Finding innovative ways to inspire alumni/ae giving is a crucial facet of higher education fundraising. In fact, alumni/ae donated over $12 billion this past year alone, comprising 20% of all higher education giving.
By actively cultivating an alumni/ae community that values and is enthusiastic about alumni/ae fundraising, your higher education development team can more effectively solicit gifts from them and build long-lasting relationships. Done correctly, you can even transform your alumni/ae into fundraising advocates themselves, getting their personal networks invested in donating as well.
In this guide, we’ll discuss how to nurture an alumni/ae community that’s excited by the prospect of giving back to your school and remaining loyal donors. As we review these tips, think about the current attitudes of your alumni/ae community regarding donating and which of these tips would make the most sense to add to your fundraising outreach plan. Let’s get started!
1. Recognize and Solicit Various Contributions
Making giving to your school flexible and accessible helps motivate your alumni/ae to follow through with their contributions. For instance, let’s say an alum wants to make a major gift, but by giving stock holdings instead of a regular monetary donation. By accepting non-traditional types of giving, you can appeal to more supporter preferences.
Here are some other types of giving back to your school could offer and promote:
- Matching gifts. According to Double the Donation, over 26 million people work for companies that match their employees’ charitable donations. Embedding a matching gift tool on your donation page makes it effortless for alumni/ae to multiply their impact.
- In-kind gifts. Need a venue for your upcoming fundraising event? What about valuable items you can auction off at your gala? Ask your alumni/ae to provide physical materials or goods to your organization.
- Planned giving. Invite alumni/ae to make a bequest to your school from their estate to solidify their long-term legacy at your school.
- Volunteering. Your development department relies on volunteers to manage large fundraising events and support other programs. Some of your alumni/ae might not be able to donate monetarily to your school, but can contribute their time via volunteering. Plus, alumni/ae who volunteer are more likely to convert to donors than those who don’t volunteer.
Also, offering multiple ways to give is a win/win for your alumni/ae and your long-term fundraising efforts. Research shows that future fundraising markets will be unpredictable due to the rise of AI and other worldwide events, so diversifying the types of gifts you solicit and accept can help you weather uncertain circumstances.
2. Start Alumni/ae Giving Circles
While building relationships between your fundraising team and your alumni/ae community is essential, it helps to encourage camaraderie between alumni/ae themselves so they feel more comfortable participating in your fundraising activities. You can unite this community around giving back by starting a dedicated group of alumni/ae donors called a giving circle.
A giving circle is an affinity group where donors to your school can bond over their shared passion for the cause—in this case, their alma mater. Here are some best practices for launching and growing your alumni/ae giving circles:
- Offer exclusive benefits. While supporting your school is motivation enough for some alumni/ae to give, you can sweeten the deal by offering special advantages to giving circle members. For instance, you might host dinner parties or alma mater game day watch parties for giving circle members.
- Establish different tiers. Alumni/ae who greatly support your cause should get additional membership perks. Create giving circle membership tiers based on how much an alum has given or how long they’ve been a donor to encourage additional support.
- Ask passionate alumni/ae to lead. Getting your alumni/ae personally involved helps strengthen their relationship with both your school and giving community. Create a leadership committee for your giving circle headed by members so they can make their voices heard.
However you decide to structure your giving circle, you should go straight to your alumni/ae for suggestions on how to improve. Collect qualitative feedback and other participation data to gauge your giving circle’s efficacy and come up with improvements.
3. Create Alumni/ae-Centric Impact Reports
Ultimately, alumni/ae donors want to (and should) know how their contributions will make a difference to their alma mater. Inspire this community to get involved in fundraising by creating a visually appealing, alumni/ae-focused impact report.
Similar to an annual report for nonprofits, an impact report is a detailed breakdown of all your school has accomplished using donated funds. Unlike an annual report, you can tailor your impact report to cover only certain projects or activities, making it a good format to target specific donor groups (in this case, your alumni/ae). Make your impact report stand out by:
- Use narrative storytelling. The most effective impact reports take readers on a journey to connect emotionally. Let’s say you featured your capital campaign in this impact report—tell the story in chronological order, starting from when you first had the campaign idea to breaking ground on your new facility.
- Integrate multimedia elements. Implement media like photos and videos to make your impact report come to life. For example, you could include a QR code on your physical report that takes readers to a video of a student explaining the capital campaign’s effect on campus life.
- Mentioning standout donors. With their permission, highlight your most influential donors in your impact report. For instance, if an alum was a major donor to your capital campaign, you could interview them about their relationship with the school and alumni/ae community to inspire others to contribute.
As you create your impact report and its narrative, remember to center your alumni/ae as the protagonists instead of your school. Your activities wouldn’t be possible without your donors’ support, so they should be the focus of the narrative.
Remember, cultivating a new attitude around alumni/ae giving won’t happen overnight. However, by listening to feedback from your community and iterating on your strategies, you’ll build a loyal support network that can sustain your school for years to come.
