Over the last decade colleges and universities increased their parent fundraising efforts. But most institutions apply a mass solicitation approach to the acquisition of parent donors, which struggle to attain results.
Colleges and universities need a more targeted approach. First, institutions have to identify, target, and acquire the right parents as early as possible. Second, institutions have to cultivate prospects using high-touch methods that make financial sense for the institution. And third, institutions need to capitalize on the senior year to secure a major gift and bring students into the philanthropic process to inspire young alumni giving.
Diversity is key for effective fundraisingAlumni giving has long been the established core of college and universities' fundraising efforts. But, despite the fact that colleges and universities are graduating more alumni and using new ways to reach them, alumni participation rates continue to decrease. Even when advancement shops do acquire new alumni donors, their gifts are smaller than before. Moving the needle on alumni giving is tougher than ever.
While alumni will undoubtedly remain the biggest donor population, betting solely on this revenue stream leaves no room for error. Nonprofits with the best fundraising outlooks diversify their revenue sources. Failing to expand fundraising efforts beyond alumni places colleges and universities at a disadvantage in a time when presidents and provosts are looking to advancement to meet budget shortfalls with increased philanthropic revenues.
Parent giving is on the riseHigher education institutions are increasingly turning to a new market to diversify their donor revenue sources—parents. In the last decade, parent giving to higher education increased 49% and the percentage of parent programs that fundraise nearly doubled.
While parents perfectly fit the donor profile because of…