Practical resources to help alumni relations, fundraising, and advancement teams work smarter.
School fundraising software has come a long way from bake sales and car washes. Today, administrators, parent organizations, and athletic directors are turning to purpose-built fundraising software to run campaigns that are more complex than ever before.
But with dozens of platforms on the market, choosing the right one can feel overwhelming. Should you go with an all-in-one solution that handles donor management and online giving? Or do you need something specialized for auctions, walk-a-thons, or youth sports? In this blog, we want to walk you through the top fundraising software options for K–12 schools, depending on your needs so you can find the best fit for your institution.
Institutional fundraising has never been more data-driven than it is today, and your school (or team) needs to be able to make use of it to keep up with the increasing expectations of your constituents. Apart from that, here are some things that make fundraising software so important for schools today:
A search for the best fitting fundraising platforms for schools starts with features. However, consider an alternative starting point: the workflow. Where does friction show up in your current workflow? The right platform should reduce that friction.
Most donors give from their phones. A donation page that loads quickly, requires minimal steps, and clearly communicates impact can influence completion rates more than design aesthetics alone.
Look for clarity around how transactions are processed, what payment gateways are supported, and how refunds or chargebacks are handled.
Equally important is reconciliation. Can your finance team easily track revenue, fees, and deposits without rebuilding reports manually? The back-end experience matters as much as the front-end donation page.
Platforms should allow segmentation, automated thank-you emails, tax receipts, and visibility into donor history. If you cannot quickly identify repeat donors or first-time supporters, future outreach becomes guesswork.
K-12 schools frequently depend on events such as walk-a-thons, auctions, and ticketed fundraisers. Peer-to-peer tools, personal fundraising pages, and live progress tracking can increase visibility and participation, especially when families are sharing within their networks.
We have picked out some of the top options available in 2026 and categorized them by different use cases to suit your team’s current needs. Have a look!
For schools serious about building lasting donor relationships through event and donor management, an all-in-one platform might just be what you need.
Almabase is a fundraising and donor management platform built specifically for schools, higher-ed institutions, and nonprofits that want to build meaningful, long-term relationships with their alumni and donors. Almabase focuses on branding and easy to set-up giving pages, event management, memorable donor experiences and giving data sync to provide a comprehensive yet easy to use platform that both staff and donors will appreciate. Schools can run annual giving campaigns, peer-to-peer fundraisers, set up recurring gifts, and track engagement across touchpoints for better engagement and fundraising.
What sets Almabase apart is its focus on data-driven relationship building. It integrates well with popular education CRMs like Raiser’s Edge NXT, making it a strong fit for schools that want to get the most out of each fundraiser. For schools looking to grow their fundraising program and engage constituents over the long term, Almabase offers the infrastructure to support that growth.
Bloomerang is a popular nonprofit CRM and fundraising platform known for its clean interface and strong donor retention focus. The platform tracks donor engagement scores, helping development staff identify who is most likely to give again. Bloomerang includes online donation forms, email marketing tools, and reporting features that are accessible even for small development teams.
For schools without a dedicated development director, Bloomerang's simplicity is a major advantage. The platform is designed to be used by generalists, not just fundraising professionals. It is particularly well-suited for independent schools, charter networks, and private K–12 institutions that want a solid foundation for donor management without a steep learning curve.
DonorPerfect is one of the most established names in nonprofit fundraising software and offers a comprehensive suite of donor management tools. The platform handles recurring gifts, pledge tracking, grant management, event registration, and online fundraising all in one place. It is a strong choice for schools with larger development operations that need deep customization and integration options.
DonorPerfect's strength lies in its flexibility. The platform can be configured to match almost any fundraising workflow, and it comes with reporting capabilities. Schools with complex fundraising operations such as multiple campaigns, major gift programs, and foundation support may find DonorPerfect's depth particularly valuable.
Givebutter is a modern, all-in-one fundraising platform with strong auction and event features. It supports silent auctions, livestream fundraising, and ticket sales, all from a visually polished interface. The platform is free to use and relies on optional donor-covered tips to sustain operations. If you want to opt out of optional tips, a 3% platform fee applies to every donation on top of processing fees.
Schoolfundr is a fundraising platform built specifically for schools. Similar to Givebutter, it charges no subscription fees, relying on optional tips from donors as well as charging transaction fees.
🪶We’ve narrowed down the budget-friendly options to two choices which we think are the easiest to get started with whether you want to scale down costs or are looking to start small. However, we still highly recommend talking to each platform’s representatives to understand pricing models, data policies, and features. Also keep in mind how your donors might feel about adding a tip on top of a donation and try to find what works best for your school.
Auctions remain one of the most popular and lucrative school fundraising formats. These platforms are built specifically to make auction management simple.
OneCause (formerly BidPal) is purpose-built for nonprofit event fundraising and is widely used by schools running gala-style events and auctions. The platform covers everything from mobile bidding and item catalog management to paddle raise fundraising and live auction tools. It also handles event ticketing, seating management, and sponsorship tracking.
