DARS | 10 facts you may not know about Live DARS 1

DARS: Frequently Asked Questions Last updated February 2012

10 facts you may not know about Live DARS

Did you know that...?

1. DARS holds over 290,000 living individuals, 30,000 deceased, 400 groups and 75,000 organisations, including every current student and around 75% of alumni – or 100% for colleges or departments that have gone live! Daily data cleaning and monitoring has taken place since launch in September 2009, including for records of our best prospects collegiate-wide. Of course, the best data enhancement of all will be to bring together our accrued information.

2. Oxford Alumni Online, the collegiate University’s DARS web portal, was launched in October 2010 – providing opportunities for alumni to update their details online, express keenness to engage, or search for and message friends. 9,000 alumni have already registered during a silent phase. The Alumni Office and Oxford Alumni Weekend websites and the Oxford Today website have been redeveloped entirely within the System. Regent’s Park, Earth Sciences and St Benet’s are also live with their DARS websites. 3. St Benet’s, St Peter’s, St John’s, Regent’s Park, Mansfield and Wolfson are now using DARS in place of any other development system. Colleges next in

line are Lady Margaret Hall, Merton, St Cross, Magdalen, New, Oriel and St Anne’s. Also live are Saïd Business School, Law, Politics and International Relations, Earth Sciences, Oxford Martin School and Blavatnik School of Government, with Geography and the Environment, Physics and Smith School next. DARS has more than 225 current users. 4. All University Administration & Services (UAS) development and alumni relations staff, including overseas offices, are now trained on and use DARS as standard and are responsible for undertaking data entry and work processes within the System for themselves; contrasting with pre-2009 when only the Database Team and Gift Registry typically worked in the University database on a regular basis. 5. Data updates from alumni in response to Oxford Today have increased over 300% since DARS enabled pre-population of forms with existing data. Updates now routinely include personal, education, spouse, business, interests, clubs, awards and prizes. Since

2010, the segmentation capability of DARS’ direct marketing module has brought termly cost-savings in distributing this magazine and the Oxford Alumni Card. 6. Processes previously managed out of spreadsheets or external documents such as fundraising pyramids, donor thanking, event invitation lists, New Years' Honours, Christmas card lists, etc are being managed within DARS, with resultant time savings and increased analysis and reporting capability. Ordinary users can use DARS’ Query tool for their own tailored analysis and list generation. 7. Joint University-College annual fund telethons can now utilise DARS as well as

College data and any alumni matched between both systems have their College IDs stored on DARS to facilitate easier future collaboration. The first DARS-oriented telethons, for St Peter’s and St John’s, took place in June 2011.

DARS | 10 facts you may not know about Live DARS 2

8. DARS was utilised for the first global donation request to alumni and other donors in recent years via the Oxford Thinking Campaign Report in July 2010, with more than £300,000 generated. July 2011’s mailing added a DARS ‘Finder Number’ to speed up entry of incoming gifts. The first email communication to be sent from within DARS was a follow-up to Ditchley Summit participants. Personalised merge fields, formatted html templates and tracking of ‘click-throughs’ are possible, and e-Pidge was created and emailed directly from DARS for the first time in February 2012. 9. University prospect and donor identification, relationship management, solicitation planning and research tracking are driven almost entirely from DARS including collegiate Clearance and Non-Alumni Clearance. Each constituent has a Relationship Manager and (sometimes multiple) Interested Parties. Major gift prospects also have an individual Prospect Manager, and where there is University engagement then a Central Lead below this. 10. Shared knowledge, best practice and cross-team working amongst different Participants occurs now on an unprecedented level through ‘Super User’ and other groups. Not only is this facilitating better University-College cooperation, but also better College-College working. Financial efficiencies have been achieved by seconding DARS-trained staff across colleges and departments. The collaborative effort of several collegiate University-wide DARS governance groups continues to guide the majority of DARS’ ongoing programme of development.

