This document provides a summary of a presentation on uncovering integrated fundraising best practices for universities. The presentation was given by Michael Johnston, founder of Hewitt and Johnston Consultants. According to a survey of over 20 universities, most consider direct mail their most important fundraising channel currently, though many believe online will be most important in 10 years. The presentation covered topics like the importance of integration across different fundraising channels and functions, using data to improve fundraising, and the growing role of online and mobile channels.

1. UNCOVERING INTEGRATED
FUNDRAISING BEST PRACTICES FOR
UNIVERSITIES
Presented by:

2. Who Am I?
Michael Johnston
Founder,
Hewitt and Johnston Consultants (hjc)
Online Fundraising, Integrated Fundraising and Marketing
Aerobics Instructor,
Believes that you can be 50 years old
and still play computer games without being a nerd

3. Take our survey at the end of
the session!
At the end of the session, we’ll ask you to go online and fill out
our integration survey. We’ll select 1 WINNER to receive
complimentary 1-hour Canadian University integrated
fundraising consulting session
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/G9MP959

4. The current reality – what you
told us
• Over 20 Universities answered the
questionnaire
• Here’s what you’ve told us – and your
peers

5. All hail direct mail!
Please rank the following channels in the order of importance to
your annual giving program? (1 is most important)
Rating
1 2 3 4 5
Average
Direct mail 71.4% 0.0% 28.6% 0.0% 0.0% 1.57
Events 0.0% 14.3% 14.3% 42.9% 28.6% 3.86
Online 0.0% 14.3% 42.9% 28.6% 14.3% 3.43
Phone 14.3% 14.3% 14.3% 14.3% 42.9% 3.57
Face-to-Face 14.3% 57.1% 0.0% 14.3% 14.3% 2.57

6. The King is Dead. Long live the King.
Which of the following channels do you think will be most
important to your annual giving program in 10 years?
0%
17% 17%
0%
Direct mail
Events
Online
Phone
Face-to-Face
Other 33% 33%

7. Channels used by Canadian
donors
9/26/2012 proprietary and confidential

8. Your University donors are –
fundamentally…

9. The bugbear: integration
needs to take place in more
than one direction
Renewal In a
chronological
Vertically customer
Donor
Development contact flow
Acquisition
Theme Messaging Style
Horizontally

10. Integration to Grow Your
Pyramid – with annual
campaign as the foundation…
Wills
Major
Monthly
Wills
Major
Monthly One-off
One-off
Prospect
Prospects

11. Integration for the Whole
Pyramid
• The cultivation survey:
– Sent to 57,400 donors
– 3 key segments: Monthly, Active &
Lapsed
– 5,530 responses (response rate of 11%)
– Raised $17,574 – a bonus!
– Reactivated 30 donors
– Found 85 expectances and 292 legacy
leads
– 143 middle and major donor leads!
– Key: shared budgeting!

12. DATA – AND HOW TO
SORT IT…

13. THE FIRST TRIUMVIRATE

14. THE FUNDRAISING
TRIUMVIRATE
RFM
Propensity
Self-
Modeling and
Identification
Wealth
Surveys
Screening

15. The Fourth – customer lifecycle
planning
Do you have a lifecycle plan for your alumni (from student to
death) to map out how you will steward and cultivate them?
25%
37%
Yes
No
I don’t know
38%

16. CLM

17. Online is still early days for
everyone – including Universities
What best describes your online vs. offline donor ratio?
12%
25%
0% online : 100% offline
5% online : 95% offline
10% online : 90% offline
15% online : 85% offline
20% online : 80% offline
13%
More than 20% online
50%

18. However, you receive a higher average gift
than most other verticals
(health, environment, social services)
What is the approximate one time gift donation amount
made offline to your University?
12%
25%
$10-$49
$50-$99 12%
$100-$149
$150-$199
$200-$249
$250-$499 13% 13%
$500 or more
0%
25%

