Advancement goes digital: development offices are using constituent relationship management technology to advance their fundraising goals.[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] PEOPLE WITHOUT ANY CONNECTION TO A higher education higher education Study beyond the level of secondary education. Institutions of higher education include not only colleges and universities but also professional schools in such fields as law, theology, medicine, business, music, and art. institution don't generally hand over large amounts of money unprompted. Even people who are proud of their alma mater ma·ter n. Chiefly British Mother. [Latin m  ter; see m often need to be wooed before
they open their checkbook. "In the fundraising world they have
always understood that no one is going to give money if you don't
beat the bush," says Jim McGlothlin James Milton McGlothlin (October 6 1943 Los Angeles, CA - December 23 1975 Union, KY), a graduate of Reseda High School, was a pitcher who had a 9-year Major League career. , vice president of higher
education at Oracle. The difference is, now the bushes are housed in an
electronic database rather than a Rolodex.
"If you don't have something to help you keep your information straight you'll just pull your hair out these days," says Marlene Shaver, chief financial officer of the UC San Diego San Diego (săn dēā`gō), city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. Foundation. "There is a never-ending need for data, information, and data mining." As the primary fundraising arm of the University of California, San Diego UCSD is consistently ranked among the top ten public universities for undergraduate education in the United States by U.S. News & World Report.[3] It is a Public Ivy. [1] For graduate studies, most of UCSD's Ph.D. , the foundation wrapped up a $1 billion campaign in June 2007. In order to keep all their donor information--ranging from giving histories and funds supported to donors' relationships to UCSD--straight during the campaign, development officers used a homegrown home·grown adj. 1. Raised or grown at home. 2. Originating in or characteristic of a locality: "Rock is homegrown music in the United States, evolved from blues and country and Tin Pan Alley" system dubbed dub 1 tr.v. dubbed, dub·bing, dubs 1. To tap lightly on the shoulder by way of conferring knighthood. 2. To honor with a new title or description. 3. FundraisER. A homegrown system was deemed better than something off the shelf because of budget concerns and the desire to avoid a data migration at the start of the campaign. Originally built five years ago to support donor stewardship, the system provides a customer relationship interface and reporting capabilities, as well as stewardship capabilities. It also allows gift officers to review funds, something not possible with the old system, which required special authorization. "It's a huge improvement over the donor database, which was nothing," Shaver says of their previous system. "You could just put data in." Although constituent relationship management (CRM (Customer Relationship Management) An integrated information system that is used to plan, schedule and control the presales and postsales activities in an organization. ) technology is being embraced by the admissions office--where adoption is being driven by the need to track and communicate with thousands of prospective students--development office administrators and staff can be reluctant to abandon traditional methods. In the transition from index cards to digital storage, some staff members are still hesitant to put their contact list into a central database, says McGlothlin. The face-to-face meetings with major donors, however, will never go away. As more data is gathered, development officers are realizing the importance of tracking donor information holistically, says Karli Grant, product manager of institutional advancement solutions at Datatel. "There is a need to constantly improve how we are tracking and communicating with donors," she says. A good CRM system will enhance a development office's ability to identify, cultivate, solicit, and steward a donor. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Donor Expectations Indeed, CRM technology can help higher ed institutions deliver the "Amazon.com experience" alumni and donors have come to expect, asserts David Lotz, director of higher education markets for Convio, a provider of online CRM technology. "The constituency is eager to be meaningfully communicated with and personally communicated with according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. their preferences," he says. As a former gift officer for IHEs in Texas and California, Lotz has experience in providing that communication. Shaver agrees. "The system allows us to tell them a story," she says. Gift officers can run reports that give a comprehensive view of a donor's giving history and the funds he or she is supporting, making it easier to personalize per·son·al·ize tr.v. per·son·al·ized, per·son·al·iz·ing, per·son·al·iz·es 1. To take (a general remark or characterization) in a personal manner. 2. To attribute human or personal qualities to; personify. information. "Our FundraisER CRM system is an excellent management tool to keep track of who you are working with, what you need to be doing, and who else you need to work with," says Kim Signoret-Paar, development director for Student Affairs Student affairs staff are responsible for academic advising and support services delivery at colleges and universities in the United States and abroad. The chief student affairs officer at a college or university often reports directly to the chief executive of the institution. at UC San Diego. "Using FundraisER is critical to a development officer to manage your work and priorities. The system offers a great snapshot of [donors]. With this data, we can get a high level view very quickly, including how they are engaged with the university and their interests which--definitely builds a better relationship." Because of the increased competition for philanthropic dollars, donors are expecting more detailed financial information, not just the names of scholarships, says Dave Carey, senior manager of higher education practice at Smart Business Advisory and Consulting The creator of this article, or someone who has substantially contributed to it, may have a conflict of interest regarding its subject matter. It may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies, particularly neutral point of view. , a firm that works with higher ed institutions and other organizations to help meet evolving administrative needs. "It's essential in the advancement world to acknowledge how the funds are used. It's good etiquette etiquette, name for the codes of rules governing social or diplomatic intercourse. These codes vary from the more or less flexible laws of social usage (differing according to local customs or taboos) to the rigid conventions of court and military circles, and they ," says Jeanne Heston, a director of product marketing at Jenzabar. For instance, if someone donates to a fund to build a new gymnasium, future communication can feature updates on the project, with e-mails including links to a webcam to view the construction. Internally Organized It's not just donors who benefit from improved communication. A centralized cen·tral·ize v. cen·tral·ized, cen·tral·iz·ing, cen·tral·iz·es v.tr. 1. To draw into or toward a center; consolidate. 