But the results are mixed, and not every institution has seen massive increases. That’s what I’ve learned over the past two years, which I spent surveying and interviewing more than 5,000 education fundraising professionals. These surveys and interviews, part of a series called “Advancement Leaders Speak,” attempt to find out what fundraisers say is making a difference—and what is holding them back. I went on the road to present the results of my research and listen at more than 50 conferences, presentations, and webinars. What I heard was that fundraisers at colleges, universities, and independent schools are having great success in the current economy, but there are still significant hurdles holding them back from better connecting with donors.
The most consistent theme I heard across the board was that the scarcest resource for fundraisers today isn’t money. It’s time and attention from donors. Fundraisers compete with millions of marketing messages that donors receive daily as well as more than a million other charities. Nearly all independent school alumni will attend college, and more than 90 percent of higher education institutions will solicit them within one year.
Breaking through to get donors’ attention is crucial. And fundraisers are developing new strategies and tactics to do just that.
In listening to fundraisers, several other themes about what they believe will have an impact on the future of their work emerged. Here are seven—and what they likely mean for independent school fundraisers.
“I need to raise more with (a little) more.”
Fundraising budgets in education are indeed growing, but very slowly. Expectations for fundraising are growing much faster. Many leaders are shifting funds to take advantage of the major gift boom, which will offer the biggest bang for the buck. For the first time in our research, we found that institutions were much more likely to cut funds from events and general alumni outreach and spend more money on major and planned giving work. The race is on to attract big gifts.But schools should tread carefully. A short-term focus on big gifts now, however important, could leave a whole generation of future givers ignored. We know from research that more than 80 percent of donors who make planned gifts also give annually. So, decreasing engagement activities is a potentially dangerous “head fake” as we bring in short-term major gift wins. In higher education, overall alumni annual giving participation has steadily declined for the past 20 years, largely led by low giving rates by young alumni. Precollegiate schools have seen a slight increase in alumni donors on average, but many schools are struggling and annual participation remains below 20 percent.
“We’re going digital and peer to peer.”
The greatest opportunity to engage more donors consistently and for less cost lies largely in digital tactics. One example is targeted digital advertising. This type of ad technology follows donors, whether they are on Yahoo!, ESPN, or a mobile game, and puts a giving-focused message in front of them. These messages can demonstrate giving impact, note a stat about a school, or even be a simple reminder of a campaign deadline. We see these ads daily on our phones, and they are becoming more common in donor outreach. About half of fundraisers have used some targeted digital advertising (purchased ads) outside of Facebook ads to reach donors. They can be used to support a direct mail or email appeal, as well as to bolster the success of a giving day or special campaign.These ads also cost a fraction of a penny per impression (the number of times they are seen by a donor), much less than direct mail. The most successful fundraising programs connect these ads to mobile-responsive giving pages and reach out to donors via social media at the same time. This creates a real “surround
sound” program. This means sending ads at the same time as your other communications and even targeting ads to specific groups.
We’ve also seen a big interest in peer-to-peer texting programs to introduce giving or to send campaign reminders. This easy-to-use technology allows you to get to donors directly by harnessing your students and volunteers to send direct text messages. When digital programs like targeted advertising and peer-to-peer text engagement are used together, they can increase the effectiveness of traditional appeals, such as direct mail, email, and phone, by up to 50 percent.
“We need donor visits to be more productive.”
Seeking out and meeting with the best possible major and planned gift prospects is a top priority for fundraisers. But in our survey, we found that as the fundraising staff gets smaller—which is the reality for many independent schools—the donor prospect pools also get more focused. And with that, the frustration and fear of contacting the wrong prospects increases.More than 80 percent of fundraisers use purchased wealth ratings from prospect reasearch providers today. These ratings offer a look at alumni net worth and potential to give. But less than one-third of fundraisers feel that wealth ratings are highly effective in identifying donors ready to give. Wealth ratings only tell you who might be able to give, and fundraisers spend a lot of time contacting alumni who never respond or set a meeting. On average, fundraisers rate only about 34 percent of the assigned prospects as “truly qualified.” I often advise clients that wealth ratings get you in the right area of the forest, but they won’t tell you which trees to climb. You need to look beyond wealth ratings for other clues.