20. You are beginning to look at peer
2 peer fundraising more…
If you use a peer to peer giving application to raise funds for
your University, what specifically do you use it to raise money
for? (Please select all that apply.)
0%
Memorial/Honour/Tribute
18%
Specific Class/Faculty/Department
For events (ie. a mountain climb to 46%
raise money for research at the
faculty of medicine) 18%
For athletics/Sports department
Other
18%

21. Maximizing peer 2 peer
• friends asking friends in all channels
• third party event portals
• memorial/tribute/honour giving
• virtual galas to compliment real galas

22. College of the Holy Cross: Multi-
Channel Friends Asking Friends
• Holy Cross has a longstanding tradition
that has helped encourage alumni giving.
• Volunteers in each class write letters to
classmates several times a year that detail
how donations are being used and appeal
for future gifts
• How can you leverage online and offline
to do this?
9/26/2012 proprietary and confidential 22

24. Friends and Family get results
• Call 15,000 donors
• Reach 30% = 4,500 donors called
• 22% ask for a kit and 16% send them out
(to 10 family members or friends)
• 40% of people who receive the ask from a
friend or family member give!
• Do you do this online or offline at your
University?

25. Leveraging online

26. A peer2peer portal

27. Peer to Peer and Memorial Giving

28. Peer to Peer and Memorial Giving

29. Commemorative,
in memory, peer
to peer
proprietary and confidential 29

30. You have lots of potential, do
more with monthlies…
What best describes the average size of monthly sustainer
(automatic deductions from bank account or credit card
without an end date) gifts?
Poll Question 1: do
12% you use the
telephone to
10 upgrade monthly
38% 12%
15 donors?
20
25
30
$35 or more
0% 38% $20
0%

31. You are lower than other
nonprofit verticals in Canada
Approximately what percent of your fundraising revenue
comes from monthly giving?
0%
14% 0-10%
29%
0%
5%
10%
15%
29%
20%
25% or more
14%
14%

32. • Create a monthly brand that is
relevant to the experience of the
individual e.g. Relay for Life
participant
• Create a relevant, passionate
premium
• Use multi-channels:
a) Face to face at the event
b) Email, telephone follow up
How can Universities create more
relevant, passionate, evocative
monthly giving programs?

33. A form that
makes
monthly
important
and adapts
to any
donation
desire
https://secure2.convio.net/cco/site/SPageServer?pagena
me=on_donationapi&s_locale=en_CA&s_src=Cancer.ca&u
tm_source=Cancer.ca&utm_medium=Header&utm_conte
nt=DonateOnline&utm_campaign=DONATIONS_ON
33

34. Another
form that
makes
monthly
important
and adapts
to any
donation
desire
https://www.donate.startanevolution.ca/
ea-
action/action?ea.client.id=1730&ea.camp
aign.id=12454
34

35. 9/26/2012 proprietary and confidential

36. You are ‘punching under weight’
Approximately what percentage of your annual fundraising
revenue comes from planned gifts?
12%
Poll Question 2:
25%
You are
0% significantly
5%
lower than the
10%
hospital vertical –
20%
and most others.
40%
Other
Why?
63%

37. Online – planned gifts and major
gifts…
A higher education
online survey found

38. The goals of the survey
1. Collect personal preferences of donors for targeted
marketing appeals
2. Collect demographic data for marketing purposes –
and connect it automatically to the database!
3. Build a deeper relationship with donors – give them a
platform to be heard
4. Uncover leads for other forms of giving – including
legacies, middle gifts, and major donor gifts

39. Planned Gifts and the Telephone
Do you use your call center to uncover planned gifts, and/or
monthly gift supporters?
12%
Planned gifts only
Monthly gift supporters only 38%
Both planned gifts and monthly gift
25%
supporters
Neither
We don’t have a call center
0%
25%

