Essential Steps for Improving Your Alumni/ae Stewardship

As a fundraising professional, you know building relationships is integral to the success of your campaigns. However, forging connections and relationships with donors takes time and effort spent learning about your target audience. 

The best way to bridge that gap between you and your audience? Pennington & Company suggests finding common ground. And, when it comes to school fundraising, you have a built-in audience who has a reason to care about your institution—alumni/ae.

In this guide, we’ll explore how to keep alumni/ae relationships thriving, even after they launch their lives after graduation, for the benefit of your fundraising efforts. Let’s dive in! 

What is alumni/ae stewardship?

According to NPOInfo, stewardship “involves maintaining and strengthening existing supporter relationships to secure future gifts.” So, for the purposes of this guide, we’ll be focusing on alumni/ae who have donated in the past, not entirely new supporters. 

As time passes and your alumni/ae pursue their personal and professional goals, it’s natural that they might fall out of touch with your development team. Once you’ve achieved the first donation, though, it’s a lot easier for you to maintain a connection with them. Alumni/ae stewardship is crucial for keeping these relationships alive so they actively support your mission long-term. 

Now, let’s get into some alumni/ae stewardship ideas.

How to Improve Alumni/ae Stewardship Efforts

1. Leverage predictive analytics

As its name suggests, predictive analytics is a method of forecasting behavior based on existing data. Predictive analytics is crucial for future-proofing your fundraising efforts and building relationships with alumni/ae that last. Here’s how to improve alumni/ae stewardship efforts using data:

1. Practice data hygiene habits. You’ll only glean actionable insights from your alumni/ae data if it’s accurate and accessible. Enrich your data by conducting regular audits, deleting duplicate records, and standardizing data entry. 

2. Choose logical metrics to track. Keep your analysis process streamlined by only focusing on the most important data points for your goals. For example, for boosting alumni/ae stewardship, you might extrapolate on key performance indicators (KPIs) like donation frequency and size, event attendance rates, and click-through rates on communications. 

3. Develop predictive models. A predictive model is a statistical tool that analyzes historical data to forecast future trends. You can build and leverage your own predictive model by putting the metrics in step two into predictive modeling software (it comes standard in some donor management software systems). Ultimately, you should be able to use this information to estimate changes in donor engagement rates, gift size, and more. 

Remember that you can monitor trends outside of your alumni/ae data. For example, monitor overall economic trends so you can understand when a recession might be coming that constricts your alumni/ae’s capacity to give. 

2. Curate unique events

There’s no better opportunity to win alumni/ae trust than by getting to know them outside of a fundraising pitch scenario. Unlike formal fundraisers like capital campaigns, social events not only reignite your alumni/ae’s affection for your school but also give you a chance to talk with them in a laid-back setting. Here are some examples of alumni/ae events that lend themselves to stewardship:

• Reunion mixers. Each year, many alumni/ae come back to campus to reminisce about the happy times spent together at their alma mater. Your development program can leverage this nostalgia by hosting themed reunion events. For instance, you might host a special mixer for alumni/ae classes who hit their five-year graduation anniversaries, complete with food, entertainment, and your school mascot. 

• Decades-themed party. Allow your alumni/ae to relive their college days by throwing a themed party from the decade in which they attended your school. For instance, you could throw a 70’s disco party or an 80’s neon bash. Pull out all the stops by decorating the venue to match the time period. You could even get photos from your archives to evoke school-specific memories.

No matter what type of event you choose to throw, ensure you have opportunities to talk with alumni/ae personally. For example, if you throw a dance party, include a quieter room away from the dance floor where alumni/ae can sit and chat. This will be your best chance to learn about alumni/ae motivations, which are crucial for personalizing fundraising pitches down the line.

3. Show appreciation

Your donors not only want and deserve your utmost gratitude for continuing to support your school amongst their other obligations and expenses. A key contributor to the nonprofit sector’s 55% donor lapse rate is a lack of concerted appreciation efforts targeting donors. 

Let’s say you’re raising money for a scholarship fund. You can show appreciation to your donors by:

• Sending handwritten thank-you notes to donors. Sending a handwritten thank-you note shows the extra effort you put into thanking donors. Bonus points if you can get recipients of the scholarship to write letters as well!

• Creating an alumni/ae donor wall. Celebrate the lasting impact your alumni/ae have on your school by creating a donor wall for the scholarship campaign. You can add onto it each year to encourage new alumni/ae to make their mark.

• Hosting an annual appreciation dinner. Treat your alumni/ae donors to a dinner meant to thank them personally. Invite scholarship recipients as well so they can speak to the personal impact the funds have made on their educational journey. 

Regardless of how much alumni/ae give, you should recognize them promptly and personally. Send a donation receipt immediately after they give, and follow up a bit later with a more personalized note addressing them by name. As your alumni/ae donate more, you should ramp up your appreciation efforts accordingly.

No matter the size or focus of your institution, your alumni/ae are who carry your legacy into the future. Fortifying your relationship with them is the best way to ensure they proudly represent and support your alma mater throughout their lives.