OneCause is particularly strong for schools that host large, formal fundraising events with hundreds of attendees. The platform's mobile bidding experience is intuitive for guests, and the backend management tools give event organizers full visibility into real-time results. The platform does come at a higher price point, making it better suited for schools with larger events that can justify the investment.
GoFundMe Pro (formerly Mightycause) is the enterprise tier of the widely recognized GoFundMe brand and is designed specifically for nonprofits and educational institutions. It offers peer-to-peer fundraising, event fundraising, and a suite of campaign management tools along with auction capabilities.
GoFundMe's brand recognition works in schools' favor when it comes to donor trust. Many parents and community members are familiar with the platform and are comfortable donating through it. GoFundMe Pro adds deeper customization, reporting, and donor management features on top of the consumer platform's usability.
Walk-a-thons, read-a-thons, and similar pledge-based events are a staple of school fundraising especially at the elementary and middle school level. These platforms are built for exactly this format.
99Pledges is one of the simplest and most popular platforms for running pledge-based fundraising events at schools. Students create personal fundraising pages, solicit pledges from family and friends, and the platform tracks all commitments and payments automatically. There is no app to download, no complex setup, and the per-student pages are easy to share via text and email.
What makes 99Pledges stand out is its sheer simplicity. Schools can launch a campaign in under an hour, and parents can make pledges in just a few clicks. The platform charges a small platform fee and standard payment processing fees but requires no upfront cost, making it accessible for even the smallest schools and parent organizations.
RallyUp is a versatile fundraising platform that supports a wide range of event-based fundraising formats, including walk-a-thons, jog-a-thons, read-a-thons, and virtual events. It includes peer-to-peer fundraising pages, donation tracking, and tools for motivating student participants through leaderboards and milestone celebrations.
RallyUp is particularly well-suited for schools that want to run engaging, gamified fundraising events that get students excited to participate. The platform's interface is colorful and student-friendly, and its reporting tools help organizers see participation rates and revenue in real time. It supports both pledge-per-activity and flat donation models.
Matching gift programs are one of the most underutilized sources of fundraising revenue for schools. Many constituents work for companies that will match their charitable donations dollar-for-dollar, or even two-to-one. But most donors never bother to check or submit a match request.
Double the Donation is a dedicated matching gift software for nonprofits and educational institutions. It integrates with most major fundraising platforms and automatically prompts donors to check their employer's matching gift eligibility at the point of donation. The platform maintains a database of over 20,000 companies and their matching programs, making it easy for donors to find and submit their employer's match.
For schools, even a modest improvement in matching gift submission rates can translate into thousands of additional dollars per campaign. Double the Donation's automation makes that improvement achievable without adding workload to development staff.
For schools, volunteers can often be one of the most important assets. However, not every school can afford or needs to have a dedicated volunteer management system. We’ve picked out some of the best options for schools looking to manage volunteer signups and related tasks such as scheduling, organizing, etc.
Many event management or donor management platforms also come with volunteer management features as a complementary tool or an add-on which can be a good choice. For any option you are considering, keep certain nuances in mind such as ad presence, ease of use for volunteers, and pricing structures to make sure you pick the right tool for your team.
With so many options available, the right can help you narrow down your choices:
What is your primary fundraising model? If you run a gala every year, prioritize auction tools. If your revenue comes from an annual giving program, prioritize donor management. If you rely on walk-a-thons, look at pledge-based platforms.
What do your donors want? Some donors might be turned away by pre-filled tips or ads while others may not mind. Some donors may prefer sleek UI elements and mobile-friendly design while others don’t mind as long as their donations go into a meaningful cause.
What is your team's capacity? A small PTA with volunteer leadership needs something simple and fast. A professional development office can handle more complex tools with greater customization.
What is your budget? Free platforms with optional tips work well for smaller campaigns. For larger programs, a platform fee may be worth paying for better support, integration, and features.
What is your long-term vision? If you want to build a lasting alumni and donor community, invest in a platform with strong CRM and relationship management capabilities now. Even if it costs more upfront, it can be more cost-effective than accumulating a ton of single purpose tools over the years.
What integrations do you need? Check whether the platform connects with your school's existing tools: your SIS, accounting software, email platform, or website CMS.
Taking the time to answer these questions before evaluating platforms will save significant time and help you avoid switching costs down the road.
Among the platforms covered in this guide, Almabase is a great choice for schools that are ready to build a serious, sustainable fundraising program. It goes beyond one-off campaigns to help schools develop the donor relationships that drive long-term revenue growth.
Almabase provides a unified platform for donor management, online fundraising, and event management.. Schools can launch giving day campaigns, manage peer-to-peer fundraising, track donor engagement over time, and generate detailed reports all from a single interface. The platform is originally designed for educational institutions, which means the tools, updates, and data models are built around real-world problems that schools face.
For schools that rely on annual fund campaigns, alumni giving, and major gift cultivation, Almabase provides the tools to segment donors, personalize outreach, and track the full donor journey from their first gift to becoming a loyal supporter. It’s integration with CRM systems means school data flows smoothly into the fundraising platform, reducing manual data entry and improving accuracy.
