5 sure signs that your alumni are ready to give

Introduction

As a consultant that specialises in education advancement, a question I am often asked by clients is how do you know when an alumni program is ready for a fundraising campaign.

Now this really is a question for the ages - a bit like when as a parent your little Katie or Kevin asks you at the most inopportune of moments (like during a Grade 1 parent-teacher interview) - ‘Daddy, where do babies come from?’

Unlike this most vexing of life questions, the alumni fundraising question is a little easier to answer… well at least partly. Let me explain…

There is no silver bullet when it comes to deciding on fundraising from alumni

For advancement practitioners like me who have been ‘in the game’ for a long time what I can say is that unfortunately there’s no silver bullet, single guiding light, or statistic (sorry to burst your fundraising excitement bubble) when it comes to knowing when your alumni program is ready to be taken into the realm of fundraising.

However, the good news is that there are several important indicators and steps that can certainly help you determine whether your school, university or college is likely ready to fundraise from its’ alumni.?

Knowing when to start fundraising from your alumni involves a number of complex, yet ultimately simple strategic considerations. These usually fall into three broad areas that you should be considering carefully as part of your planning coming down to, and that I’ll cover further on in this article.?

We know from years of research by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), that around 70% of fundraising proceeds for private education institutions will come from alumni. So the question ‘when to hit go’ on your own campaign becomes an all-important one, that requires careful research and realistic appraisal of the maturity of your alumni program.

Hello, is anybody out there??

One of the first statistics I always look to is how many alumni are contactable.

I mean?really?contactable across multi mediums such as email, LinkedIn, mobile, physical address and even work details – not basing it on guestimates such as social media likes or signups.

In Australia and New Zealand, 57% of living alumni on average are?really?contactable and this increases to 76% globally.?

From what I’ve seen in the industry over the last decade, for your alumni fundraising to succeed, your contactable graduates must number over the Australian/NZ benchmark, and in more recent times the statistic indicate is could actually need to be closer to the global figure to give yourself the best chance of fundraising success.

If your alumni program is tracking under these benchmarks I would suggest more concentrated relationship building and friend-raising needs to occur before you are ready to fundraise – and as we all know this can take some years to achieve because there are no shortcuts.

Alumni volunteer programs or bust!

The next important statistical indicator that I look for is the level of volunteerism in an alumni program.?

Once again we know from global research results (from CASE) that 84% of alumni who donate have volunteered first with their alma mater, and then give on average 56% more than alumni who don’t volunteer.

So to me, the message here is simple – alumni fundraising success is intrinsically tied to and dependent upon the ability of education institutions to provide immersive and engaging volunteer experiences, supported by authentic stewardship programs.

In a worrying sign for the education advancement sector, volunteerism has been falling for a number of years now (well before COVID came knocking) where a paltry 0.3% of alumni volunteer in Australia and New Zealand and 4.0% globally.?

It should be little surprise then, that global alumni giving rates have mirrored this slide with volunteering - failing by nearly 6% since 2016.?

It certainly appears as an industry we have some work to do with our alumni programs. So my key questions here to you are - what shape is are your alumni volunteer programs in and what are the trends telling you??

Keep your program positively engaging positively

A third key indicator is the level of positive alumni engagement taking place over a number of years.

Several years ago I pioneered the Positive Alumni Engagement Index – it is basically an index that tracks and records the engagement levels of alumni via your customer relationship management system.?

I should explain that by positive engagement I don’t mean something your institution does, but what comes back as a result of what it does. For example, sending out an alumni magazine and having address update forms coming back, or great feedback via emails or socials, website visits are positive engagements – not the actual sending of the magazine.

Using this system over many years, what I’ve found is that a range of 3-4 positive engagements on average per alumni per annum is a reliable indicator that your alumni program is likely ready to make the jump into fundraising.

What is the feasibility of your research?

Another key step when deciding about an alumni fundraising program is ensuring you undertake in-depth research and realistically evaluate the results.

The first place to start is with a feasibility study to determine what the likely support is going to be from your education community.?

Basically a feasibility study involves surveying, focus-grouping, and interviewing key decision-makers and supporters at your institution – including staff, students, alumni, leadership, and existing donors that you can then determine their level of interest and willingness to support.

Completing this research helps ensure you are not ‘flying blind’ in your efforts and that your fundraising programs will speak directly to your intended audience to engender and amplify their support.?

Let’s face it, if your alumni indicate they don’t support a proposed fundraising campaign at this point, then it is dead in the water before it even begins, so undertaking thorough and precise research is a must!

it also goes without saying that you also need to undertake some decent prospect mining in your database to ascertain whether you have enough of the right alumni prospects to make your fundraising program worthwhile.?

Go on your gut feel

This tip is a little less scientific than those covered already– but let me assure you it is no less important.

Only the most experienced fundraisers will know what I am taking about when I mention gut feel. It is basically having that innate sense that your alumni fundraising program is truly ready to launch. Ultimately gut feel stems from years of experience and knowing your alumni program and the broader industry inside out.

If you are new to fundraising and alumni relations, I recommend connecting in with a mentor or consultant like me that has significant advancement experience to then help you review your alumni program. I know I’ve often found that the advice of a trusted mentor has been invaluable in helping me to make better and more informed decisions with programs I have led.

Is the longevity of a program a relevant consideration?

The answer is yes and no.?

If your other key indicators are tracking well, then the age of your program is mostly of little relevance – with one caveat.

If you are contacting certain cohorts of your alumni for the first time in many years, then your first contact with them (and likely for several years thereafter) should never be an ask for money, rather it should be an ongoing invitation to connect into and engage with their alma mater in ways that are meaningful to them. This will help you to build trust and engagement with your program and truly shows that you are truly interested in them as people before anything else.

Going the ‘hard ask’ too soon with your alumni will usually only lead to disaster. Therefore taking the time to segment your alumni data in some detail and implementing a multi-layered communications approach becomes an important component of your fundraising engagement approaches to alumni.

Conclusion

So there are a few key tips to help you when it comes to deciding on your next alumni fundraising campaign.

If you are unsure about whether to proceed, then I recommend seeking out professional advice from consultants like me, or even a great mentor, as they can help you to make more educated decisions and at the right time with your program direction.?

If you feel that now is the time to take your alumni program to another exciting level but are still a little unsure, my advice is to cast aside those doubts, embrace alumni fundraising wholeheartedly and just do it - I promise you it is well worth the journey!

*Statistics cited sourced from: Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) & VAESE Annual Survey Report Series 2021.

About the author

*Alastair Lee is an international award-winning senior thought leader in the Australian education advancement industry and has held many key leadership positions over the last two decades in enrolment marketing, alumni and fundraising with Deakin University and University of Tasmania.?

He is also the Founding Director of AlumGrow Consultancy – a firm specialising in enrolment marketing research, brand development and advancement strategy for the education industry.?

Alastair can be contacted via email?[email protected] ?or telephone +61 458 545 184.

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