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.