If your school is ready to move beyond spreadsheets and disconnected tools and invest in a platform that can grow with your program, Almabase is worth a serious look.
Free fundraising platforms usually mean no platform or subscription fees. However, they typically have transaction fees and depending on the platform, may come with a percentage of your raised funds as fees, ads, or per transaction fees.
A fundraising platform primarily helps you collect donations and run campaigns. A donor management system helps you track donor relationships and nurture relationships over time.
Yes, many schools use multiple platforms. Just be mindful of managing donor data across multiple systems and increasing the cost of stacking too many single-purpose tools.
Integrate a matching gift tool like Double the Donation with your primary fundraising platform. Prompt donors to check their employer's match eligibility immediately after they give, while the donation is still top of mind.
Even small schools and associations can benefit from the efficiency, and donor experience improvements that dedicated software provides. Many platforms are free or very low cost at smaller volume levels, making the ROI compelling even for modest campaigns.
The fundraising software landscape for schools has never been more robust. Whether you are running a walk-a-thon for a hundred elementary students or building a comprehensive alumni giving program for a private high school, there is usually a platform designed for your specific needs.
The most important step is to match your platform choice to your actual fundraising model, budget, and long-term goals. A well-chosen platform pays for itself quickly through higher donor conversion rates, reduced administrative burden, and stronger donor relationships over time.
If you are looking for a fundraising platform for your school or associated organization, Almabase can help you raise funds, manage donor relations, and streamline events and communications. Schedule a personalized demo to find out how it fits into your school’s needs.
The Best Fundraising Software Platforms for Schools in 2026
We have looked at some of the best fundraising software for schools available in 2026 to help your school, club, or nonprofit raise funds according to your needs.
Fundraising
Planning an alumni event is a tall order. Be it a reunion, a donor gala, or a campus program, the journey is complex, and your team is expected to deliver experiences that feel seamless for attendees and meaningful for your institution.
The challenge here is that most advancement teams are stuck juggling disconnected systems that aren’t built particularly for schools and universities. While there are plenty of event management software options available on the market that might reduce your burden, the right platform will ensure that every detail runs like clockwork and delivers measurable impact.
In this guide, we’ll show you how modern event management software can help your advancement teams gain the clarity and confidence to choose the right platform that makes planning easier and outcomes clearer.
Higher education leaders are making technology a top priority. In the 2025 CCS Philanthropy Pulse survey, more than 70% of institutions identified technology adoption as a key focus for the year ahead, reflecting the push to strengthen fundraising operations and engagement systems. This shift is driven by the growth of alumni and fundraising events, the rise of hybrid formats that bring global audiences together, and increasing pressure from leadership to demonstrate ROI with clear, data‑driven reporting.
At the same time, common pain points remain stubbornly familiar. Manual list exports, disconnected CRM data, and separate systems for email, ticketing, and giving leave staff juggling fragmented workflows. On-site check‑ins often feel chaotic, post‑event reporting is delayed or missing, and leadership lacks visibility into how events contribute to long‑term donor engagement. In 2026, event management software matters more than ever because it addresses these challenges head‑on, integrating CRM workflows, simplifying check‑ins, and delivering the reporting advancement leaders now demand.
When you look closely, not every event management software is built with institutional needs in mind. Some tools focus on running events; others support everything that happens around and after them. Before getting into comparisons or questions, it helps to understand the core features that tend to matter most for institutions managing alumni, advancement, and engagement at scale:
Your attendees’ first impression is shaped by how easy it is to register. A platform that offers automated registration, flexible ticketing, and QR code check‑in saves staff time and reduces bottlenecks at the door.
Look for mobile‑friendly sign‑ups, customizable forms, and real‑time attendance tracking so you know exactly who’s in the room without chasing spreadsheets.
Clean data is non‑negotiable for advancement teams. Native integrations with systems like Raiser’s Edge NXT or BBCRM ensure every registration, gift, and interaction flows directly into your database without duplicate records.
Prioritize platforms that sync automatically, prevent errors, and give you confidence that your event data strengthens long‑term alumni and donor strategy.
One of the biggest frustrations for alumni and donor teams is juggling multiple tools just to send event updates. The right platform should let you manage confirmations, reminders, and segmented outreach in one place, so you’re not copying lists back and forth between systems. Personalization is where communication really pays off; alumni should get invites to reunions they care about, donors should see recognition that feels genuine, and students should receive messaging tailored to their involvement.
Look for software that integrates directly with your CRM, makes it easy to segment audiences, and tracks engagement so you know which messages resonate and which need adjustin
Events are often where giving happens, and the right software makes it effortless. Built‑in donation options during registration or live events encourage spontaneous contributions, while sponsorship and auction features help you manage commitments and maximize revenue.
Look for platforms that make giving frictionless and follow‑up automatic, so you capture every opportunity without extra manual work.