First, look at the information you have. This means digging into every piece of data on your prospect pool that looks at both demographics and recent engagement. You probably can name some of the wealthiest and most philanthropic families in your database. But can you tell who has recently read your emails, clicked on links, attended events, and shown interest “right now”? This is a significant hurdle for many independent school fundraisers, in part because budgets and access to the technology are tight. But most schools are probably tracking more than they think. It’s often a matter of getting the email system talking with the database, the online giving portal, and the wealth screening data. Then, reaching out to donors to “test” their interest with interactive content and even live surveying can help focus on the right people to approach. This is a common model used in business to generate leads, and schools can adopt some of the tactics to great success in fundraising.
This isn’t just about getting more gifts—a coordinated program to identify the most ready big givers before you reach out to them is also donor-centric. No one likes awkward living room visits.
“I need to create a sense of urgency.”
Fundraisers have done a great job of explaining “why give?” to donors over the years. What these tactics do is answer “why give now?” for donors. What all these tactics have in common is that they amplify excitement and urgency, encouraging fence sitters to get off the fence and into your donor pool. Fundraisers are still going to need to explain the school’s mission and impact, but it’s time to make giving exciting as well.
“We could do more with leadership giving.”
About 60 percent of fundraisers in higher education surveyed said that they want to spend more time with leadership donors—the group schools want as part of their top annual giving societies or to give big at an event, but are not yet at the major gift level.Leadership giving is often ignored by fundraisers because they are either pursuing total participation or focusing on a few very big givers. This causes a “muddle in the middle,” as one consultant called it. We know that people generally ramp up giving over time—we rarely stumble upon brand new major givers. How can institutions encourage and honor leadership givers, who are doing more than the minimum but not yet ready for a major gift? It’s a question many fundraisers are asking.
One answer is VIP and elite access programs that give these donors more in-depth information, such as a look at the school’s finances and strategic plan and, provide this information earlier than when the general public receives it. Special newsletters about school events that go to leadership givers days before the school's main newsletter are a great idea. These types of donors expect access to influential people in the school and to see “inside” its operations.
Providing access to notable alumni to cultivate leadership givers is also crucial. Yes, that special parking spot for the big auction donor continues to be of value, but so is a special note from the head of school letting them in on a big announcement early or an invitation to meet an influential school alumnus who is visiting town. Don’t just roll out the red carpet for major givers—leadership giving can have a massive impact on the budget and future donor pipeline.
“Parents can be asked.”
In higher education fundraising, parent giving has doubled in the last 10 years, with the average institution bringing in more than $1 million from parents. Wealth demographics combined with the high-touch and highly involved parents of today make for a perfect storm of parent giving. Schools traditionally have been afraid to ask parents to do more than pay tuition. But many institutions are asking parents to step up to a leadership level while their students are enrolled, serve as volunteers, and then convert to major givers after graduation.In some cases, this includes the “fifth year” ask—a request for support equal to or exceeding an additional year of annual tuition the year following graduation. Parent givers can use these gifts to establish an endowment, or even to serve as a challenge for other parent donors to start giving. Increasingly, parents are willing to be public about these big gifts because the social engagement and networking that come with stepping up is a big part of their lives. For parents of day students, a child graduating is about to leave home. Continuing involvement with a school that they treasure is a way to fill that empty space. Testing out a big ask coupled with involvement with some parent donors is a good idea.
“I want to use data to personalize the donor experience.”
Once you know what people are interested in, you can craft more targeted communications based on this information. You can lead with athletics for the donors who value that more. You can lead with student impact, work your students are doing in the community, or scholarship stories for those who are excited by that. You can focus on college outcomes and what alumni are doing to better the world for the people who tend to click on those stories. You surely have alumni who have gone on to become researchers, for example. A donor who has been personally affected by a major medical issue, such as cancer, heart disease, or Alzheimer’s, might be more likely to click on a story about an alumnus working on a cure, and may choose that story over other general content. It’s time to work on several versions of marketing based on what donors are reading. Sending better communications tied to recent donor interest is a better strategy than just sending more.