These are just 10 delivered benefits we’ve

highlighted. We will maintain an expanded

list on the DARS Website at

www.admin.ox.ac.uk/dars

“World-class fundraising requires world-class

data management. I am delighted to see Oxford utilise and develop the power of Blackbaud CRM.

This is helping secure its position amongst the

leading global higher education institutions in

terms of the effectiveness and professionalism of its collegiate-wide advancement activities.

Thanks to the alignment of DARS and Blackbaud’s CRM solution strategy, Oxford can now provide fundraising, relationship management and community building tools that span not only different

colleges and departments but also time zones, geographic borders, data protection obligations, tax rules,

currencies and languages.

I strongly believe that it is through DARS that Oxford – the colleges and the University, together – can best meet the needs and expectations of alumni and supporters wherever they are and however they wish

to stay in touch.”

Marc Chardon, President and Chief Executive Officer, Blackbaud Inc

DARS | Founding objectives: Benefits to you and your alumni 3

College, department, alumnus and donor benefits

Pooled resources for database and

web support, customisations,

training and data enhancement

Advanced functionality for

fundraising, events, alumni relations and

website management

Shared, rich data on alumni,

donors, prospects and friends giving

a full picture of their relationships

Founding objectives: Benefits to you and your alumni

What is DARS? Aimed at becoming the most advanced Higher Education fundraising database in Europe, the new Development and Alumni Relations System for the collegiate University is a comprehensive tool for development and alumni relations professionals across Colleges, Departments and central University offices. Usage is driven by the Principles and Protocols for Fundraising agreed by the University and Conference of Colleges in 2006, and the Relationship Management Scheme and Clearance Good Practice Guidelines adopted by Development Council. Central to Oxford Thinking and beyond, there are hugely significant benefits to be achieved from a smarter coordinated approach to fundraising and alumni relations.

How has DARS been developed? DARS comprises Blackbaud CRM, Direct Marketing and Internet Solutions. This combines a state-of-the-art, scalable and secure database, customised to Oxford’s needs, with a multi-site web portal and community to enable our alumni and friends to interact with each other and with us. DARS has been developed through a thorough consultation process with multiple colleges and departments (with ongoing advisory groups) to ensure the spec exactly fits the needs of current and potential users. Blackbaud is the leading global provider of software and services designed specifically for non-profits. Utilising their and the whole of Oxford’s Raiser’s Edge and NetCommunity experience, we were the first in the UK to implement this new enterprise CRM solution. We now actively help shape its product development as the European member of their Higher Education Product Advisory Group. Other early adopters include British Heart Foundation, Breast Cancer Care, Greenpeace and leading North American universities such as Yale, Michigan, Ohio State and British Columbia. Utilising a Microsoft SQL and .NET Framework Infinity platform, DARS is accessible via the web (including on iPads and mobile) and designed to provide a 360˚ view of our supporters with advanced relationship management tools and powerful analysis and reporting. The technology not only helps us to understand alumni relationships to the collegiate University but also to enhance each supporter’s lifetime journey with us.

Why share data? Our primary objective for DARS is to improve the quality, strength and depth of collegiate-wide lifetime relationships and communications with alumni and friends and to facilitate increased fundraising support for Oxford to over £250m per annum. We also want DARS to advance ourselves as one of the best HE Institutions worldwide in terms of the ROI, effectiveness and professionalism of our collegiate-wide development and alumni relations activities.

“DARS will be a more powerful support for fundraising and relationship building across the Oxford community than anything we have had before.”