Large events come with moving parts: seating charts, table assignments, and multi‑day schedules. Software that supports seating and table management helps you place donors thoughtfully, while sub‑event support keeps conferences or reunions organized under one umbrella. These tools reduce manual coordination and give your team more control over the attendee experience.
Data tells the story of your event’s success. Real‑time attendance reporting gives you visibility into who showed up, while post‑event summaries help you demonstrate impact to leadership. Compliance features like SOC 2 certification and ADA accessibility considerations ensure your institution meets standards and delivers inclusive experiences without extra stress.
Events are about connection, and interactive features make attendees feel part of the experience. Tools like live polls, Q&A, gamification, or hybrid event support extend your reach and keep participants engaged.
Look for platforms that make these features easy to set up and integrate, so your team can focus on building relationships instead of troubleshooting tech.
Advancement teams are expected to do more with less, and AI is becoming the tool that makes it possible. A platform with built‑in AI can automate repetitive tasks like reminders and follow‑ups, clean up attendee lists, and even predict which events are most likely to drive donor conversions.
Look for systems that use AI to personalize alumni communication, surface engagement patterns you might otherwise miss, and deliver smarter reporting that connects attendance directly to fundraising outcomes. Instead of adding more manual work, AI frees staff to focus on relationships while giving leadership the clarity they need.
Events aren’t just about logistics; they’re also about managing dollars and cents. Having built‑in tools to track expenses against sponsorships and ticket sales gives you a clear view of ROI without juggling spreadsheets. This makes it easier to justify budgets to leadership and plan smarter for the next event.
Events don’t happen in a vacuum. Integrations with student portals, finance systems, or learning management tools reduce silos and keep everything connected. For advancement teams, this means smoother coordination across departments and fewer headaches when pulling reports or reconciling data.
When you’re sitting down with a vendor or demoing a platform, asking the right questions will help you cut through the sales pitch and see if the software truly fits your institution’s needs. Here are the ones worth asking:
Once you’ve asked the right questions, the next step is weighing the answers. Choosing the right software is about finding a tool that fits your institution’s goals, budget, and the way your team actually works. Here’s how to approach the decision:
The right event management software should feel like an extension of your team, reducing manual work, strengthening alumni and donor records, and scaling with your institution’s ambitions. If it feels like “just another system to manage,” keep looking.
Choosing the right software is only half the story; the other half is how quickly and smoothly it becomes part of your institution’s day‑to‑day. Here’s what a typical rollout looks like, and what you should expect along the way:
You’ve asked the right questions, weighed practical tips, and seen what a rollout might look like. The final step is exploring which platforms can actually deliver on those expectations. We’ve put together a detailed roundup of the best event management software for K‑12 and higher ed.
To give you a quick snapshot, here are five options schools and universities often consider:
After exploring the broader software options, it’s clear that advancement teams need something different. They need a platform that aids in strengthening alumni relationships, stewarding donors, and connecting participation to long‑term outcomes. This is where Almabase comes in. Designed with educational institutions in mind, it helps you move beyond one‑off event management and into a connected approach where every gathering contributes to engagement and fundraising goals.
Here’s how Almabase supports schools and universities in practice:
While the decisions often look straightforward, hidden costs, weak integrations, and poor rollout planning can derail even the best‑intentioned purchase. Here are some quick pointers to keep in mind before you make the final choice-
Best practices
Pricing realities
Common pitfalls to avoid
Making the right choice will and should depend on knowing what matters most to your team, understanding how events fit into your larger advancement strategy, and choosing a tool that makes those connections easier to handle.
If you’re ready to see what that looks like in practice, we’d love to continue the conversation. Schedule a demo and let’s talk about how your next reunion, gala, or giving day can become part of a connected engagement journey.
Event Management Software for schools and universities. A Complete Buyer's Guide (2026)
A complete 2026 guide to event management software for institutions. Everything advancement teams need to evaluate platforms and decide with confidence.
Events
Giving Days weren’t always complicated.
What began as a single day to rally alumni and boost annual fundraising has evolved into something much bigger. Today, Giving Days are the core of fundraising, engagement, and community-building efforts across higher education. They’re no longer combined with dollars alone, but by who shows up, how they participate, and what happens after the day ends.
In partnership with CASE, we surveyed 150+ institutions to understand how Giving Days are changing in 2025. Colleges and universities are moving beyond one-day-only tactics and generic outreach. They’re setting new goals, tracking new signals of success, and designing Giving Days that feel more personal and sustainable.
This blog explores the top 7 colleges that incorporate how institutions are rethinking strategy, redefining metrics, and building momentum that lasts well beyond 24 hours.
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CASE Insights spoke directly with professionals from 14 institutions across the United States, the United Kingdom, Chile, and Australia. These conversations helped bring the survey findings to life and offered deeper insight into how Giving Days are changing. Below are the top seven insights and emerging trends.
