Reunion Fundraising: Getting It Right

Reunion Fundraising: Getting it Right

Megan Schaible

Deputy Director, Development

Murray Edwards College

REUNION FUNDRAISING: GETTING IT RIGHT

1

Reunion Fundraising: Presentation Overview

1 Before You Start

2 Understanding Your Classes at a Glance

3 Recruiting Volunteers

4 Volunteer Training

5 Managing the Campaign: Tracking and Reporting

6 Managing the Campaign: Outreach

7 At the Event

8 Follow Up


2

Before You Start

Why are you doing this? – Be Honest!

– Participation or Money?

– Setting the Ask

– Allocating Resource

What are you fundraising towards?

– Pros and Cons of Naming Opportunities for Collective Giving

Accounting: What counts towards Reunion totals?

How does this fit with your current Annual Fund Cycle?


3

Understanding your Classes at a Glance

Quantifying Engagement and Fundraising Potential

– Class Summaries

– Class Categorisation


4

You can recycle this information:

– Prospect Research

– Bespoke in-house DM and Telethon ask amounts

– Future Volunteer go-to list

Understanding your Classes at a Glance Quantify Engagement to Improve Time Management and Predict Results


5

R F M A R F M A

Recent-cy Frequency Monetary Affinity



6

Overall Reunion 2015 Giving Analysis

Lifetime giving to College £

Total giving past 5 years £

Total number in Reunion

Past Giving Participation

Gave in last 5 years (%)

Gave > 5 years ago (%)

Never gave to College (%)

Total Major Gift Prospects



7

10-Year Reunion 2015 Giving Analysis

Lifetime giving to College £

Total number in Reunion

Past Giving Participation

Gave in last 5 years (%)

Gave > 5 years ago (%)

Never gave to College (%)

Top 10 Donors



8

Class Grades

A: Definite rep(s); Engaged class

B: Fairly engaged class; can search for reps easily

C: Unengaged class; handful of big donors

D: Unengaged class with no big donors

Recruiting Volunteers


9

Recruiting Volunteers

– Get the Right Volunteer for the Job

– Recruitment Sources:

– Class reps

– Your team

– College Fellows

– Self identifiers

Volunteer Training


10

Volunteer Training Session

Get Your Case for Support Locked Down

– Be firm about your naming policy

– Make sure all key stakeholders stick to the script

– Have a presentation

– Repeat points in Volunteer Handbook

– Provide collateral to take away with impact examples and financial fact sheets

– Elevator pitch and common objections memorized

Volunteer Training


11


Create a sense of Camaraderie

– Different year groups training

together

– Bring in gift volunteers from

previous year for pep talk

– Make sure your

President/Master is present

– High-level buy-in and

Accountability

Volunteer Training


12


Don’t scare them off!

– Time to define or redefine your

volunteer policy

– Volunteers are not free labour

– Clear expectations and Deadlines

– Achievable Goals

– Illustrate at all points how the

Development Team will help them

Volunteer Training


13


Get them to give – THAT NIGHT!

– Treat your volunteer gifts as your

campaign’s silent phase

– Kick it off with great numbers

– Impress that the ask has no power

until the asker has given

Managing the Campaign: Tracking and Reporting


14

Class List Canvasser Allocation – Who is going to make the ask?

– Peer Solicitation

– Major Gift Officer Solicitation

– Selected individual Solicitation

– Combined efforts (Ex: Pembroke Mini-telethon)

Recording on Raisers Edge:

Pembroke Example: Action = Reunion Fundraising, Attribute = Canvasser



15

ID Forename Surname Stream Nationality Volunteer? Anonymous? Super donor £2,500+ Leader £1,000+ Asked? Response to ask Attending Reunion 2015?

Amount pledged to committee

Amount Received by School

Fund Designation

Single/Multi-year pledge? Suggested Ask

Reach out from?

Thanks email sent?

Public/Anonymous?

New Contact Details sent? Business Organisation Business Role Mailing City Mailing Country Pref. Email Phone

Gift Volunteer Shared Data via Google Docs



16

Results Summary - (CLASS) FY 15

£ Pledged £0.00 mean #REF!

£ Verbal £0.00 median #REF!

£ Verbal + Pledged £0.00 mode #REF!

# of donors 0 AFFINITY 0

Class participation #DIV/0! TOTAL PAST GIVING £0

Total # in class 0

# donors needed for 50% part. 0

Internal Excel Tracking

Managing the Campaign: Outreach


17

Email Cycles

Characteristics:

– Unique proposition of nostalgia and peer pressure

– Repeated mantra: “Come back, Give back”

– Build momentum and a sense of urgency to the BIG DAY

– Segmented by year group and donors



18

Email Cycles

Content:

– First email: Nostalgia hit (Pembroke use Matric photo)

– Second email: Remember this? Photo collage of year w/ ask to

support the next generation of memories.

– Third email: Final countdown/ class participation competition

– Post Reunion email: Event photos next to archive photo, thank you

and it’s not too late!



19

Check-ins with Volunteers

– Open door policy with weekly

1:1 check-ins

– Deadline management

– Group conference calls

On the Day


20

Volunteer Thank-You Breakfast

Donor Stewardship

– Donor pins

– Acknowledgement in President’s speech

– Donor name boards (pros and cons)

– “Wall of Decades” display

Giving Opportunities

– Active solicitation (pros and cons)

– Donor booth compromise

Follow Up


21

BREATHE!

– Final Push Email (as mentioned before)

– Thank you cards for Volunteers

– Volunteer profile in your next E-Newsletter

– Reunion feature in College Magazine and in Donor Report

Start Planning the Next Reunion!

…and make sure all of that information you worked really really hard to pull

together actually gets stored in a meaningful way and not lost into the abyss

Thank you for your time and attention!

Over to you for Q&A


22

Reunion Fundraising: Getting It Right

Business

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reunion totals