Peter Watson, Director of Development, Lady Margaret Hall

DARS | Founding objectives: Benefits to you and your alumni 4

There are great advantages to sharing data: it improves mutual understanding and helps each entity to develop a better appreciation of its alumni and friends. This includes more detailed pictures of our most significant prospects and supporters and their relationships with different parts of the collegiate University. Sharing also helps us to enhance the quality of our communications at all levels and to co-ordinate our approaches more intelligently. DARS facilitates this effective exchange of information otherwise spread across 60-70 separate systems between colleges, departments, overseas offices and UAS. Doing so benefits alumni and every Participant simultaneously:

Opportunities to interact collaboratively

Smarter approaches based on prospects’ history of involvement and interests

Single point for contact details and communication preferences

Can I secure sensitive data? Yes. Based on the Principles and Protocols, DARS provides data security, allowing core biographical and other information to be shared across the collegiate University, whilst gifts, interactions and other more sensitive data are restricted to Interested Parties only. Relationship Managers not only approve clearance requests; they also have responsibility for the shared data held about their constituents, and decide which data takes primacy. Simultaneously, each user is assigned a security role, based on their job role and the DARS training they have completed, which controls the areas of data they can see and use. In addition to all the above, each Participant retains the ability to restrict specific confidential gifts, interactions, marketing efforts, events and prospect plans (or even constituents) to its users only. Of course, we hope the System will encourage greater trust and collaboration to develop between all Participants so that over time the full power of a shared system becomes apparent.

What functionality does DARS have? Ask us for a demo! Some of the many features already live include:

Further new features are rolled out regularly. In 2011, for example, seven fresh college and department alumni websites were created using DARS’ own integrated Web Content Management System and all joining Participants have this facility included for them. New overnight smart fields for query automatically calculate total giving by donors according to user-specific parameters. Online event registrations and donation processing are now available through DARS, with potential cost-savings through Blackbaud Payment Services and the CyberSource gateway. You can event plot your alumni visually through integration with Microsoft Bing Maps. We aspire to operate closely alongside other major University systems. For example, DARS facilitates posting gifts and exporting journal outputs into Oracle Financials as well as other finance systems. There is also a feed into DARS from Student Systems (OSS) so that all students and leavers up to six months need only update their contact details in one place. These and their course details are then automatically uploaded into DARS each weekend.

Prospects management

Constituent relationship management

Annual Funds and mailings

Events, volunteers and groups

Website transactions

Personalised websites

Community features

Email marketing

Reporting and analysis

Student data feed

Address validation

Mail merges and export

Revenue recording

AFO giving and multicurrency

Gift Aid and direct debits

General ledger posting

360˚ functionality

DARS | Founding objectives: Benefits to you and your alumni 5

“The fundraising functionality offered by DARS is far in advance of systems we have used previously. Far

more than a repository for information, it actively drives our major giving and annual fund activity.”

Kate Longworth, Development Officer, St Peter’s College

How does Data Protection impact DARS? DARS operates within a sound legal and Data Protection framework and has been rigorously assessed by the University’s Legal Services and Council Secretariat. Participation documentation includes Rules for Participation, Individual User Agreements and Confidentiality Agreements, each developed with independent legal advice. DARS operates on an ‘opt-out’ principle, except with respect to electronic communications which are mostly ‘opt-in’ according to PECR regulations. The DARS DP Statement has been shared in its medium or long form with most alumni and its short form is included on many communications. Visit www.alumni.ox.ac.uk/data_protection. More than 190 Weekly Checks are managed by the DARS Support Centre, both in the Live System and during each migration, to ensure high data integrity and to facilitate data cleaning and DP compliance. This increases weekly.

What training and support is available? Lots of support is available to all users through the DARS Helpdesk. Calls are looked after by in-house functional, process and data support, migrations, training and website teams, assisted by developer, project and technical specialists. Service performance indicators are published quarterly and in 2011 the Helpdesk received the highest percentage of good and excellent responses (90%) of any of BSP’s five UO-wide systems. Working alongside ‘Super Users’, the DARS Support Centre promotes shared knowledge and best practice across the user community, supports cross-team activity, and assists with data monitoring/cleaning and work requests. DARS also has Advantage Customer third line Blackbaud Support including a designated Technical Account Manager. The System is securely hosted by Oxford, utilising Active Directory, firewalls and load-balancing; dual server locations; overnight backups; and separate test, QA, user sandbox, reporting and training environments. DARS trainers provide Oxford-specific monthly courses across 7 areas, including Fundamentals 1 and 2, Prospect Management, Marketing & Comms, Events Management, Revenue Admin, and Website Management. A basic read-only interface and training is available for College Officers and Lodge Porters. To ensure DARS is used well by all, training is a pre-requisite for any access and each course is accompanied by manuals and e-learning movies.

