The three 'p' words that are about to succeed "participation" in the higher education fundraising world

Alumni participation in annual giving is no longer part of the US News rankings. Institutions will still report the statistic, and use the CASE methodology, but the days of arguing over Excel spreadsheets with the Provost are gone. I’m relieved. The game is over.

We can now full focus on what’s most important: engaging an inclusive donor base with what really matters to them. Based on my conversations with fundraisers since this big change dropped a few months ago, here are the three “p” words that I think are about to take up the space “participation” has owned in the higher education fundraising world.

These three words will mean a lot more than “participation” in the future of higher education advancement.

• Pipeline: Instead of counting heads, we’re about to do a lot more speed tracking. That’s right, fundraising shops will not only be watching donor counts, but also the path to leadership, major and planned giving through their giving "pipeline.” This is likely to encourage fundraising behaviors that treat giving less like a transaction and more like an experience. There will also be much greater investment in tech that helps gift officers and monitors donor progress. Bust out the speedometers fundraisers, because it’s now less about counting cars. It’s now about velocity.
• Purpose: The way we will get to that giving velocity is by helping donors define what they want to accomplish with their giving. Let’s recognize that this impact could be personal, social, societal, cultural, but most importantly, purpose defined by the donor, not us. In 21st century philanthropy, we don’t get to tell donors what to do. We get to be conduits for their purpose and meaning, and when we show up ready to do that, and share how it will actually happen with impact data, impact examples and emotional stories, we’ll get more gifts.
• Partnership: The days of collecting a check, putting donor names on an honor roll or a wall plaque, and expecting donors to just walk away happy are over. It’s now going to be about meaningful, sustained relationships where donors stay part of the philanthropic endeavor. Venture philanthropy, where donors stay involved to a much greater degree in the ongoing cause, and impact investing, where donors take a stake in good and expect a financial return that they will spin into their next philanthropic project, are on the rise.

My view is that for most enterprising philanthropists, these partnership models will become the default practices in the coming years. So we should be ready. If you’re not already talking like a philanthropic broker at least a little bit, get started.

Okay, I cheated a little bit on that last one. “partnership” was a sneaky way to get those two buzzwords into this article (ChatGPT helped me, I’ll admit). The bottom line: we’re just going to be working with donors differently and more collaboratively in the coming years, and if we don’t they’ll be avoiding us altogether as fundraisers.

Participation is still crucial, but this is our moment as fundraisers to define metrics that describe the full spectrum of donor engagement.

As I’ve shared before, I’ve always been a semi-fan of the participation metric, because it has encouraged us to engage a broad base of supporters. The danger in fundraising shops has always been to go for the quick win. We could over-focus on major gifts, which leaves a lot of people out who are just getting started giving. So, I still encourage every shop to keep a healthy level of participation focus.

As you do that, start to think critically about other metrics that will matter to your goals. Engagement is the metaphor that holds the most water here, and in higher education, the CASE Alumni Engagement Metrics are a great start. Overall, tracking how your constituents are growing closer to you by clicking, reading, watching, attending, volunteering, sharing and advocating is crucial. These behaviors are highly associated with future investment in giving.

We no longer have some weird, external force giving us a metric we have to game, argue or fret about. This is our moment. It’s time to lean in to what donors really care about, what matters the most to bringing them closer to our mission, and our time to define metrics that will encourage behaviors in our advancement work that build an inclusive, purposeful donor base.

Let’s go for it fundraisers. I’ll participate in that kind of game with you, any time.