2. database can get gift officers and development staff on the same page. Administrators at the Texas A&M Foundation wanted to get information out of individual heads and spreadsheets and into one location. "We had a development assistant trying to manage her officer's paper-based mailing list An automated e-mail system on the Internet, which is maintained by subject matter. There are thousands of such lists that reach millions of individuals and businesses. New users generally subscribe by sending an e-mail with the word "subscribe" in it and subsequently receive all new , and the information might have been six months old," recalls Lisa Skinner Lisa Skinner (born February 17, 1981, Clear Mountain, Queensland, Australia) is an Australian gymnast who competed at the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games. Skinner began gymnastics in 1987 at Lawnton Academy. , data information analyst. The foundation migrated to Advance from SunGard Higher Education in August 2007, and now the information in the system is up-to-date as well as easy to see and manipulate, she says. More information is being captured on each prospect, but the system's benefits go beyond that. Because the system has standardized fields, the information is cleaner and more accurate. With development officers housed at academic colleges around campus, the system helps eliminate variations in how each unit stores information. When it's time It's Time was a successful political campaign run by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) under Gough Whitlam at the 1972 election in Australia. Campaigning on the perceived need for change after 23 years of conservative (Liberal Party of Australia) government, Labor put forward a for a development officer's six-month review of his or her prospect list, instead of relying on the officer to send in information, reports can be pulled from the database. "It's cleaned up the process a lot," Skinner says. The ability for multiple people to run reports can be a big draw to these systems. Gary McKillop, director of development information systems at Chatham University The University structure includes three distinctive Colleges: Chatham College for Women houses academic and co-curricular programs for undergraduate women and embodies the traditions and rituals of the traditional women's college. (Pa.), says the staff at Chatham avoided using the old POISE system because the interface wasn't logical. There was also too much flexibility in how information could be entered, leading to redundancies. McKillop says he is seeing consistency across the system after they switched to CampusCornerstone from Campus Management because there are specific fields to complete, and the graphical user interface graphical user interface (GUI) Computer display format that allows the user to select commands, call up files, start programs, and do other routine tasks by using a mouse to point to pictorial symbols (icons) or lists of menu choices on the screen as opposed to having to means everyone can run their own reports. Many systems also have a web portal See portal. that allows advancement officers to access information remotely, meaning they can function more efficiently on the road. Because all contact with a donor is recorded in the system, it is easier to coordinate a variety of campaigns, such as the annual fund and a scholarship endowment, bringing a consistent look to communications and helping to avoid donor burnout Burnout Depletion of a tax shelter's benefits. In the context of mortgage backed securities it refers to the percentage of the pool that has prepaid their mortgage. . Cornell University Cornell University, mainly at Ithaca, N.Y.; with land-grant, state, and private support; coeducational; chartered 1865, opened 1868. It was named for Ezra Cornell, who donated $500,000 and a tract of land. With the help of state senator Andrew D. (N.Y.) business analyst Susan Luckhurst says the ability of multiple people to view a prospect's records leads to better coordination on how and when a prospect should be contacted, and an approval process has been developed. Having a detailed record of when a donor was last contacted can also alert the caller to whether it is necessary to explain the difference between the annual fund and a special campaign. More Input Equals Better Output The more training users have on the CRM system, the more useful the technology will be. Skinner says that officers at the Texas A&M Foundation capture as much information as they can about a prospect's or donor's family, as well as that person's relationship to the university, activities while in school, and wealth and assets. The 2002 merging of the foundation's database with that of The Association of Former Students, Texas A&M's alumni association An alumni association is an association of graduates (alumni) or, more broadly, of former students. In the United Kingdom and the United States, alumni of universities, colleges, schools (especially independent schools), fraternities, and sororities often form groups with alumni , helped round out some of the biographical information. "You need the discipline to do the data entry," says Andrew Sallee, project manager at William Jewell College William Jewell College is a private, four-year liberal arts college of 1,274 undergraduate students located in Liberty, Missouri, U.S. It was founded in 1849 by members of the Missouri Baptist Convention and other civic leaders which included Robert James, a Baptist minister and (Mo.). "When major gifts officers are making calls, they have to enter that data into the system for it to work." He says the Raiser's