Above all, DARS offers the potential to a greater return on investment for fundraising and alumni relations activity by sharing (and sometimes automating) various database and admin responsibilities. These economies of scale may free up significant resources for you.

What extra benefits are there? DARS minimises conflicting or duplicate activity and ensures donors’ collegiate support is fittingly acknowledged. Alumni flourish from better control over their relationships. They’re able to express preferences and submit updates just once

and to register for events, donate, search for friends, and network with the Oxford community using a simple, secure web portal. They profit, too, from tailored contact and recognition and nurtured lifelong engagement. Implementing DARS also provides a perfect chance to review and improve our processes and data both individually and collectively. Consistency but flexibility forms the basis of system design, and benefits will continue to grow as DARS helps us to enhance our ways of working using experience from around the collegiate University.

DARS | Migrating your data in: Mapping, Matching, Merging 6

•Advance analysis, scoping and data cleaning

•User agreements and initial DARS training

Preparation

•Cleaning, mapping, matching and merging of your data

•Pre-migration notification mailing to your alumni

Data Migration

•Special Early Life Support by DARS Support Centre

•Data enhancement and process development

Post Go-Live

Migrating your data in: Mapping, Matching, Merging

What’s involved with a typical migration to DARS? A smooth and efficient migration needs the effective, active and regular involvement of the college or department which is transferring its data, guided by the DARS Support Centre. An effective migration may take between 16 and 32 weeks of dedicated activity on all sides, depending on the complexity of the source database, and the best migrations are supplemented either side by ongoing data enhancement. To meet our collegiate goals, the quality of each migration has to be very high, with clean and accurate data mapped to correct fields. Many individuals and organisations already have records on DARS as well as at one or more colleges or departments so matching and merging the two sets of data is an equally important part of the process. There are 3 critical success factors for data migrations:

1. Clear and detailed agreement on the data to be migrated 2. Efficient mapping of code tables and other data alongside effective data cleaning 3. Proficient checking of the data to pick up on data issues at each iteration

What migrations support is available? A Project Manager oversees the end-to-end process and works closely with each Participant to enable the agreed Plan to meet every checkpoint on time. Analysts review source systems to determine the Scope and provide business rules for mapping the data between databases. They also advise on how to ensure data meets quality checks and how to address outstanding issues post go-live. Developers deliver code to transfer data from source (whether Raiser’s Edge, Donor Strategy or any other system) to DARS and facilitate matching and merging with data currently Live. The Head of DARS and several other DARS Support Centre members assist and advise each migration, for example adding new code table values to the Live System where required as well as working through the potential constituent and gift matches and reviewing each test migration iteration for any errors or gaps.

“DARS has enabled us to get a fuller picture of the involvement of our benefactors and their partners across the collegiate University. This has enabled the Development Office to be far more precise in

attempting to align donors' wishes with the College's overall strategy.

Upgrading databases is never easy; the migration from our original database threw up many challenges for alumni relations and development at St John's and it has been good to have the ongoing support of

the DARS team as we adjust to new ways of working with and using the advanced features of DARS.”

Dr Jonathan Snicker, Director of Development, St John’s College

DARS | How to participate: What to do next 7

How to participate: What to do next

What are the steps to new Participants joining?

Decision-making processes are of course likely to be slightly different for each Participant! Contact the DARS Support Centre to discuss what the System may mean for your college or department and to see Live DARS for yourselves.

What are the annual costs? In addition to all the benefits of DARS, it may actually save you money on your direct system costs. Annual support charges are typically less than the equivalent for Raiser’s Edge and NetCommunity.