1. James Madison University: Start Early, Build Together
At James Madison University (JMU), Giving Day planning begins in advance. Early on, the team hosts a campus-wide kickoff called Coffee and Comms, bringing together people from across the university, from academic departments to student groups. The session covers key dates, shared resources, and a preview of upcoming content, helping everyone feel prepared from the beginning. It also gives partners a chance to ask questions, share ideas, and learn from each other. Regular check-ins after the kickoff keep the conversation going and make sure partners feel included. By treating Giving Day as an ongoing campus effort instead of a last-minute push, JMU strengthens participation, encourages new ideas, and builds momentum year after year.
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2. Punahou School: Reaching Alumni Between Reunions
At Punahou School, Giving Day helped reconnect alumni who are usually less active between reunions. While reunion classes already had strong participation, the school saw a drop in giving in the years that followed. To close this gap, the team focused their Giving Day ambassadors on alumni from non-reunion classes. They reached out personally, kept the time commitment small, and clearly explained what was expected. Ambassadors were given simple tools such as classmate lists, ready-to-use messages, and live updates, so it was easy to ask friends to give. Seeing their class move up the leaderboard made it fun and motivating. By engaging the right group of volunteers, Punahou increased participation and continued to exceed its Giving Day goals.
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3. Universidad de los Andes: One Cause, Shared Purpose
In 2019, Universidad de los Andes (UAndes) launched Chile’s first Giving Day to help build a culture of giving, where alumni were not used to donating to universities. The team focused on one clear cause, student scholarships, so donors could easily see the impact of their gifts. They shared student stories through videos and social media and spent time explaining why giving matters and how it helps students.Despite early doubts, the first Giving Day exceeded its goals and has continued to grow. Today, it’s seen as a joyful campus-wide event, with students, alumni, faculty, and staff all taking part. What began as a fundraising effort has become a celebration of generosity, and it has inspired other universities across Latin America to launch Giving Days of their own.
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4. George Washington University: Let Students Lead the Story
Over the past few years, George Washington University (GW) has used Giving Day to try a more relaxed and creative social media approach. Instead of polished marketing, they rely on a team of student digital ambassadors to create short, fun videos about campus life, student opportunities, and how donations make a difference. These quick videos are easy to watch and connect better than long emails. On Giving Day, students go live from campus events, share leaderboard updates, post thank-you videos, and keep energy high online. This student-led, authentic content has made Giving Day feel more lively and has helped GW reach and engage new donors in a way that feels natural and human.
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5. Southern Illinois University Edwardsville: Make Sharing Easy
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) launched its first Giving Day in 2022 with ambassadors at the center of the effort. To help people across campus take part, the team created a simple digital toolkit with ready-to-use content for social media. Posts were pre-made and sized for each platform, making them easy to share without extra work.By putting everything in one easy-to-find place, SIUE removed friction and made it simple for students, staff, and ambassadors to spread the word. The toolkit quickly became a go-to resource and helped expand the reach of Giving Day across campus.
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6. Fresno State: Taking Giving Day Into the Community
In 2025, California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) took Giving Day beyond campus with its first Bulldog Roadshow. In one day, the team visited local businesses with pop-up events featuring treats, giveaways, the mascot, and QR codes for Giving Day. The roadshow helped promote Giving Day while celebrating alumni working in the local community. Businesses helped spread the word, and the response was so positive that many were already asking to take part again. Encouraged by the success, Fresno State is now exploring ways to expand the roadshow and better track its impact in future Giving Days.
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7. Oregon State University: Celebrating the Team Behind Giving Day
At Oregon State University (OSU), Dam Proud Day is built through strong teamwork across campus. In its first year, the team created a small event called The Dammys to thank staff who worked behind the scenes on Giving Day. Over time, The Dammys has grown into a campus-wide celebration. Leaders, staff, faculty, students, and partners come together to recognize great ideas, strong collaboration, and creative fundraising. The awards build excitement, share what works, and help teams learn from each other as they plan for future Giving Days.
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Giving Days are now an important part of annual giving in education. They have grown beyond one-day fundraisers into moments that bring the whole community together. By involving volunteers, highlighting student voices, and reaching local supporters, institutions are encouraging more people to take part and feel proud of their campus.
Most importantly, Giving Days make giving feel simple and welcoming. Every action and every gift, no matter how small, helps people feel connected to a shared purpose. At a time when fewer people are giving, Giving Days help grow participation, support future donors, and build a stronger culture of giving over time.
The New Age Giving Day Blueprint: Strategies from 7 Leading Colleges
In partnership with CASE, we surveyed 150+ institutions to understand how Giving Days are changing in 2025. Colleges and universities are moving beyond one-day-only tactics and generic outreach. They’re setting new goals, tracking new signals of success, and designing Giving Days that feel more personal and sustainable.
Fundraising
For advancement and alumni relations teams today, the days of annual newsletters and homecoming weekends solely being enough to keep your community connected are long gone. A lot of alumni engagement strategy efforts from institutions and organizations unfortunately get lost in the hundreds of emails, notifications, and phone calls that they experience on a daily basis.
This is why today's advancement landscape demands a modernized approach that stands out to people who are digitally savvy, time-constrained, and expecting personalized experiences.
