by most Liberal Arts Colleges for fundraising asks. If you are worried that alumni might ignore your email requests, here are some tips for you.
While driving more donors online may be your priority, also ensure that the online giving experience is smooth and flexible.
5. Encourage Peer-to-Peer Crowdfunding
Now that you have done your bit to promote the campaign, how can you leverage your supporters to maximize the impact? Your donors are the ones who can carry your fundraising campaign forward by spreading the word through their networks.
You can find ways to make social sharing easy for donors and create more incentives for them to influence others in their network. For example, encourage your supporters to broadcast and share their contributions on social media. Offer them a customized template and prompt them to share this message on social media right after they've completed a gift.
You can also create a filter for Instagram or Facebook that donors can apply to their profile photos. Seeing their peers support their alma mater's cause can act as a strong driving factor for other constituents to contribute to the same cause.
Gamification techniques like leaderboards, challenges, and tributes are some additional great ways for invoking a healthy sense of competition amongst various constituent groups and amplifying the impact of gifts at your Giving Day this fall. William Peace University, a nationally ranked private liberal arts college in North Carolina, leveraged various gamification techniques at its Founder's Day of Giving 2020 and successfully surpassed its fundraising goal by 230%. Head over to the campaign page.
Planning a Giving Day has never been an easy task, but, with the pandemic leaving a majority of institutions around the world with a severe financial crisis, Giving Day 2020 is a big opportunity.
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Liberal Arts Colleges: 5 Fundraising Tips for Your Fall Giving Day
As Liberal Arts Colleges across the United States start preparing for their Fall Giving Day 2020 and Giving Tuesday campaigns, here are 5 innovative strategies to help them engage donors and boost fundraising this year.
See how leading institutions put these ideas into action