Maintenance and support, including staff, software upgrades and licence fees, is covered by all Participants but significantly subsidised by the UO Development Office. Blackbaud charges the University according to the number of users concurrently logged in (our Licence Agreement permits up to 350). Accordingly, the DARS Annual Service Charge is based on a combined concurrency and FTE approach, to ensure costs are manageable and fair for all. This service charge will increase annually by an agreed reasonable amount reflecting inflation costs. Some of the items it helps to meet are:

Band No of User Licences Annual service charge payable

A 2 £2,080 + VAT

B 4 £3,640 + VAT

C 6 £5,200 + VAT

D 9 £7,280 + VAT

E 10 or more £7,800 plus £520 per additional User Licence over 10 + VAT

1 • Begin discussions to explore the feasibility of migrating and possible timescales; this might include a demo, presentation and Q&A about DARS

2 • Confirmation in writing of a clear expression of intent to participate

3 • An audit of your current situation and analysis of requirements

4 • Development of an individual Migration Plan and a Scope of Work tailored for your college or department

5 • Enter into the formal Participation Agreement or MoU which sets general principles for use of DARS and responsibilities of users, and attend initial user training

6 • Implementation of the Migration Plan, which will involve data cleaning, data mapping, data migration, and data matching and merging

7 • Send a notification mailing, enclosing the DP Statement and an update form, to all contactable data subjects whose data you propose to migrate

8 • Switch over to DARS after confirmation that data has been converted correctly

DARS | How to participate: What to do next 8

Blackbaud annual support fees, including user licences, upgrades and patches, helpdesk and 3rd line support, customisation support, and software developer kit, payment services and email fees

QAS address validation, Microsoft geo-mapping, currency imports and other integrated software tools

First line DARS Helpdesk Operator, Second line Functional Analysts, and other Technical Services and Development support

Head of DARS, DARS Trainer, Online Community Manager and the process and data support team

What are the joining costs? Throughout 2012/13 the costs of migration are being heavily subsidised by the University, so that for a migration lasting 24 weeks, the overall cost would be funded approximately 70% by UAS and 30% by the Participant. This is partly because up to July 2013 there is no charge to colleges or departments for the first 8 weeks of a migration. Furthermore, assistance with creating your new integrated alumni website in DARS is also currently free!

Period from

kick-off

Migration charge

payable 2012/13

Cost of 8 week

migration

Cost of 16 week

migration

Cost of 24 week

migration

Cost of 32 week

migration

Weeks 1 to 8 No charge £0 £0 £0 £0

Week 9 and onwards

£125 per day n/a £5,000 £10,000 £15,000

Total - £0 £5,000 £10,000 £15,000

Total costs may of course vary by Participant as no two migrations are exactly the same. The cost of purchasing and implementing the migrations software has already been covered by UAS. So the joining fee simply funds a portion of the migrations support team costs relating to the period of your own data migration. Preparation work undertaken in advance of the dedicated migration phase and additional go-live support are provided free of charge.

Who do I contact? Please do get in touch at any time for further details about any aspect of DARS. Contact the Helpdesk (email dars@admin.ox.ac.uk or telephone 01865 612300) or any of the team below directly:

DARS Participation Steering Group

William Conner (Chair), Wolfson College

Marilyn Bowler, Magdalen College

Donna Charman, DARS Migrations Project Manager

Mark Curtis, New College

Dan Keyworth, Head of DARS

Jonathan Snicker, St John’s College

•Dan Keyworth

•University of Oxford Development Office

•01865 611593

•daniel.keyworth@devoff. ox.ac.uk

Head of DARS

•Stewart Watson

•Business Services & Projects

•01865 611572

• stewart.watson@admin. ox.ac.uk

DARS Programme Manager

•James Heywood

•University of Oxford Development/Alumni Office

•01865 611533

• james.heywood@admin. ox.ac.uk

DARS Online Community Manager