Engaging Dormant Alumni to Inspire Future Philanthropy
Client
In the summer of 2019 as part of the University of Illinois Foundation’s UIDEA Accelerator, my team conducted research to identify opportunities to establish relationships with dormant alumni. Our research led to the creation of a program establishing a mutually beneficial culture of undergraduate student engagement with advancement. I designed and piloted this Advancement Liaisons program during the 2019-20 school year with 9 student liaisons. While the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted the inaugural cohort of Advancement Liaisons’ work, the program could be adapted for Advancement work in new virtual and hybrid modalities.
Topic Area
Fundraising, Higher Education
Project Type
Research & Strategy
Role
Project Co-Lead, Design Researcher
In the Spring of 2019 the University of Illinois Foundation (UIF), a nonprofit corporation responsible for encouraging and administering private gifts made to the University, opened applications for the second cohort of their internal accelerator, UIDEA. As part of UIDEA, teams were provided coaching, advising, and funding from UIF leadership over 12 weeks to generate new ideas benefitting the University of Illinois. Our team was selected to join this second cohort. Our project aimed at re-examining assumptions behind UIF’s strategy and processes, delving into the motivations and unmet needs of dormant donors – alumni who had given some amount to the University previously but who had not done so within the last 10 years. Our team was comprised of myself and one other design lead, two student design researchers, the Director of Advancement for the College of Fine + Applied Arts, and the Assistant Vice President for Strategic Planning and Special Initiatives at the University of Illinois Foundation.
RESEARCH
During the initial “looking in” phase, we conducted 21 interviews with administrators and staff within UIF, the Office of the Vice-Chancellor of Institutional Advancement (OVCIAA), and the University of Illinois Alumni Association (UIAA). These interviews served as a rapid calibration to the world of university fundraising, a complex culture awash with a sea of acronyms and delicate processes. Interviewees ranged from UIF leadership concerned with the big picture of donor engagement to UIF analysts responsible for identifying prospective donors. Additionally, we interviewed Major Gift Officers (MGOs) who were responsible for procuring major gifts from donors (a major gift again being anything over $25,000). Most interviews were hour-long small-group conversations, although a happy hour with eight MGOs was organized to gather information on current practices utilized for donor engagement. Later in the process, we also reviewed potential implementation ideas for feedback from five MGOs, as well as with some members of the UIF Research and Portfolio Management Team.
5 Insights from Looking In
Big donations matter most.
“90% of [dollars] are from 2.5% of the donor base.”
“We keep track of 2% of [our prospects] essentially. As new people float to the top we put them into management.”
“60-65% gifts need to be $1 million or more.”
While annual gifts are important for establishing a habit of giving, major and principal gifts are responsible for the overwhelming majority of dollars raised by UIF. These large donations are critical for reaching the ambitious goals of large campaigns, such as With Illinois which has a multi-billion dollar goal. Understanding this reality is important in deciding how to spend time and resources in securing donations.
University scale and decentralization can hinder efficacy.
“Every college has rules so that their gift officers are not stepping on other people’s toes. That still happens because there’s still a lot of grey area.”
“Big distinction: [the Alumni Association is] focused on engagement as a whole. UIF is really focused more on the donor and those who might become donors.”
Working as part of the University of Illinois means navigating a multitude of colleges and units all with their own unique missions and needs. The massive scale of the University leads to decentralization which, at times, can be a barrier to communication. Along with that, the silo-esque nature of the University makes developing and implementing both unified strategies and best practices difficult, as new ideas and changes are localized to particular units.
Rebuilding is a constant reality.
“Everything is developing so fast, and I don’t have enough time or resources.”
Due to the ever-growing and changing alumni body, UIF must constantly evolve, reshaping its practices to best fit the new generations of the Illini family. The needs and wants of alumni change over time, especially with technological advancements dramatically reshaping what it means to effectively communicate. The UIF, OVCIA, and UIAA have thus experimented with new ideas to reflect this development. Additionally, when onboarding new major gift officers, it can be difficult to decide what lessons are important enough to be retaught and which are outdated.
