raised to buy Almabase's Engagement Cloud
of 80 donors target
days to raise the money
The California College of Arts wanted to buy an alumni engagement software to fuel their alumni engagement program. Mainly for their program, MBA in Design Strategy (DMBA). Now since they were just getting started, the institute did not have a budget set aside for such a software.
With the alumni convinced that a digital platform was as beneficial for them - for jobs, mentoring, professional networking, etc., the advancement team came up with an idea. They used Almabase itself to run a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for the subscription.
The DMBA Alumni program was started in 2010 as a alumni volunteer-run initiative to establish a network to engage with one another and the institute.
With the aim to grow the network further, the alumni volunteers collected feedback from all the alumni and student groups, identifying the need to create a digital community. The feedback was then followed up by investigating a number of platforms that could be used to create this online network.
As a small shop, DMBA lacked the funds needed to subscribe for an alumni engagement software. With a small advancement team and a growing institute, they were unable to set aside a budget for a technology that could be used to launch their online alumni network.
With plenty of software in the market, the alumni volunteers had to sift through different technologies for weeks. They then had to create their comparison charts, based on the features offered, the pricing and the support they would offer.
They decided to go ahead with Almabase as the technology to power their online alumni hub, using the platform to host a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds for the subscription.
DMBA set up a digital platform for their alumni network to sign up on and donate towards paying for the subscription of Almabase. The aim was to enable the institute to engage with their alumni actively.
Almabase enabled DMBA to set up an exclusive alumni community online in less than a week. The digital platform didn’t just let their alumni sign up to connect with one another, but also alerted them of their crowdfunding campaign to keep the community alive.
With seamless payment integration, Almabase ensured it was easy for their alumni to make their donations towards to software subscription. The alumni could complete a transaction with their contribution via any of the devices in under 90 seconds, using the responsive platform, increasing the participation rate.
In just 21 days, DMBA was able toraise $4534 using crowdsourcing to fund their Almabase subscription. Today, the institute uses Almabase to engage with their alumni actively and effectively using strategic communication.
With Almabase now being used by the institute, the advancement team can maintain an up-to-date alumni database. The software pulls in information from social media, databases from previously attended alumni events and other channels, to ensure all the vital alumni information remains easily accessible to DMBA.