We've come up with an alumni engagement checklist to help you audit your current engagement strategy to help your engagement stand out and build meaningful relationships for many years to come.
A decade or two ago, staying in touch with alumni was simpler. A semi-regular newsletter, a reunion, and the occasional email update were often enough to signal effort. Nowadays, most alumni are overwhelmed with communication every hour of their lives, and yours needs to stand out.
To meet the expectations of today's alumni and stand out, it is important to know what engagement looks like in the first place:
Engagement is a journey with various checkpoints: An alum may attend an event, mentor a student in the next couple of months, and join an advisory group a year later. Modern teams need to be able to pinpoint which part of the journey motivated them to take it one step further. Sometimes it's the most mundane things but
Alumni have more diverse motivations than: The same person might be one of your most regular volunteer mentors, yet hardly ever donate, while an alum that hasn't even updated their contact information in years feels compelled to donate generously whenever possible. This is a good thing as alumni have more ways to connect with their alma mater than ever! However, teams today need to tailor their engagement to each alum's personal motivations.
The questions leadership asks have changed: Attendance still matters, but it's no longer enough. Teams are increasingly asked who is deepening their involvement, where engagement is leading, and how today's activity supports longer-term relationships. It ties into the data-driven nature of modern advancement.
Alumni engagement now sits closer to planning and strategy than ever before, compared to the pure programming that it sometimes used to be. Teams are often not just asked to run things, they're asked to explain what's working, what's not, and why.
You've probably heard it all before but your data infrastructure has never been more important. It is no longer enough to just have a bunch of standardized metrics and be content at looking at them from time to time.
A CRM is the bare minimum but it is only as good as the data inside it. Start with a comprehensive data audit with questions such as:
Data tends to get messy regardless over time so you should implement quarterly data hygiene protocols and assign ownership for data maintenance.
As mentioned earlier, alumni today face more emails, notifications, and ads than ever before. This means generic mass communications, whether they are from a well meaning nonprofit or from their alma mater are likely to end up in the spam folder. Your database should support segmentation by at least a few common criteria such as:
Having well categorized lists and segments will make any engagement efforts much easier to personalize as well as measure impact for.
Integrating an advancement CRM with giving platforms and event management tools creates a unified "source of truth" that eliminates data silos and manual entry errors. The goal is for teams to gain a 360-degree view of reliable donor behavior and to be able to use your other tools to their fullest potential.
Take stock of your required compliance certifications as well as your privacy policy. You need documented consent for communications, clear opt-out mechanisms, and the ability to fulfill data deletion requests. Beyond legal compliance, transparency about data use also builds trust with your community.
💡Go through the privacy and data policies of tools you use as well. Some alumni may end up being uncomfortable with the policies of certain tools you use.
Finally, you want all that data to be easy to look at and study. Your dashboard should not only track all the metrics you need but also be able to surface engagement patterns and be customizable as per your team's needs. Tools like Almabase present alumni engagement and donor management data in an easy to use format.
In 2026, your digital ecosystem is usually your primary touchpoint with most constituents. There are some things you definitely want to pay attention to here.
With so much web traffic coming from mobile devices, your alumni and donor portals must function flawlessly on smartphones. Test your site on multiple devices and screen sizes. Can users register for events, update their information, and make gifts in three taps or less?
A content calendar ensures you're not scrambling for last-minute ideas or going silent for months. Most teams today have an assigned person to handle content and manage social media accounts.
An alumni directory is one of the most important features of any alumni engagement strategy. It helps people find former classmates, build professional networks, and reconnect with their community. Today, institutions and organizations often stand out by having features such as detailed privacy settings, search filters, and integration with LinkedIn for professional networking.
Career support is always a highly ranked priority for alumni. A mentorship platform that connects students and young alumni with established professionals creates value for both parties. Include job boards, resume resources, and industry-specific networking groups.
Whether it's through dedicated platforms or integrated social features, give your community space to connect directly with each other (not just with you). Online alumni communities allow niche interest groups whether it's from specific academic programs or shared hobbies, to reconnect and thrive without requiring institutional staff to facilitate every interaction.
How you communicate is as important as what you communicate. This section is mostly to do with best practices to ensure each touchpoint is meaningful.
The last thing you want is for alumni to get email fatigue from you. Establish a predictable rhythm, whether it's monthly newsletters, event invitations, campaign updates, and ad-hoc announcements. Each message should have one clear call to action. You'll also want to track metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and unsubscribe rates to know what works and what doesn't.
True personalization references specific attributes, behaviors, or history. "As a member of the Class of 2015" or "Given your recent attendance at our Denver event" makes messages feel relevant. Experiment with variable content blocks that change based on segment. For example, you can try showing different event listings to different regions.
Different segments naturally prefer different channels. Your volunteer leaders might respond best to personal calls, while recent graduates engage primarily through the odd Instagram comment. A sophisticated engagement strategy should ideally coordinate messages across channels for maximum reach without feeling repetitive or disjointed.
