Applying Alumni Data to Drive Engagement and Fundraising
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This document discusses how an alumni program at Lake Forest College applies existing development data to guide alumni programming strategies. It summarizes findings from an alumni attitudinal survey that showed a general lack of awareness around the college's finances. The document also discusses how screening alumni data using demographic and geographic information can help define primary target markets for events. Finally, it provides examples of how tracking event attendance and giving data can demonstrate that increased engagement correlates with increased donations.
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Applying Alumni Data to Drive Engagement and Fundraising
- 1. + Timothy State „93 Associate V.P. of Alumni Programs state@lakeforest.edu Friend-Raising for Dollars Applying Development Data to Alumni Programming HEDS June 2011
- 2. + Where Focus your Energy? Converting Non-Donors to Donors 1976 Graduate 250 Solicitations over 35 years. What makes the difference in solicitation 251?
- 3. + Lake Forest: Focus on Donors Moving existing donors up in dollar value Shifting irregular donor to an annual donor
- 4. + What We‟ll Cover Applying existing development data to alumni programming Alumni Attitudinal Survey Campaign Data Screening How that helps drive strategy Talking points to actual programming Advice on guiding alumni programs data review
- 5. + Lake Forest College The College Traditional 4-year national liberal arts college 1,400 students > 1,700 Students 30 miles north of Chicago Our Alumni 13,000 Forester solicitable alumni 6,000 alumni, parents and friends in Chicagoland Top 5 markets 500 to 800 alumni Top 20 markets over 100 alumni 1997 – Beginning of Alumni Program Completing $100 Million Campaign – 1 year early
- 6. + About Me 10 Years Consumer Marketing Experience Marketing Planning Advertising Public Relations Special Events Retail Real Estate industry
- 7. + Market Research is not Academic Research We are looking for trends, no absolutes.
- 8. + Data Mining Not Just for Donors Anymore Applying research and data screening to more than just major donors
- 9. + Donors Like to Know… Organizations they give to have a need for the money Organizations make good use of their money When donating, it is an organization they are passionate about assisting
- 10. + Attitudinal Survey Themes General lack of awareness and understanding of the College‟s financial status 1/3 of our alumni have no opinion as to whether or not the College is manage well Our alumni believe they receive adequate correspondence from us; but feel uninformed about important matters
- 11. + Forester Pride Strongly/ Agree, 95.50 % Neither Agree or Disagree, 2.3 0% Somewhat Disagree, 0.9 0% Strongly Disagree, 0.3 0% Don't Know, 1.10% Alumni believe Lake Forest College is a Quality Educational Institution
- 12. + Program Implications Draw out pride vs. convince of pride Messaging Integrate e-mail and web communications Incorporate giving messages to volunteers Reinforce the importance of giving Event Programming Talking Points
- 13. + We have ducks. And they fly. But how do we know where they fly?
- 14. + Campaign Data Screening 17,127 Records screened by GG&A Includes Alumni, Non-Grad Alumni, Parents, Friends Assigned a “geocode” and appended with census block and tract information Enhanced with Claritas PRIZM Lifestage Segments 16,631 (97.1%) of records matched GG&A enhanced with “Prospect Profile” and “Prospect Explorer” Provided Annual Giving, Major Gift, and Planned Giving Codes, PRIZM Segments
- 15. + Potential indicated by AG Code $- $200,000 $400,000 $600,000 $800,000 $1,000,000 $1,200,000 $1,400,000 Potential
- 16. + Program to the alumni most likely to give 50% of our alumni give to charity and we know where they live.
- 17. + Lifestage Segmentation Younger Years Singles & Couples <45 No Children Y1 – Midlife Success Y2 – Young Achievers Y3 – Striving Singles Family Life With Children 25-54 F1 – Accumulated Wealth F2 – Young Accumulators F3 – Mainstream Families F4 – Sustaining Families Mature Years Singles & Couples >45 Childless M1 – Affluent Empty Nesters M2 – Conservative Classics M3 – Cautious Couples M4 – Sustaining Seniors
- 18. + Defining a Primary Market 7385 5102 2430 Primary Secondary Tertiary
- 19. + Draw the right crowd How do we know if we are drawing the 50% who give to charity?