Limited resources and high turnover mean relationship building at every capacity is challenging.
“People flip jobs because it’s hard work and they don’t get paid as much as their sales counterparts.”
“No one graduates college and says, ‘One day, I’m going to work in Advancement!’ There are too few of us. We’re fighting a losing battle.”
High staff turnover is a constant challenge in Advancement: the average employment time for an MGO is 18-24 months. Given that this is a relationship-based industry, this presents a unique challenge to establishing a relationship between alumni and the formal institution of the University. Ultimately, many MGOs leave their positions in favor of greater leadership opportunities and salaries.
There’s a true passion for establishing meaningful relationships with the University.
“The human element of it… to me there’s no substitute to sitting down with a prospective donor… and really eyeballing them and getting their body language. You can’t get that over the phone or in an email.”
“When you have great relationships with people, that donor wants to make a difference.”
“Stewardship is what distinguishes Advancement from sales. It is the idea predicated on the person and prospect.”
In talking with the members of UIF, OVCIA, and UIAA, it was abundantly clear that there is a true passion for establishing meaningful relationships between alumni and the University at every level. From MGOs to senior leadership, everyone we talked to exuded passion and enthusiasm for the greater meaning of their job. However, the passion did not necessarily lie in personal relationships. The most important aspect of relationship building at this level is to make sure that, along with a possible friendship that exists, the main goal remains to foster a connection with the University and a love for the institution.
After the “looking in” phase of research, our team worked closely with the UIF Research and Portfolio Management Team to identify a pool of “dormant donors”, which we chose to define as individuals capable of providing a major gift of $25,000+ and who had previously given small gifts to the University but had not given at all within the last 10 years. We then contacted these donors through cold calls and emails. In addition to dormant donors, interviews with alumni who had never given to the University were arranged both through personal connections with team members and through personalized LinkedIn outreach. For comparison, we also interviewed a couple of major gift donors, including one individual serving as a lifetime director of the UIF board, via connections provided by their managers. In total, we spoke with 28 alumni living in San Francisco, Seattle, or Chicago. These locations were selected for their high concentrations of Illinois alumni.
SYNTHESIS
Donor Journey
UIF’s prior conceptualization of the donor journey
Defining a single donor journey proved to be one of the most challenging components of this project, given that each alumnus has a vastly different story. During our looking in interviews, we were able to gather an understanding of Advancement’s view of the donor journey. Shown here, this interpretation of the donor journey starts when an individual has graduated from the University. Very soon after, they are contacted to donate to the annual fund and are opted-in to a number of marketing communications. These communications and solicitations, along with invitations to events continue until an individual has been identified as a potential prospect for a major gift. This prospect is then engaged through the donor development process of qualification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship. Donors with the capacity to give multiple gifts may go through this process several times.
An expanded framework of the donor journey based on our research
After interviewing the 28 alumni during our research, we developed an understanding of the donor journey from the perspective of an alumnus’s life. The story laid out here is not directly indicative of one individual; instead, it serves to highlight some of the many “moments that matter” we heard during our interviews. Some of these moments are obvious, such as moving to a new city, having a child, or earning a promotion. One large insight from our research was that the years before undergraduate graduation—the time that an individual spends outside of class while on campus— was fundamental to the donor journey. Experiences in dormitories, dining halls, and most importantly, in extracurriculars, were the formative experiences that not only shaped the alumni relationship with the University but were often fundamental to personal development. Understanding and appreciating these important moments outside the classroom is critical for cultivating passionate, engaged donors.
Overlaying UIF’s prior conceptualization of the donor journey with the new expanded framework from our research
By overlaying these two interpretations of the donor journey and looking at the overlaps and gaps, opportunities for expanding Advancement’s understanding of the donor journey became evident by including many of the moments that matter during our alumni’s lives.
Wach moment of transition after graduation is a critical inflection point. For disengaged donors, these transitional moments lead them to become increasingly distant from the university. When it comes time to engage via the traditional development process, there is a large amount of work required to ramp up to the same levels of engagement needed for a gift. Engaged donors, on the other hand, have stayed connected post-graduation and have utilized these transitional moments as means for being engaged.
