Colleges and universities face a participation crisis. Donor counts have declined for years, and advancement leaders have had little success reversing the downturn.
Tried-and-true fundraising methods increasingly fall flat because donors today are constantly bombarded by appeals for their time, attention, and dollars. The number of nonprofits has tripled in the past 30 years, and by some accounts the average internet user sees over 1,300 digital ads every single day.
EAB’s Donor Activation Center provides resources to make gains against the long-term drop in donors. We aim to help you tap into donors’ passions and surpass the threshold at which they feel motivated to give. This toolkit is part of our study Winning Donor Mindshare.
This resource is part of the Improving Alumni Participation Roadmap. Access the Roadmap for stepwise guidance with additional tools and research.
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The tools below, including planning guides, audits, templates, and other resources, help you implement best practices for activating donors and winning mindshare.
Tools to engage more donors
Prospective donors leave the giving page at high rates when they encounter frustrating interfaces. The online donation process must be as smooth as possible to maximize conversion rates. Use this audit to determine how best to streamline your giving page.
Donors can easily get distracted in the middle of giving a gift. Regardless of the cause of the distraction, advancement staff must make every effort to reengage these drop-off donors and bring in their donations. This document provides example scripting that advancement staff can use for email follow-up, as well as possible subject lines.
One-off solicitations have seen declining returns in recent years. Donors may see the appeal, but a single touch doesn’t do enough to cut through the noise and remind a donor to give. Use this guide to plan digital micro-campaigns.
Donors give at higher rates when fundraising appeals explain the specific impact their gifts will have on campus. The solicitation can ask for unrestricted dollars as long as it’s accompanied by a detailed description of some concrete ways the funds will be used.
Advancement staff can gather clues about what causes and funds to craft appeals around by analyzing social media engagement data. Likes and comments offer indications of which themes resonate strongly with your alumni community. They also may reveal which appeals would have the greatest effect on non-donors, young alumni, and other priority populations.
Organizing funds by cause instead of organizational unit can lead non-donors to a giving opportunity that would inspire them to start supporting your institution. In this template, list fund designations or areas of campus that would align with each top-line cause.
Additional resources: A roadmap to higher participation
How to win donor mindshare in the attention economy
Use this infographic to identify the key challenges and solutions to some of the most common advancement obstacles when it comes to getting alumni to donate.
Winning Donor Mindshare in the Attention Economy
Explore this study for three multichannel strategies to boost alumni participation rates and win donor mindshare in today’s competitive attention economy.