- 20. + Relative Draw Index RDI is a percent divided by a percent to give you a ratio. 1.0 is even. Below 1.0 is under-drawing. Above 1.0 is over-drawing. Group of 100 at homecoming, 20% yellow Population of 1,000, 30% yellow Divide 20% by 30% = 0.66, or underdraw
- 21. + Homecoming Registration RDI 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 Y1 Y2 Y3 F1 F2 F3 F4 M1 M2 M3 M4 2003-05
- 23. + Data-Driven Homecoming Family Carnival Kid-friendly menus “Bring the entire family” Hand Sanitizer
- 25. + Use Data to Fine Tune Emotional Engagement Load with the right ammunition
- 26. + Regional Event Attendance and Giving Year Alumni Attend Participation Overall Participation 2006 3.3% 47.6% 26.7% 2007 2.8% 54.2% 24.2% 2008 5.9% 57.6% 29.5% 2009 7.9% 51.9% 30.0%
- 27. + Average Gift of Event Attendees # of Events Attended Over a 5-Year Period Average 2007 Gift for donations <$4,999.99 1 Event $108 2 Events $126 3 Events $145 4 Events $167 5 Events $275 Benchmark for Total Alumni Total Average Gift ~ $252.99
- 28. + Event Frequency vs. Gift Frequency # of Events No Gifts 1-3 Gifts 4 Gifts 5 Gifts 1 Event 6.89% 57.57% 13.24% 22.30% 2 Events 6.33% 50.63% 18.67% 24.37% 3 Events 8.51% 45.39% 15.60% 30.50% 4 Events 6.25% 39.58% 16.67% 37.50% 5 Events 7.41% 25.93% 14.81% 51.85% 6 Events 0.00% 31.82 9.09% 59.09%
- 29. + New Messaging The room is filled with donors. Reinforce their gift makes good things happen.
- 30. + When ducks fly, pull the trigger
- 31. + Total Volunteer AF Giving $- $50,000 $100,000 $150,000 $200,000 $250,000 $300,000 $350,000 $400,000 $450,000 $500,000 FY 1 FY 2 FY 3 FY 4 A&D CAC Admissions
- 32. + Homecoming RDI 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 Y1 Y2 Y3 F1 F2 F3 F4 M1 M2 M3 M4 2003-05 2007-08
- 33. + Homecoming RDI 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 Y1 Y2 Y3 F1 F2 F3 F4 M1 M2 M3 M4 2003-05 2007-08 2009-10
- 34. + Homecoming Attendance 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Attendance
- 35. + Managed Prospect Homecoming Registrants 1 guest out of 4
- 36. + Mom, are we going to Homecoming?
- 37. + Homecoming Weekend Our greatest opportunity to reinforce our mission is possible because of alumni support.
- 38. + First you engage them. Then you solicit them. Old wives tale
- 39. + Assist your Alumni Operation Many Alumni Operations are thinking about data incorrectly
- 40. + How do you go about applying metrics? Think about the questions you need answers to Garbage in, Garbage out What do you have to track to get the information you need? What do you have to do to get that information easily? Are you tracking information you don‟t need to track, or you are not using?
- 41. + How do you go about applying metrics? Think about where you store data Guests list vs. coded on people‟s records Think about what data you have from your screening What should you import onto your system? Where should your importing it onto your system?
- 42. + Review Market research is not academic research Apply development data to alumni programs Define your market within your base Use data to fine tune emotional engagement Data suggests: Ask for money as you engage Assist your alumni operation
- 43. + Timothy State „93 Associate V.P. of Alumni Programs state@lakeforest.edu Thank You! Questions?
Editor's Notes
- Thank Lori Sundberg, for the opportunity to speak.And to HEDS for focusing on measuring the effectiveness of Alumni Programs.Even CASE, which is the professional organization that supports alumni professionals provides little information or guidance beyond basic response rates and statistical data. Response rates are great, but how do you know if your programs are effective?Having solid data on your alumni is a cornerstone, but it doesn’t help you towards measuring effectiveness.
- Matching your table skirts to your balloons is not a long-term strategy for program effectiveness.
- Matching your table skirts to your balloons is not a long-term strategy for program effectiveness.How do you know if you are drawing the right people?What is the return on investment for that cocktail served?How do you know if you are delivering the right message?Ultimately, alumni programs are about raising money.