For urgent updates, last-minute event reminders, or breaking institutional news, text messaging can be pretty effective. Keep messages brief and include clear opt-out instructions. You will ideally want to use this channel sparingly to maintain its effectiveness.
Don't spread yourself thin across every platform. Focus on where your community actually spends time. LinkedIn works well for professional content and networking, Instagram resonates with younger alumni, and Facebook still hosts active regional chapters for older demographics. And of course, this can vary greatly between different institutions and individual segments.
Video outperforms other content types across nearly every metric. Short-form video (under 90 seconds) works for social media, while longer documentary-style pieces showcase impact. Student and alumni testimonials, campus updates, and event recaps all translate well to video as they exude authenticity.
Events remain the cornerstone of engagement, but the engagement practices involved before, during, and after an event have changed a lot over the years.
Your calendar should include networking events, educational webinars, social gatherings, volunteer opportunities, family-friendly activities, and regional meetups. Survey your community about preferences and track attendance patterns to build an event calendar that fits your team's capacity as well as your alumni's demands.
The best virtual alumni events support breakout rooms for networking, interactive Q&A, live polling, and chat features that facilitate connection. Record sessions for on-demand viewing, extending the event's value.
Hybrid events expand reach without sacrificing the intimacy of in-person gatherings. But executing them well requires a lot of moving parts such as dedicated facilitators for virtual attendees, cameras positioned to include remote participants, and technology that makes virtual attendees feel included.
Nowadays, you need to ensure your event registrations and check-ins are as easy as possible. Registration forms should request only essential information, save progress automatically, and provide immediate confirmation. QR code check-in at events eliminates lines and automatically updates attendance records in your CRM.
Send thank-you messages within 24 hours, share photos and recordings within a week, and follow up with non-attendees who registered. Track which attendees might be prospects for deeper engagement such as leadership roles, giving opportunities, or other events.
Strong regional chapters extend your reach but can struggle without institutional support. Provide chapters with event toolkits, budget assistance, branded materials, and coordination help.
Engagement strategies and best practices often empower fundraising. Here are some ways you can ensure that your community's generosity feels valuable and cyclical.
Your donation form is a critical point of engagement. Therefore, it needs to load quickly, work flawlessly on mobile devices, offer multiple payment methods (credit card, ACH, PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay), and support recurring gifts. Try to minimize or remove unnecessary fields as you can always gather additional information later.
Peer-to-peer tools let individuals create personal fundraising pages, share them with their networks, and track progress toward goals. These campaigns work particularly well for reunion giving, athletic fundraising, and milestone campaigns. It is a great way to fundraise while acknowledging the value that your most engaged supporters provide to your organization or institution.
Giving societies create identity and belonging around philanthropy. Consider exclusive events, leadership opportunities, insider campus updates, or impact reports showing exactly how gifts are used. Segment benefits by giving level and donor interests to personalize these programs even further.
The most successful campaigns tell stories and invite participation beyond a simple donation form. For example, a capital campaign for a new building that includes construction updates, naming opportunities, volunteer roles in outreach, and events celebrating milestones. Every campaign should have engagement opportunities at all levels.
Donors want to know their gifts matter. Regular impact reporting with specific outcomes, stories, and data builds trust and encourages continued giving. Common practices here include annual impact reports, endowment updates, and scholarship recipient stories all demonstrate stewardship. Share these widely, not just with current donors, but with all constituents to grow your community's giving culture
The most effective advancement teams treat engagement as an ongoing experiment, constantly testing and refining their approach.
Obviously, not all engagement is equal. Attending a webinar is different from volunteering for a committee, which is different from making a major gift. Define a particular outcome you are aiming for, such as a donation. Develop a point system that weights different actions contributing to that objective, creating an engagement score for each constituent. This lets you identify your most engaged community members, track score changes over time, and target interventions to those at risk of disengagement.
Whether it's class year, acquisition source, geography, or other meaningful segments, ask yourself which cohorts show the strongest engagement? Which are declining? Where are you gaining ground, and where are you losing it? Analyzing these metrics by cohorts can provide interesting insights that overall engagement metrics sometimes miss.
Keep testing subject lines, send times, message length, calls-to-action, imagery, and personalization strategies. Even small improvements tend to compound over time. Document what works and build those learnings into your standard practices.
After every major initiative, conduct a retrospective of what worked, what didn't, and what you or your team would do differently. Document these learnings so institutional knowledge survives staff transitions. You can even consider creating a campaign playbook that evolves based on repeated learnings over time.
Compare your performance to your peers whether it's on an institutional level or simply on a similar engagement campaign. Where are you ahead? Where are you behind? Is there something you're missing out on? Use these insights to prioritize improvements and set realistic goals.
Building a comprehensive engagement program requires the right infrastructure. Many advancement teams find themselves juggling multiple disconnected systems. One for events, another for communications, a third for giving, and spreadsheets filling the gaps. This fragmentation creates data silos, duplicated records, and missed opportunities.