Edge software from Blackbaud allows the small staff at this liberal arts college Liberal arts colleges are primarily colleges with an emphasis upon undergraduate study in the liberal arts. The Encyclopædia Britannica Concise offers the following definition of the liberal arts as a, "college or university curriculum aimed at imparting general knowledge to work smarter. Donors can have multiple relationships with an institution--such as being alumni as well as parents of current students. The system enables Sallee to mix and match communication efforts. Donor contact plans are easier to manage with a CRM system in place, says Convio's Lotz. New alumni might be placed in a campaign where they receive regular information targeting their interests, but they aren't solicited for a gift for the first year. "The idea is pulling them out and giving them a different experience," he explains. "A CRM system can help you do this because you can identify segments." Tailoring communication to parents, alumni, and friends is easier when all the data is in one place. When records are up-to-date, there is also less risk of losing information due to staff turnover. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Cross-Departmental Systems Integration As with any database, there is some disagreement over how closely the system in the development office needs to integrate with the systems in other departments. The ability to manage more data and have one system that follows relationships from prospective student through alumni was a driving factor in migrating from a homegrown system to Oracle, says Tilly Garnett, an applications specialist at Cornell. As McGlothlin explains, Oracle users often have the need to synchronize See synchronization. records to eliminate duplicate entries, leading Oracle product managers to believe close integration is important. However, he has seen institutions successfully use a mix of systems as long as there is a way to merge the data. Rick Tomlinson, a director of product marketing at Jenzabar, points out that role-based communication is easier to manage when data flows from one system to the next. Chatham's McKillop agrees. "Integration is important for an education institution," he says. He is pleased with the fundraising capabilities of CampusCornerstone, but the integration with the systems used in the front of the house--such as the registrar's and admissions offices---is taking longer than expected. "There is a need and desire to mine data and pull it out," says Shaver. "It's a challenge all institutions are facing. How do we mine this data to have effective relationships with alumni, donors, and vendors? There is a huge amount of work still to be done before we can really manage our relationships." Predicting Giving MUCH AS ADMISSIONS OFFICERS CREATE A PROFILE OF PROSPECTS most likely to enroll, development officers are starting to use a technology called predictive analytics Predictive analytics encompasses a variety of techniques from statistics and data mining that process current and historical data in order to make “predictions” about future events. to create a profile of prospects most likely to donate. "Predictive analytics is taking CRM to the next level," says Andrew Sallee, project manager at William Jewell College (Mo.). Using software from SPSS A statistical package from SPSS, Inc., Chicago (www.spss.com) that runs on PCs, most mainframes and minis and is used extensively in marketing research. It provides over 50 statistical processes, including regression analysis, correlation and analysis of variance. , administrators developed a mode[ based on past donors and nondonors. That mode[ was then used to score the entire prospect pool on the likelihood they would give a gift. "Among those nondonors you will see people with scores similar to the people who do give," Sallee explains. "You can target the people who are most likely to give and have a dear conscience about not calling the others." He says the process is helpful for telethons, because the callers have more energy knowing there is logic involved in the selection process, and for saving money on direct mailings, because people unlikely to respond are taken off the list. "We didn't cut back on our calling program," Sallee says. "We called the same number, but we had a greater success rate." Fundraising in Tough Economic Times HOW MUCH CAN COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY LEADERS EXPECT from donors during a down economy? "Fundraising is based on relationships," says Rea Goldsmith, vice president of Communications for the Council for Advancement and Support of Education The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) is a nonprofit association of educational institutions. It serves professionals in the field of educational advancement. . "From a historical perspective, when we've faced recessions in the past it has had a fairly limited impact on fundraising." The last major recession, after September 11, 2001, resulted in a 1.2 percent overall decline in giving the following year, Goldsmith says, but by 2004 there was a 3.4 percent increase in giving. Since campaigns usually last for seven or eight years, it would be odd not to experience a recession in that timeframe. Recessions sometimes help institutions make the case for why a donation is needed. "I think in hard economic times, generous people dig deeper," says Marlene Shaver, chief financial officer of the UC San Diego Foundation. Their recent campaign started shortly before 9/11, but the board decided to carry on and "not succumb suc·cumb intr.v. suc·cumbed, suc·cumb·ing, suc·cumbs 1. To submit to an overpowering force or yield to an overwhelming desire; give up or give in. See Synonyms at yield. 2. To die. to the negative environment." Resources Blackbaud, www.blackbaud.com Campus Management, www.campusmanagement.com Council for Advancement and Support of Education, www.case.org Convio, www.convio.com Datatel, www.datatel.com Intelliworks, www.intelliworks.com Jenzabar, www.jenzabar.com Net.Suite, www.netsuite.com Oracle, www.oracle.com RightNow Technologies RightNow Technologies NASDAQ: RNOW is a U.S. software company that develops customer relationship management (CRM) software for small and mid-market businesses. It is incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in Bozeman, Montana. , www.rightnow.com SAP, www.sap.com/usa SMART, www.smartgrp.com SPSS, www.spss.com SunGard Higher Education, www.sunqardhe.com Talisma, www.telisma.com |
|
||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion