Undergraduate Philanthropy

Training Tomorrow’s Annual Fund Supporters and Volunteers

Kristen Atwood Assistant Director, Annual Fund Amherst College

Jessica Telemaque Assistant Director, The Wellesley Fund, Wellesley College

The Challenge Establish early student giving habits that influence young alumni giving

Young Donors are Crucial to our Future

According to recent EAB Report: • Great Recession Caused

Drop in Giving to Higher Education

• Alumni Donors and Gift Sizes Continue to Decline

• Enrollment Growth Increases Total Alumni, But Creates Problems of Scale

* Findings from the Education Advisory Board Report on Creating a Culture of Giving Among Current Students

According to recent EAB Report:

• Young Alumni Have

Strong Civic Inclinations but Low Income

• Research Confirms That Early Giving Leads to Long-Term Support

• Big Donors Often Begin at Modest Levels and Escalate Giving

* Findings from the Education Advisory Board Report on Creating a Culture of Giving Among Current Students

Young Donors are Crucial to our Future

Key Challenges with Young Donors

• Rising Cost of Education • Students as Customers (Quid Pro Quo) • Doubts About Impact

Our Approach • Growing Philanthropy Education through Programs

and Events on Campus • Using the Senior Gift Campaign to Establish Early

Giving Habits • Trying New Approaches to Build a Foundation for

Future Giving in the first 5 Years Out

Growing Philanthropy Education through

Programs and Events on Campus

Priming the pipeline at Amherst: Internships, Phonathons, and Undergraduate Philanthropy Programs at Amherst

Internships, Phonathons,

The Engagement Fellows Program

• The Amherst Annual Fund employs over 20 students a year in a variety of positions

• We provide robust training opportunities for students to learn about Alumni engagement and the Annual Fund

• Engagement Fellows are hired to educate fellow students about all aspects of Advancement’s work, including alumni engagement, alumni giving, and alumni-student relations.

Love My Alumni Week!

Love My Alumni Week!

More than 250 Students wrote over 5,000 thank you notes during Valentine’s Day Week We doubled the previous year’s record for student engagement and cards written

Social Media Engagement

Using the Senior Gift Campaign to Establish

Early Giving Habits Real examples from Wellesley and Amherst Colleges

Wellesley Senior Gift

• Clearly define your mission and Senior Gift branding

• Determine committee roles and their annual projects

• Create a detailed Senior Gift timeline with campaign goals and priorities

• Educate your committee thoroughly and thoughtfully

Amherst Senior Gift: Tips for Success

• Identifiable branding • clear case for giving • extensive training for

volunteers • regular events

throughout the year • direct peer-to-peer

asks

Identifiable Branding

That is fun, creative, and consistent across class years

Posters, fliers, and table tents make an impression around campus

Building a Strong Committee

• Collaborate with former committee members to recruit new ones

• Ask your phonathon callers and managers for referrals

• Build rapport with student leaders on campus, in clubs, and in College Government

• Develop lasting relationships

with faculty, deans, and staff

Training Volunteers Train your committee early and keep them motivated!

1. Clearly define campaign mission, overall goal, and benchmarks

using comparative data 2. Present and thoroughly explain annual Senior Gift timeline 3. Assemble unified branding for appeals, social media, spam, etc. 4. Confirm Senior Gift events and incentives 5. Make clear your expectations for each committee member: their

roles and their combined and individual efforts 6. To guarantee their success, provide them with useful tools and

resources

Training Student Volunteers

• Summer intern always chairs the Senior Gift Committee

• He/she recruits 25-30 committee members in the late summer and early fall

• Office has introductory training and first meeting September

• Committee meetings happen on a monthly basis throughout the year

Direct Peer-to-Peer Asks • The 25-30 Committee

members divide up the entire class

• Use an online volunteer platform to track their progress

• We provide incentives for Committee Members to get to 100% participation among assignments

Incentives and Motivation • $14: Receive a commemorative

Class of 2014 champagne flute at Senior Soiree.

• $20: For each such gift, receive a

pair of purple Wellesley sunglasses. Plus, a flute!

• $100: Join the Amethyst Circle, and attend exclusive reception with special guests. Plus, receive all other incentives!

Senior Gift Events 9/3-12/10: Recruitment and Training

2/12: What’s Up, Wellesley? 4/10: Senior Soiree

4/3 & 4/4: 24-Hour Challenge

4/25-5/30: 80% Participation Challenge

5/1: Amethyst Circle Reception

5/26-5/29: Senior Week Festivities

Senior Gift Events

Regular Events Throughout the year

• Campaign Kickoff at Homecoming o Tabling, email solicitations, fliers

• 50% Challenge and sponsored bar night in on last day of classes o Tabling, email solicitations

• Early spring: Young Alumni Events 100 Days to Graduation o Tabling in student center and dining hall,

major student events

• Dinner with the President

• Early May: Signature event, the Senior Gift Cocktail Party

Utilizing Challenges! • Things to consider:

1. What are your Challenger’s expectations? 2. What are realistic, reachable benchmarks and goals? 3. What most resonates with the senior class? 4. In what ways will the Challenge benefit the college and the class? 5. Which dates and times of the year work best for your Challenge? 6. How will you prepare to effectively and efficiently spread the word

among class? 7. How will you steward Challenger’s when all is said and done? 8. What would be the best way to share results with class?

