With year-end giving season over and the chaos of the new semester settling down, the early months of the new year are the perfect time to revisit your university’s fundraising strategy and hone in on ways to raise more this year. 

A great place to start is by analyzing how you’re currently using your database for fundraising. Your university’s constituent relationship management (CRM) system is a powerful tool for fundraising, so if you’re not leveraging it effectively, you’re missing out on valuable opportunities to build lasting donor relationships. In this article, we’ll discuss four ways you can leverage your database to improve this year’s fundraising results.

Before we dive in, make sure you’re up to speed on the latest data hygiene best practices. Keeping your constituent data clean and up-to-date is crucial for gaining the accurate insights you need to get results. Now, let’s explore what your database can do for you.

See the full picture of your donors

According to Redpath Consulting Group, one of the biggest benefits of using a comprehensive CRM for your university is that it houses all of your data in one place, showing you the full picture of each student, alumnus, and donor. This holistic view of donors helps you:

• See donors’ habits and interests at a glance. From one donor’s profile, you can immediately see their giving history, events they’ve attended, and other ways they’ve engaged with your university. 
• Identify useful connections. You can also record relationships in your database, such as students your alumni have mentored, companies donors work for, and more.
• Discover opportunities. With employer data, past donations, and personal interests in front of you, you may discover donors who could be good candidates for increasing their giving or leveraging impactful matching gift opportunities. 

When you use the information in your database to get a better understanding of each donor, you’ll be better equipped to reach out to them in ways that resonate with their interests. For instance, one recent graduate’s profile in your database could provide you with the following information:

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Knowing that Olivia was a frequent volunteer with an art history degree might prompt you to invite her to a volunteering event or ask her to donate to the art department’s scholarship fund. 

All of this information helps you better understand donors’ interests and preferences, which you can use to build stronger relationships and more successfully solicit donations.

Personalize fundraising appeals and outreach

Once you have a holistic picture of your donors, you can greatly increase the personalization of your communications. Donors and alumni are much more likely to engage with messages tailored to their unique interests. Plus, when donors feel like you understand and appreciate them as individuals, they’re more likely to value your university’s community and continue giving long-term.

To boost personalization, create a variety of highly specific donor segments within your database. For example, you might create segments like:

• Liberal arts alumni who graduated in the last 10 years
• Mid-level donors who give to scholarship funds
• Alumni working in the tech industry with an interest in supporting your STEM program
• Longtime donors with the capacity to upgrade their gifts
• Major donors who previously served on your board
• Alumni who frequently attend events but haven’t donated yet

Then, send personalized emails, mailers, and appeals that align with each segment’s interests. You might ask the group of alumni in the tech industry to give to your capital campaign funding a new computer science department building, while you promote an upcoming fundraising auction to the segment of alumni who frequently attend events.

Beyond segments of donors, your database can also help you personalize outreach to individual donors. Pull data from your CRM like past donation amounts, graduation years, and specific campaigns they supported, and mention them in your appeals for an added personal touch.

Leverage automation features

Whether you leverage features within your CRM or invest in an integrated marketing automation tool, automation can make a major difference in your fundraising team’s efficiency and success. By automatically updating your database, auto-filling emails with personal details, and triggering email streams based on certain criteria, these features cut down on manual tasks and improve the accuracy of your data.

For instance, say you want to create a process to engage first-time donors. If your CRM integrates with your university’s online donation platform, new donors will be automatically added to your database. When they are, you could leverage marketing automation to trigger a series of personalized welcome emails. This might look like:

1. A special thank-you email for first-time donors gets sent immediately after they donate.
2. Within 24 hours of their donation, the new donor receives a short welcome email to welcome them to your university’s community of donors.
3. A week later, the donor receives a longer email describing your university’s recent and upcoming fundraisers and the difference they make for students.
4. Two weeks after the donation, you invite the donor to take a short survey about their interests and communication preferences.

Automated email series like this one will help you foster relationships with donors from the moment they decide to give to your university—all without lifting a finger.

Monitor your fundraising results

Finally, your database’s reporting features can help you identify successes and challenges and improve your fundraising with data. In particular, monitoring the following metrics can help you understand how successful and cost-effective your fundraising strategies are:

• Donor acquisition rate: This metric measures how many donors you acquire over a given period and can be a good indicator of how successful your university’s marketing strategies are.
• Donor retention rate: Retention measures the number of donors who give again year after year compared to those who lapse. If your retention rate is especially low, come up with a plan to strengthen donor relationships and communicate donors’ impact more often.
• Cost per dollar raised: Dividing the amount you spend on fundraising activities by your total fundraising revenue for a specific campaign tells you exactly how much it costs to raise one dollar for your university. If this number is high, find ways to reduce overhead costs and brainstorm fundraisers that will resonate more with donors.

With this information, you can investigate further to determine the cause of any major dips or increases and use your findings to adjust your fundraising strategies accordingly. For example, if you discover that a significant number of donors lapsed during an economic downturn, you might adjust your appeals to ask for smaller donations and emphasize the effects of the economy on students’ abilities to attend their dream school.

If you need help formulating strategies based on your fundraising data, consider partnering with a higher ed technology consultant. These experts can help you leverage your CRM more effectively and even customize it to fit your university’s unique needs. With the right tools and strategies in your toolbox, you’ll be able to boost your fundraising results in no time.

About the Author

Caitlin leads the brand, creative and overall go-to-market strategy for Redpath. Offering over 10 years of experience in omni-channel and B2B marketing, she has a history of successfully implementing marketing plans and leveraging campaign analytics to drive revenue. She has a passion in communications and is skilled in empowering cross-functional teams to promote positive company culture and attain collective goals.

Caitlin has a Bachelors in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of St. Thomas. When Caitlin is not at work, you can find her reading a good book, sipping on some chai tea, or enjoying activities with her family such as going on walks, boating, and traveling. 

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