40. Phone and Legacies

41. Events are not of top importance – but how can
you do them more effectively?
What percentage of your annual fundraising is done through
events?
0%
33%
0-19%
20-39%
40-59%
60% or more
67%
0%

43. 43
Proprietary and Confidential

44. 1. Average raised per committee
member: $17,129.83
2. Top 3 committee fundraisers raised
$189,252
44
Proprietary and Confidential

45. You see a changing future...
Which channel do you think will be most important to your
annual/regular giving program in 10 years?
4%
7%
Online 14%
Events
Face-to-face
Direct Mail
Phone 61%
14%

46. And the data backs up your
projections about online
• Charitable web site traffic growth in 2011:
38.9% in Canada vs. 11.1% in US
• Charitable email open rates in the US
were 18.4% vs. 29.2% in Canada
• 33% of online donations in Canada are
monthly (and monthly is growing online
at 7.4% last year)
• But in many ways, we are play ‘catch up’
with our US counterparts
Data above from Blackbaud:Convio 2012 Online Benchmark
Study - http://www.convio.com/2012benchmark

47. Rising interest in mobile
How interested are you in using mobile giving to raise money?
0%
17%
33%
Very Interested
Somewhat Interested
Neutral
Not interested
50%

48. DONOR EXPERIENCE VS. STAFF PRODUCTIVITY

49. Data in your back pocket

50. Not as new as some other
nonprofit verticals…
How many years ago did you last redesign your website?
20%
Poll Question 3:
Compared to
hospital
Zero-Two foundations and
Two-Four health-care
Four-Six charities: 100-
Six+ 20%
200% more sites
60%
over 5 years old.
Why?
0%

51. If you are going to
redesign your web site
for giving…
1. Link to the BIG PICTURE
2. Stories for each faculty
3. A listing of special appeals
that fundraising is working
on for all the faculties
4. The place to connect those
who want to
volunteer/mentor/hold a
reunion that is then
funnelled back to faculties
5. Site is SEO/SEM optimized to
help capture people and
then move them to a faculty
specific site
6. Integrating with Alumni
Affairs and Marketing and
Communications
9/26/2012

52. THE INTEGRATED
CALENDAR
How do you meet the demands of an ‘omnivorous’ alumni
and donor?
By coordinating your marketing!

54. STRUCTURE: ARE YOU
READY TO INTEGRATE?

55. Organizational Structure
Traditional
Separate Metrics & Team
Communications IT
for Online Marketing
Disparate (Sometimes
Conflicting) Goals Development
Inconsistent Voices
Representing Organization Government
Others (?)
Affairs

56. Organizational Structure
Coordinated
Communications IT
Shared Metrics
Thematically Coordinating
Integrated Teams
Coordinated Appeals Government
Development
Affairs

57. Organizational Structure
Optimized Coordinating
Teams
Unified Strategy &
Full Integration
Across Channel
Managers
Online Communications Marketing
Development

58. THE BALANCED
SCORECARD
The Dramatic Oversimplifcation of Integrated
Fundraising, Marketing, Communications and Campaigning
or
Putting Your Organization on One Sheet of Paper

59. Your Mission
Development Perspective Alumni Relations Measurements:
Measurements: alumni % of contact information for Marketing
participation %; donor different alumni cohorts (per Measurements:
satisfaction (retention, LTV, gift channel); % who attend events; % Branding perception
size) cross channel stewardship of recent grads who give statistics,
and cultivation business rules (mobile, monthly, etc)
Internal Perspective Measurements: internal cooperation
(culture, structure, reporting);
Learning and Growth Measurements:
Courses, Qualifications, Proven Application of New Knowledge

61. Take our survey!
At the end of the session, we’ll ask you to go online and fill out
our integration survey. We’ll select 1 WINNER to receive
complimentary 1-hour Canadian University integrated
fundraising consulting session
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/G9MP959

62. Thank you!
• Mike Johnston
mjohnston@hjcnewmedia.com