One Year Later—Three Ways Higher Ed Advancement Has Evolved for the Better

Who would have thought one year ago that we would be where we are today? I know I didn’t. If anything, I thought that, at most, the rest of the spring semester would be spent online, but the long-term nature of the pandemic restrictions had not come into focus yet.

Everywhere we look, there’s evidence of how the pandemic has impacted and changed higher education. That’s also the case for institutional advancement—for many institutions, events in February 2020 were the last time alumni engagement teams interacted with donors in person. Clearly, we’ve had to adapt, adapt some more, and then adapt again. In all of that, the focus has remained on engaging alumni and donors, but in new and different ways. Here are three ways that colleges and universities have evolved their approaches to ensure continued opportunities for engaging constituents and encouraging their ongoing financial support.

How we engage is different, and different can be good

The pandemic forced us to look at engagement differently, with traditional events shifted or delayed. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll celebrate when the schools we work with can safely have an in-person reunion or homecoming again! However, I’ve also seen new types of opportunities develop that can complement engagement strategies for the long term.

For instance, digital engagement has become even more important for advancement, and that’s here to stay. Institutions have enhanced email strategies, including more updates from the institution early in the pandemic and more alumni-focused communications now. As we saw in Anthology’s alumni survey about pandemic trends from late summer, interest in information about students was high, but so was information about fellow alumni, as well as networking opportunities. Delivering the right content continues to be key, and segmenting communications is critical in achieving that.

Similarly, event engagement strategies have shifted, and institutions have developed expansive virtual programs and virtual content, including trivia nights, dance parties, faculty presentations, awards ceremonies, alumni class Zoom meetings, career events, and so much more. These online events have helped to engage graduates in new and different ways. We’ve also seen new people engage in alumni events, whether that’s because of where they live or for other reasons. The main message is that virtual events can be very engaging—now, it’s a matter of determining the right mix of virtual and in-person events and learning from experience to see which ones work better in a virtual format. Does it make sense for every in-person event in the future to have a virtual component? No, but virtual events can deliver real value in addition to returning to in-person events (once we reach that point).

Look for other new and creative ways to engage graduates. Perhaps create a way for alumni to virtually share notes of encouragement or advice with current students or with new graduates or offer an alumni-owned business directory. There are so many possibilities—don’t be afraid to think outside of the box!

Increased interest in online giving extends opportunities

Online giving has continued to grow, according to our advancement customer data, with the dollars raised online increasing by over 10% for the same set of 220 public and private four-year higher education institutions in the 2020 calendar year compared to the 2019 calendar year. This marks the sixth successive year of growth. While the overall fundraising picture varies by institution, dollars raised online increased for 75% of advancement client institutions—a clear indication of a continued move among donors to give online. A trend of giving larger gifts ($100,000 or more) online also continued for the sixth year in a row.

The increase in online giving is even more telling in the current environment, as many institutions paused solicitations during the initial months of the pandemic, and in some cases, canceled Days of Giving, which typically drove a large number of online gifts in years past. This demonstrates a continued opportunity to encourage donors to make gifts online and to ensure a streamlined online giving process while providing flexible donor options. Recommended types of donor options include selecting what institutional area they would like to support, as well as multiple payment methods, including using digital wallets. Digital wallet use continues to grow, with between 15% and 20% of transactions typically being made using digital wallets among Anthology customers.

One example of a successful recent online giving campaign was Arcadia University’s UKnightedTuesday event, held in conjunction with #GivingTuesday in December. By using online leaderboards, six challenges (each with their own leaderboard), and segmented email campaigns to create highly targeted digital communications, the Arcadia team exceeded its goal of raising $200,000—raising more than $315,000 during the 1,853 minutes of the campaign from 636 gifts.

Alumni engagement analytics and automation inform better strategies

Engagement analytics was a hot topic at the recent CASE All-Districts conference as it takes engagement effectiveness to the next level. By understanding the level of engagement of graduates, alumni engagement teams can better identify where to invest their time and resources, focusing on groups where there is opportunity to grow engagement and spending less time on populations with no history of engagement, or a lower likelihood to engage. These new data points can also inform improved strategies across the department, as well as cross-departmentally.

At a time when institutions are being asked to do more with less, understanding which alumni are engaging, at what level, and where their engagement is stemming from helps identify the highest-value opportunities from an annual giving perspective and provides prospect research teams with more actionable information.

Now is also a good time for institutions to ensure tech-enabled advancement innovations are yielding optimal outcomes and efficiencies. For instance, are all advancement initiatives driven by common access to relevant data? This will help to ensure visibility into the level of engagement with your full constituency and allow more automation of activities. CRM capabilities should also be part of the equation, going beyond simply capturing data to surfacing information in different ways to highlight and recommend potentially untapped advancement opportunities.

While the pandemic has certainly created challenges across the higher ed community, it has also created opportunities for institutional advancement offices. Alumni engagement, donor conversations, institutional events and stewardship activities will change as in-person meetings become possible again. However, many of the changes that have happened over the past year should remain, and in some cases, be expanded. Institutions should continue to invest in digital engagement efforts, focus on online giving, use data to inform strategies and decision-making, and identify opportunities to leverage automation for efficiencies and targeted advancement outcomes.

Dr. Mirko Widenhorn is senior director of engagement strategy at Anthology.

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