- Both data collection methods were driven by the development office, and driven by us preparing to launch the public phase of a campaign.
- The scale of event that we’re able to execute with 450 alumni in the Bay Area is completely different than the scale of an event that another institution is able to execute with 2,000 alumni in the Bay Area.
- In that time, I’ve not only coordinated the details of nearly 500 Santa Arrivals, but I’ve helped to figure out how to prove their effectiveness. So when I joined Higher Education seven years ago, I began taking what I learned welcoming Santa and applying those lessons to Homecoming Parades and Cocktail Parties.
- Identify trends to help inform our decisions, or in some cases, just back up what our gut says.We are not looking for absolutes.Marketing saying that you should shoot when the ducks fly.But are the ducks in range? Are you shooting in the right direction?By using data, we have fine-tuned the direction we are shooting.We have modified the ammunition.
- You probably have a sophisticated data operation that is helping you to learn about your major donors. Why not apply that to your alumni programming efforts?
- We know… not just from studies about giving in general, but also our own research that:Donors like to know that they are giving to an organization that:Needs the money.Makes good use of the money.And is an organization they believe passionately about.
- 2004 Alford Group SurveyMail and telephone surveys; 3 focus groups. Surveys were mailed to 11,500 people with an 18% response rate.As we dove into the data, what we discovered is that our alumniDon’t know if we need the money1/3 have no idea if we use the money we have effectivelyThey believe they are receiving the right amount of information from us, but still feel uninformed.Survey led us to understand that we have some real messaging issues.It’s not that our alumni don’t want to support us, they just have no opinion.
- Research suggests that the attitude a student graduates with is the attitude they carry with them, and the survey found this to be true for Lake Forest.Good news for us.By learning that our alumni are proud of their experience, we no longer had to develop initiatives that encourage them to be proud, rather they can draw out those feelings that already exist.
- Pride – giving is emotional. If we’re not drawing out that pride from within, how are we convincing them to donate?Messaging – making sure we’re getting the importance to give everywhere, even to volunteers.Making sure we get giving into our messaging at events, and having those delivered from peer-to-peer rather than the President or staff member (Because that is their job).
- PRIZM is a set of geo-demographic clusters that was developed by Claritas in the 1990s, and has since been acquired by the Nielson Company. It is widely used to segment customer bases for marketing purposes. The system categorizes consumers – or your alumni – into demographically and behaviorally distinct groups, or segments, to help a market discern those customers likes, dislikes, lifestyles, and purchase behaviors.
- And we apply this screening to our fundraising programs.Codes are conservative, but this informed us that if everyone coded in the 5,000+ category gave $5,000, we would raise $1.2 million.If everyone in the $500-$1000 category gave $500, we would raise almost $1 million.So rather than focus our energies on 13,000 solicitable alumni, we now are creating unique initiatives for an exclusive pool of 250 alumni with the $5,000+ initiative, and a new focus in our mass market initiatives for 2,025 alumni who fall in the $500 to $1000.So now we know where the ducks are flying.
- Last year, approximately 3,000 alumni gave.We don’t have to get 13,000 alumni to give to experience growth, we can focus on 7,000 alumni who we know where they live.
- F1 – Accumulated Wealth – The presence of children is the defining characteristic of the segments in the Family Life Class. Accumulated Wealth contain the wealthiest families, mostly college-educated, white-collar Baby Boomers living in sprawling homes beyond the nation’s beltways. These large family segments are filled with upscale professionals – the groups median income is nearly six figures – who have the disposable cash and sophisticated tastes to indulge their children with electronic toys, computer games, and top-of-the-line sporting equipment. These adults in households are also a prime audience for print media, expensive cars and frequent vacations – often to theme parks as well as European destinations.M1 – Affluent Empty Nesters. Americans in the mature crowd tend to be over 45 years old living in houses that have empty-nested. They feature upscale couples who are college educated, hold executive and professional positions and are over 45. While their neighborhoods are found across a variety of landscapes – from urban to small-town areas – they all share a propensity for living in large, older homes. With their children out of the house, these consumers have plenty of disposable cash to finance active lifestyles, rich in travel, cultural events, exercise equipment, and business media. These folks are also community activists who write politicians, volunteer for environmental groups and vote heavily in elections.Y3- Striving Singles – Make up the most downscale of the Younger Years class. Centered in exurban towns and satellite cities, these 20-something singles typically have low incomes – often under $25,000 a year – from service jobs or part-time work they take on while going to College. Housing for this groups consists of a mix of cheap apartment complexes, dormitories, and mobile homes. As consumers, the residents in these segments score high for outdoor sports, movies and music, fast food and inexpensive cars.So this might suggest that we should be planning high-end play dates; rather than exclusively upscale cocktail parties.