8 Behavioral Personas:
SCORNED OR UNHAPPY: individuals with a passionately negative opinion and/or relationship with the University.
“MY MONEY COULD GO FURTHER ELSEWHERE”: individuals who believe their money makes a larger impact when donated to a cause or organization other than the University of Illinois, such as a smaller, local organization.
“NO ONE ASKED ME”: individuals who never received an ask to donate, perhaps due to a change in address or email, or through faulty data collection.
THE INDIFFERENT: individuals with a neutral or apathetic stance on the University, often have a highly transactional view of their education and time on campus.
INFORMED ALUMNI: individuals who stay up to date with the University to some extent and are aware of Illinois in the news, such as new buildings, professors, or awards.
PEOPLE, NOT PLACE: individuals who have a strong relationship with the people they connected with while a student on campus (e.g. friends, professors) but who have no connection with the University as an institution.
WIDE-NET DONOR: individuals who donate to the University of Illinois as part of their larger portfolio of giving but the University may not be their primary philanthropic priority.
RAH RAH ILLINOIS!: individuals for whom the University of Illinois is their top philanthropic priority and are openly proud to have graduated from the University.
8 Behavioral Personas on a 2x2 Matrix of Responsiveness versus Likelihood to Give to the University
Here, these behavioral personas have been laid out on a two-by-two matrix of “responsiveness” versus “likelihood to give to the University.” “Responsiveness” is measured through answering emails, communication with the University, and openness to meeting a major gift officer. “Likelihood to give to the University” is measured through personal connection, pride, and connection in relation to the University.
Insights from Alumni Research
HIGHLIGHT EXTRACURRICULARS THAT ALUMNI LOVE.
“[An RSO] was the beginning of my social life and all the people I’ve stayed connected with.”
“I explored a lot outside the campus community. I wasn’t as locked into the University.”
“I never felt connected to my department... I didn’t feel community within the department.”
While on campus, registered student organizations (RSOs) play a massive role in the student experience. RSOs serve a multifaceted purpose; they are a way to explore potential career paths, work on projects with others, and be involved in something outside one’s major. Often, they are a huge social outlet: the place where many individuals find the communities that help Illinois feel like a home. These communities and affiliations to student organizations last well beyond an individual’s time on campus. Many alumni expressed that the people they met in their extracurriculars were the people they have stayed in contact with since graduating. We know of course that some alumni strongly identify with their department, but for those who do not, RSOs are a critical avenue for engaging with the University.
SCREW MIDWESTERN HUMILITY.
“I love telling people that I went to Illinois. Like, ‘F*** you, I didn’t go to Harvard or CMU.’”
“I am very proud that I went to a public university. That is something that I think is an important value. At a big public university, you can find your people. They are there.”
“I think about the Illinois experience, and personally as an alumnus, I’m proud of it. I don’t have the ‘go Harvard’ or ‘it’s the Alabama football game’ mentality... My friends out here really enjoyed their experiences but don’t need to boast about it.”Illinois is one of the most preeminent universities in the world, boasting numerous top programs across its colleges. While the academic reputation of the University is strong in the eyes of recruiters and rankings, we uncovered that alumni in careers putting them in direct juxtaposition with graduates of private institutions harbored a real underdog pride in their alma mater. Private institutions often purport a sense of prestige over public universities, and yet many University of Illinois graduates know their education was equal, if not better, than that of a private school. In markets where U of I alumni are in contrast with alumni of private institutions, there is a real sense of pride that translates into an underdog mentality. An opportunity exists to speak to these alumni by changing the tone of marketing from the quiet Midwestern humility that has traditionally characterized the brand of the University to a bolder and more provocative stance that plays upon this underdog pride.
LEVERAGE PEOPLE’S TRUST IN THEIR FRIENDS AND COMMUNITIES.
“I wasn’t engaged until I had a classmate who asked me to go to an alumni event in Arizona.”
