Improving Alumni Participation
Alumni donor counts have been declining for years. Decreases in philanthropy nationwide, recent tax law changes, and growth in competition from other non-profits all complicate efforts to acquire and retain alumni donors. Yet regardless of the difficulty of the task, many advancement shops must still meet alumni participation goals set by institution leaders.
Issue a timebound call to action
Historically, annual giving appeals have held little urgency for alumni. Outreach is infrequent and asks are open-ended. Without a reason to give now, it’s easy for alumni participation to decline or delay indefinitely. Advancement leaders must create timebound calls to action to ensure alumni take action today.
Now that you're ready to make annual giving appeals timebound
By the numbers
$60
Average gift when nonprofit does not use a deadline$93
Average gift when nonprofit uses a deadline15%
More clickthroughs for email campaigns with an expiring offerDiversify your appeal channels
Social media, online videos, mobile devices, and other channels occupy a growing share of donors’ time, yet colleges’ and universities’ digital fundraising strategies haven’t kept up. Many annual giving shops continue to treat channels in isolation when it comes to digital engagement. Annual giving efforts need to meet alumni on various digital platforms in a coordinated way to gain donor attention.
Effectively communicate with alumni across channels
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Find "blue ocean" channels
Blue ocean opportunities refer to spaces that aren’t yet crowded with other organizations. See how one university used texting to break through to their alumni.
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Rely on alumni to spread the word
Social media is a saturated market, but one that many alumni use daily. Alumni are more likely to pay attention to their peers on social media, so leverage their networks by creating social media impact ambassadors.
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Utilize web ads to reinforce the message
Knowing where alumni spend their time online is difficult. Instead of trying to identify the best place to make a solicitation, have digital ads ping alumni on multiple sites.
Reorient the ask around causes
Donors increasingly want to give in a way that has a direct impact on beneficiaries’ lives, but institutions struggle to show alumni how annual fund gifts influence causes they’re passionate about. Annual fund appeals and collateral need to focus on philanthropic opportunities that motivate and inspire alumni. Without providing donors an opportunity to donate to a specific cause, colleges and universities risk declining alumni participation to more focused non-profits.
Now that you're ready to focus on specific philanthropic causes
Remove hidden barriers to alumni giving
Even when alumni intend to give to their alma mater, those plans often come to naught. Every slow-loading link, extraneous checkout-page field, and confusingly formatted email appeal brings alumni donors one step closer to lapsing. Advancement leaders must identify the hidden barriers to alumni participation that drive up donor attrition and remedy them.
Three steps that best-practice institutions take include:
- Â Optimize email outreach by A-B testing different messages.
- Simplify the giving page so that donors don’t have to enter anything but the most crucial information.
- Circumvent giving barriers altogether by investing in monthly and recurring giving.
Increase the number of nudges
Alumni today are inundated with noise. Their inboxes quickly fill up with spam, their physical mailboxes overflow with appeals, and their phones ring off the hook with robocallers asking for their business. To compete in such a noisy environment, advancement leaders must ensure that they are communicating with and soliciting alumni in a coordinated—but still high-volume—manner.
Now that you're ready to optimize the number of nudges
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