Almabase provides an integrated platform designed specifically for advancement and alumni relations teams. Rather than piecing together generic tools, you get purpose-built solutions that understand the unique needs of alumni, donors, and constituents in general. This includes:
For teams working through this checklist, Almabase may address many of the foundational infrastructure requirements such as data integration, mobile responsiveness, multi-channel communication, fundraising, and analytics, allowing you to focus on strategy and relationships.
It should go without saying that this checklist is not something to be easily completed in a few days, a week, or even a month. Even the most sophisticated advancement operations have gaps that can sometimes take years to fix. Our goal is to help you identify your current engagement potential, prioritize improvements based on potential impact, and create a roadmap for enhancing your engagement infrastructure.
Remember that the ultimate goal has and will always be building genuine relationships with your community, creating value for them, and inviting them into the ongoing story of your institution. The tactics and tools matter of course, but they're in service of a larger and deeper purpose.
If you are interested in learning how Almabase helps you engage alumni effectively, request a personalized demo and we'd love to chat!
Meet them where they are. Younger alumni prioritize career value, peer connections, and convenience over institutional nostalgia. Offer short-form virtual programming that fits their schedules, create affinity groups around shared interests
Start with optimizing what you already have. Better segmentation of your existing database, improved email content, and systematic follow-up don't require new tools.
People give to institutions they feel connected to, and connection doesn't happen through solicitation alone. The most successful advancement operations view every interaction as both an engagement opportunity and a potential step in someone's philanthropic journey.
Treating it as a series of transactions rather than building genuine, long-term relationships that provide consistent value to your community.
The Ultimate Alumni Engagement Checklist for Modern Advancement Teams
Use this alumni engagement checklist to strengthen connections with your community. Covers essential strategies for communications, events, fundraising, and measuring what works.
Alumni Engagement
Experienced university fundraising professionals know that alumni and their families are some of their most valuable donors. However, if your school is still building its alumni network, it can be challenging to know where to start.
Fortunately, universities can access an extensive range of management platforms, specialized consultants, and free educational resources. In this guide, we’ll explore five proven strategies for building a network of alumni donors.
The more connected alumni are to your school, the more likely they are to contribute to your programs. Invite alumni to continue being a part of your school’s community by creating an affinity group.
Alumni organizations like affinity groups offer a variety of activities and perks. These organizations offer networking opportunities for alumni who work in the same industry or have the same interests, such as an affinity group for real estate. These organizations provide alumni with a connection to your school that they’re actively incentivized to use throughout their entire career.
Additionally, consider creating a unique legacy society for your planned donors. This honors their decision to give, helps them feel connected to your school, and demonstrates your appreciation for their future gifts. Graham-Pelton’s university fundraising guide outlines the steps for starting a legacy society:
There’s a high probability that your school is overlooking several alumni who have the potential to become major donors. With rare exceptions, nearly all major donors start their engagement with a nonprofit as a normal donor. This means your school needs to continuously assess its donor database for major giving candidates.
If it’s been some time since your school last conducted prospect research or you are using outdated information, now is the time to update your process. A few modern prospect research strategies include:
This approach will continue to help you steward major donors long-term. For example, this research process enables you to uncover giving candidates’ unique interests and values, leading to more productive donation conversations.
If your university only accepts cash donations, you are limiting your fundraising potential. Your alumni have a range of assets, and your university should be equipped to accept all of these unique types of donations.
Set your university’s donation processing system up to accept the following types of gifts:
Some of these gifts require software to accept, while others may require consulting a lawyer. For example, some nonprofit donation software automatically converts gifts of stock and cryptocurrency into cash, whereas several types of planned gifts require a contractual agreement between your school and the donor.
Alumni give to your school because of the positive experiences they had as a student. For many of them, creating an equal or even better school life for future students is a core motivation for giving.
Retain and acquire more alumni donors by demonstrating that your school is putting their gifts to good use. A few ways you can do this include:
In addition to showcasing impact after a donor gives, provide alumni with examples of their potential impact to inspire them to give. For example, you might promote an upcoming initiative, explain your fundraising goal, and emphasize how that specific alumnus’ gift can make a difference.
Additionally, thank you students from current students can be especially impactful. Gather a few students who were directly affected by donations to have them write personalized thank-you letters that share their stories and express their gratitude.
If your university needs to raise funds quickly, an alumni giving day can add a sense of urgency to your fundraising efforts and bring in new donors. To maximize donations on this day, try these strategies:
After your alumni giving day, report back to all donors to thank them for their gifts and let them know how you will use their generous donations.
A network of alumni donors can power your university’s fundraising long-term. Expand your donation strategies and create new opportunities for alumni connections to tap into this valuable audience.
Jamie Pugh, based in New York, NY, US, is currently a Principal Consultant at Graham-Pelton. She has developed major donor relationships at Lehigh University’s College of Business, advancing a billion-dollar campaign. At Villanova University, she led communications for Annual and Planned Giving during a successful $600M campaign.
Build an Alumni Network: 5 Fundraising Tips for Universities
Alumni networks provide their universities with consistent funding. Discover how to create one or activate your current network to earn the support you need.
Fundraising
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