“Whatever post-grad involvement I have is coming through personal connections.”
“There’s strength in the Greek alumni network. You need to utilize that.”
During our research, we found time and time again that people’s relationships with the university are often built upon the trust they have in their friends and communities. Some alumni may not engage at all until they are invited by someone they know. Others recognize that they’re engaging as part of a larger community. The obvious challenge arises: given that Illinois is home to so many different communities with their own unique priorities, how do we connect with each of these distinct groups? To combat this challenge of scale and diversity, we’ve developed three potential concepts that leverage people’s trust in their friends and communities.
BE PRESENT IN MOMENTS OF TRANSITION.
“I was never contacted personally. It’s the simple thing to do.”
“When you have an established career and are reached out to, I take it as a sign of respect.”
“The big thing is to keep you engaged when you first leave then keep you going.”
As demonstrated by the donor journey framework, touchpoints in the careers of alumni are critical moments to place alumni in the pipeline to become engaged donors. At times, this can be difficult as people move away and become detached geographically and emotionally from the University. It is especially imperative then that alumni are intentionally engaged at these moments. Every alumnus wishes to be recognized and acknowledged by their alma mater and even the simplest of measures matter.
CREATE AND FACILITATE OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALUMNI TO GIVE THEIR TIME TO STUDENTS.
“I prefer to give time all things considered.”
“I have not given back at all… I do portfolio reviews for my high school and would totally do Skype one-on-one remote portfolio reviews [for U of I students].”
“Engagement is about supporting students with more than just money.”
“I want to get in on helping more U of I students… I would be 100% down to help advertise an alumni gathering at Google.”
Beyond the quantitative measure of engagement through donations, many alumni simply want to give back to students and to the University with their time. In such cases, this propensity to give time can indeed be funneled into a willingness to give significant gifts. However, alumni who donate their time and talent to the University are more likely to give money in the future when approached. There’s a huge opportunity to channel the “time-giving” nature of alumni as a pathway towards eventual donations.
PROGRAM DESIGN & IMPLEMENTATION
Personas of focus for the Advancement Liaison Program
The Advancement Liaison program was pitched to great interest and a pilot was approved for the following year. While other team members moved on to new opportunities, I continued to work with the Assistant Vice President for Strategic Innovation for UIF to recruit, train, and supervise the first cohort of Advancement Liaisons. During the 2019-2020 school year we selected nine students for the program and assigned them to conduct their own independent meetings with dormant donors, with support as needed. As an incentive, Liaisons who performed well (evaluated by a combination of success rate in securing meetings with dormant donors, quality of interactions/notes at meetings, and demonstrated interest) were to be invited to travel to Florida for one of UIF’s large annual events. However, the pilot was interrupted by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020. While a few of the liaisons pivoted and were able to have several already scheduled meetings through video call, we paused the pilot to alleviate the responsibility from the students during the crisis and to prevent unnecessary asks to alumni during uncertain times. While I have since left my position at SCD, UIF continues to integrate the foundational research in our report and the initial pilot of the Advancement Liaisons program into their overall strategy and operations.
After synthesizing the research into a full strategic report (which can be accessed here), the team honed in on the first insight from our alumni research “Highlight extracurriculars that alumni love.” Combining this with our surprising success in securing meetings with alumni during our research (the team had a much higher success rate than the average MGO with cold contacts, a point of great interest to many UIF administrators), we pitched the development of a new program within UIF as our final proposal in the UIDEA Accelerator: the Advancement Liaisons.
The Advancement Liaison program would select students to accompany MGOs on prospect and cultivation visits as a means of reminding alumni of their experiences and connections to the University. This structure leverages three of the identified behavioral personas. For the “My Money Could Go Further Elsewhere” alumni, liaisons would humanize the University as an institution and help them connect with the very students their donations impacted. For alumni in the “No One Asked Me” basket, we hypothesized student liaisons would have greater success with cold contacts and setting up meetings based on the experience of our team. For People, Not Place alumni, the program would connect them with the people of the institution, beyond administrators, and remind them of their friends and the relationships they had as a student.