- We have the greatest chance of donor conversion and upgrade in our primary market.F1 – Accumulated WealthM1 – Affluent Empty NestersThose two segments are the people who have the money to give and give it.
- Last year, approximately 3,000 alumni gave.We don’t have to get 13,000 alumni to give to experience growth, we can focus on 7,000 alumni who we know where they live.
- So in the same way we have fine-tuned our fundraising efforts, we have been focusing our alumni programs.Forced us to ask: what are we doing that we shouldn’t do?What are we NOT doing that we should be doing?So we know what segment we are now looking for. How do we know if they are turning out?
- Overdraw in Accumulated Wealth and Affluent Empty Nesters
- Creating a great marketing program is about being relevant. How are you being relevant to your alumni donors?
- Family-FriendlyModified tailgating to make it less invasive or dominate in the weekendAdded a family carnival and goodie bags for childrenModified menus with more finger foods/Hand sanitizer“Bring your entire family”
- Attitudinal Survey… Don’t know we need the money or that we’re well-managed…Showcasing we’re providing the same education, but only better – Academic Festival componentMoney Message – Delivered by alums
- So now we know who we need to talk to, and we’re thinking about how we get them to come out.But if giving is an emotional decision how do we hit the triggers? How do we know what to say to them?When ducks fly, what kind of ammunition do we use?
- Wanted to look at the relationship between giving and attendance. Again, looking for trends to help inform our programs.We discovered that basically 1 out of 2 of our attendees to our regional events made a donation in that year. What this said to us is that we have a room of predominately donors.As such, what greater opportunity to engage them emotionally in a manner that reinforces the money they donate is a wise investment. So we changed our talking points, and began coaching our volunteers differently on this.
- The relationship between gift performance and event attendance. In this chart, we took out gifts over $5000, which is primarily our trustee pool. A few trustees at an event can really create chaos when trying to figure out mass market measures.No real surprises here – a person who attends more events over time has a higher average gift. The average gift between an attendee who has been to four events and five events is a pretty significant jump.This again reinforces the idea that we need to talk about money when we have alumni as a captive audience.
- Taking that idea, we were hoping for a magic number here – that if you went to three events, you were more likely to be an annual donor.Unfortunately, no such truths were revealed.But, there is a clear coloration between event frequency and gift frequency.
- Recruit volunteers to share their story.What happened at Lake Forest College that it is so important to them that they are volunteering 20, 30, 40 years later?
- Similar to events, one out of two volunteers give. Different dialogue with a volunteer than we do the mass market alum.Total volunteer giving increased about $150,000 over four years.
- Increased the draw to 1.5 for F1 – Affluent Family category.M1 is at 1.0, but that is a reflection of greater growth in other areas. Actual attendance numbers for this category more than doubled.
- Still holding strong in the Affluent F1 Category.Drawing stronger in the Mature crowd.Growth in “downscale” family areas represents more our commitment to make Homecoming accessible to all alumni, and we keep registration fees low.Decrease in the young, “downscale” categories reflects our hard-line approach to decrease the impact of alcohol.Overall, we are drawing more of the type of donor we want to be drawing.
- Total head count for all events over the course of the Homecoming weekend, we’ve seen consistent growth.In 2010, of our registered participants in the weekend, over 250 are on our system as managed prospects, meaning they are on our radar as a major donor or a potential major donor.
- Homecoming is about:Creating an emotional experience. That makes an alum think about their experience at the College.That had an impact on their life.In a way that compels them to make Lake Forest a priority in their charitable giving.
- The best measures are sometimes the simplest. You don’t need to really overthink this, but just come up with a way that you can measure a program and stick with it.There is no real secret, and it’s often just a simple math equation.