Part of our business case is that www.YouHaveNotChangedOneBit.com helps with alumni and alumnae giving. Several schools have asked, “Well, how do you substantiate that?”

Here’s the best answer we can provide.

A study done at Middlebury “observed the financial giving of alumni at a small, private liberal arts college covering a 23 year period of consistent (longitudinal) and occasional donors. Key determinants of alumni giving for both consistent and occasional donors are as follows: volunteering for the college, major in a social science division, language school attendance, residence in states with alumni chapters, and employment within the financial sector. Additionally, alumni with relatives who have attended the college, and alumni who have played a varsity sport during college, are two groups very likely to donate. Our study suggests that Alumni Offices may benefit from rating donors’ giving potential (and subsequently focusing on these individuals), extensively publicizing reunions, and by targeting those who volunteered during their college years. Among occasional donors, Alumni Offices may want to target males, fraternity/sorority members, and alumni who are close to retirement.”

The full study by Phanindra V. Wunnava and Michael A. Lauzebin for $31.50 is at: How to Increase Alumni Giving.

With YouHaveNotChangedOneBit.com, our icebreaker games help increase attendance at reunions. For Alumnae/i who cannot attend, YHNC1B provides a way for them to still laugh and comment on the photos, and reconnect. YHNC1B helps Alumnae/i offices to regain long-lost information about school affinity groups including sports teams, majors, and fraternity/sorority affiliations as our matching games are formed for those subsets.

A Boston MBA school also did a similar study to the one at Middlebury and as a result provides bonuses to its alumni relations office for each additional percentage point of reunion attendance above the norm. Attendance at reunions directly correlates with alumni giving.

A Boston women’s school notes a consistent spike in alumnae giving after reunion weekend.

Do you have more to add? Please include your experiences below.

Began the marketing campaign to small college alumni relations offices. Getting a great response so far. Lots of enthusiasm. It is really nice to be in a business where the contact information for the people you need to reach is easily accessible online AND the people themselves are outgoing and friendly. Hadn’t considered that when we started this venture, but it makes sales much more fun.

We’ve reached agreements with 3 NESCAC schools and have a calls scheduled with 2 more. Also, one of the seven sister’s schools has expressed enthusiastic interest.

Am getting this blog registered on Technorati so have to post this

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Cheers,

—Erik

We’ve started seeking partnerships with alumni reunion offices. So far our message is receiving a very positive response.

We’ve created an online game for alumni reunions, challenging alumni to see if they can match then and now photographs called www.YouHaveNotChangedOneBit.com. (YHNC1B)

For alumni relations offices, it provides an icebreaker before reunions, helping build excitement and hopefully attendance. For alumni who can’t attend, it is a chance to interact with classmates and laugh at old pictures while re-establishing friendships.

As Sean Brown, former alumni relations director at MIT/Sloan noted, alumni attendance at reunions is directly correlated with alumni giving.

Could we set up a phone call to discuss? I can provide a remote demo. Your thoughts/ideas/feedback would be much appreciated.

Here’s one response:

“Cool game and with facebooks and yearbooks readily available we have good access to Then photos.”—Director of Alumni Relations, Williams College

To help, we are finalizing our partnership with a photo digitization service and will be able to offer discounted prices from $0.29 to $0.49 to digitize old photos. More info soon.