24-Hour Dorm Challenge • Date: April 3rd-4th • Goal: 100 donors in 24 hours • Incentive 1: $5,000 gift from

alumna trustee to be designated to WF scholarship

• Incentive 2: Pinkberry party for Dorm Winners

• Execution: o Door-to-door solicitation o Hourly committee updates o Marketing & Communications

scheduled class updates via email and Facebook posts

o Tabling in dorms and campus center

• Results: o 150 donors in 24-hours o 7 gifts at AC level o Nearly $3,000 raised o 26 percentage point increase

80% Participation Challenge

• Date: April 25th-May 30th • Goal: 80% Participation • Incentive: $10,000 Wellesley

Fund Scholarship from alumna trustee/commencement speaker

• Execution: o In-person solicitation o Social media and email class

updates o Daily committee updates o Tabling throughout month at senior-

specific events

• Results: o 120 donors o 5 gifts at AC level o $1,700 raised o 23 percentage point increase

10-Years of Senior Participation

90.0%

80.5% 80.0%

71.0% 69.0%

54.0%

72.3% 73.1% 66.9%

74.2%

83.5%

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

80.0%

90.0%

100.0%

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

10-Year History: SG Participation

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

The Class of 2014 reached 83.5 percent participation!

5-Year Giving History Among Seniors

• Individual senior contributions have steadily increased since 2009

• Leadership giving at the $100 level became more prominent in 2011

• From 2009-2011, most gifts were between $10-$20

• A noticeable rise in $20+ gifts in 2013

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

>$10

$10-$19

$20-$99

$100+

Establishing a Clear Case for Giving

New! Choice Based Giving Now seniors can designate their gift to one of six areas within the Annual Fund: • Annual Fund for Academics • Annual Fund for Athletics • Annual Fund for Arts • Annual Fund for Counseling and

Wellness • Annual Fund for Financial Aid • Annual Fund for Student Life

Early Results of Choice Based Giving

79%80%81%82%83%84%85%86%87%

2012 2013 2014

Senior Gift Results

Final Part.

CBG is introduced

Building a Foundation for Future Giving in the first 5

Years Out Transitioning from Seniors to Alumni, the importance of great

contact information, capitalizing on competitiveness

Mirroring the Senior Gift with Young Alumni

• Keep the same structure and volunteers the first year out of school

• Same staff person handles Senior Gift and first five years out

• Alumni get brought into regular Young Alumni solicitations

• Special Young Alumni Events (homecoming, Reunion, etc.)

The Importance of Great Contact Information

Alumnae Giving by Class • Young alumnae

donors are imperative to the success of the College

• Their bases are far

larger; thus, their participation must also be significantly higher

• SG plays a role in

overall participation: this year, the class of 2014 raised alumnae participation by nearly 3 percentage points!

Young Alumnae Donors at Wellesley

• The Senior Gift campaign builds a strong foundation of giving among young alum

• First-year out, Class of

2013, reached 50%+ this year as a result of strong performance as seniors

• Young alum

responded well to the 50% for $500K Challenge: their FY14 totals were comparatively higher than last year’s totals

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

FY13 PARTICIPATION

FY14 PARTICIPATION

50% for $500,000 Challenge • 50% Alumnae Participation =

$500,000 for Wellesley

• Young Alumnae Participants raised their class totals almost 10+ percentage points across the board as compared to FY13

• To encourage young alumnae to get involved, 50% for $500K events were hosted in Boston and San Francisco

50% for $500K Young

Alumnae Events • Provided young alumnae with the

opportunity to celebrate Wellesley’s 50% for $500,000 Challenge

• Young alumnae from 2004-2014 were invited

• Events took place in Boston and San Francisco

• Donors, Lybunts, Sybunts, and Non-Donors were invited

• Raffle winners

Young Alumni Challenge!

Capitalizing on Competitiveness

The Amherst v. Williams Biggest Little Challenge

Challenge Results: • Significant

increase in both participation and dollars

• In some cases,

participation rates more than doubled over last year at the same time

• Jumpstarted the year

0.00%2.00%4.00%6.00%8.00%

10.00%12.00%14.00%16.00%18.00%

09 10 11 12 13

Fall 2012Fall 2013

Young Alumni Leadership Giving

o$500 first 1-5 years o$1,000 6-10 years out

In Short: • Establish early giving habits, which will later lead to long-term

support

• Determine what resonates with your audience to strengthen your case for support. Keep it student-driven!

• Educate and engage students and young alumni through use of social media, challenges, and events to build a strong foundation for future giving

• Determine creative and meaningful ways to disseminate information and solicit and steward young alumni donors

Kristen Atwood Assistant Director, Annual Fund Amherst College katwood@amherst.edu, (413) 542-2915

Jessica Telemaque Assistant Director, The Wellesley Fund, Wellesley College jtelemaq@wellesley.edu, (781) 283-2383

Thank you!