Many colleges and universities raised what they describe as record-breaking amounts of money in the 2022 fiscal year, with more than two dozen announcing they had brought in more dollars than ever before. Is this a particularly generous time for donors, or are college development departments doing something different to boost donations? The Chronicle reached out to several institutions that achieved new highs, and the answer seems to be a mix of timing and strategy.
The moment certainly matters. A return to in-person events brought more donors. But the colleges and universities that celebrated their success are also changing up their approaches: Fundraisers are continuing multi-channel outreach, working more as a team, focusing on donor passions, and asking more from them. Even as the economic outlook falters, many development officials hope the strong giving continues.
In-Person Comes Back
For many fundraisers, more in-person contact was essential to breaking records. At Pennsylvania State University, after being unable to hold live events during much of 2020 and 2021, the development office hosted activities that drew alums back to campus. The university raised $437 million in the 2022 fiscal year.
“We saw more participants at the events,” says Rich Bundy, vice president for development and alumni relations. “The same tried-and-true events drew more people.”
While Penn State is a large, public research institution, the same in-person touch helped smaller colleges and universities. Elmhurst University, a private institution in the Chicago suburbs with about 3,000 students, raised $10.1 million.
“We were able to get back on the road,” says Andrew Knap, vice president for institutional advancement. “Starting last fall and then through the spring, we were able to really engage with our folks where they are and not just online.”
Knap thinks what made a big difference was visits to 15 locations “all the way from Los Angeles to South Florida” to meet in person with alumni and donors.
Multi-Channel Helps
Just because universities benefited from the return of travel and in-person gatherings doesn’t mean they discontinued the myriad communication methods that dominated during the early part of the pandemic. Recognizing that some older alums aren’t physically able to travel to campus but still want to participate, Penn State continues to offer virtual and hybrid events. To make hybrid events easier to manage, they often follow the format of a reception for in-person attendees at the outset, followed by scheduled speeches and content that virtual attendees can log in to see.
“That allowed us to engage another slice of the Penn State community who weren’t comfortable traveling but were interested in hearing what we had to say,” Bundy says.
One of Bundy’s favorite examples of a virtual attendee is an alumnus commander stationed on a naval battleship in the Persian Gulf. “He was interested in this programming that Penn State was putting on, and there was no way he would have been able to come back for a one-hour, in-person event — but he took the time to dial in,” Bundy says.
Florida A&M University, a historically black university, raised $23.1 million, a 70 percent increase over the previous year. It had great success reaching donors virtually during the pandemic and continues interacting via multiple channels — email, social media, mail, and in-person and virtual events — to keep them engaged.
“We are hitting them every which way possible,” says Shawnta Friday-Stroud, the university’s vice president for advancement. “You have to look at multiple streams of communication.”
Teamwork Is Critical
Several universities moved away from siloed fundraising, preferring a team-based approach in which fundraisers could close gifts across interest areas.
“Our fundraisers work with individuals — they’re assigned to colleges, but many of our fundraisers will close gifts for other units around campus,” says Matthew White, vice president of advancement at Utah State University, which raised $110 million in its 2022 fiscal year. “We’ve seen a lot of impact in having a collaborative approach and working together to help that donor achieve what he or she is looking to accomplish at Utah State and not putting donors in a box, saying, ‘Well, you’re a science grad, so only science development officers can work with you.’”
Friday-Stroud says Florida A&M took a similar path: “We are very lean in terms of staffing, so we’ve had to go to a team-based approach.”
Donor Passions
The stock market’s historic highs early in fiscal 2022 helped drive large gifts.
“Big donors tend to give from assets more than income,” says Matthew vandenBerg, president of Presbyterian College. “So if stocks are rising, portfolios are rising, people are probably feeling a little bit more flush with cash.”
Presbyterian College raised $18.3 million in 2022, nearly doubling the previous record of $9.9 million. VandenBerg says that tapping into donor passions and figuring out how they align was critical to the college’s fundraising success.
“We’re working with donors as true partners,” he says. “Our role isn’t to be professional salespeople when we do fundraising. Rather, we’re more professional matchmakers. What we do is we look for synergies and alignment with our donors.”
Knap, from Elmhurst University, says it is important to learn what donors are passionate about, because even ideas that don’t initially seem like they align might work. When Elmhurst fundraisers met with donors during their road trip, they shared the university’s innovation goals, while listening to what donors wanted to support. That led to funding for projects that he says “met in the middle,” including the Jans Military and Veterans Center. If universities don’t have those discussions, he says, “some really impactful gifts might be left on the table.”
To get better at discovering donor passions, Utah State University, whose alums are known as Aggies, created development officer analyst positions.
“We are using data to find what people are interested in,” White says. “Our data analytics program came up with a new affinity scoring on what are the indicators of Aggies that want to be engaged with us through volunteer support or through philanthropic support.”
‘Gifts That Really Move the Needle’
After advancement officers discover a donor’s passion, many are making a big ask.
“We’re not afraid to ask donors to stretch when they see something that they would really like to accomplish, and we’re in a position to help them do that,” vandenBerg says. “That has informed our fundraising approach to just being fearless with trying to work on big gifts that really move the needle.”
While vandenBerg says small gifts matter and fundraisers are still doing their part to move alums through the giving funnel, the university has made a concerted effort to get big gifts.
Asked why Presbyterian is focusing on major gifts, vandenBerg points to the college’s motto: “While we live, we serve.” Big gifts, he says, have the potential to do the most good.
Moving Forward
With record inflation and talk of a possible recession, it’s hard to see 2023 being as big a year. Still, most fundraisers remain optimistic.
Friday-Stroud is taking a “wait-and-see” approach for the future but plans to “take advantage of” the current generosity for as long as it lasts.
At Utah State, White plans to look for willing donors, whatever the economy. “People say, ‘There are people really struggling,’” he says. “Well, there are also people that are having a good economic forecast and businesses that are doing well in inflationary environments. We have to identify those areas that have good economic forecasts and might have resources to contribute.”
