A tall order Campuses gather a tremen- dous amount of data from admissions applications. In addition to basic census- type profiling, they collect a wealth of information regarding their interests, hobbies, groups, likes and dislikes. On many cam- puses, however, that data lives in an admissions database separate from the student information system (SIS). When students graduate, the data that
accompanies their file to the alumni office is often merely “name, rank and serial num- ber” information from the SIS. So, data that exists on campus is often not leveraged in development and fundraising efforts because data integration may be lacking among cam- pus systems. As an example, let’s say a college would
like to get donor funds for a European semes- ter abroad scholarship program. Why not target alumni who participated in a similar offering during their attendance? They should be able to retrieve the courses taken and an alum’s subsequent areas of interest; whether he or she was an athlete or a fraternity member; and more. Mastery of such data is invaluable when mes- saging to former students.
sages. CRM also enables mass communication with a personal touch. Communications with an individual can be personalized based on his or her unique infor- mation, even while thou- sands of emails or letters are being sent.
The benefits are tangible
When rich information is stored and accessible, it can be used to make
every face-to-face contact important. After all, big dollar fundraising is still done person- to-person. CRM can also help eliminate communica-
tion fatigue. If many departments are sending communications to the same person, CRM can record each “touch” and use the logged data to time the next touches appropriately.
Jacksonville State University— a case in point
Good use of CRM software also helps
determine priorities. Historical patterns can reveal the prospects that require the most time and money; or the prospects that can be reached through less expensive media like e-mail. It’s a fundraising cliché that 80 percent of money raised comes from 20 percent of the donors, but with the right tools, the empir- ical data to determine the actual numbers is readily available. CRM software can also help determine
when to raise money. Is year-end the best time for phone-a-thons? Is direct mail a good fol- low-up? When should communications be lessened? Gathering data is expensive. Gathering good
data, even more so. But with CRM, a campus can leverage data that is already mined.
TC
Dan Germain is director of Talisma North America for Campus Management Corporation. Reach him at dgermain@
campusmgmt.com.
Although many departments needed to share information at Alabama’s Jacksonville State University, the Jack- sonville State University Foundation (JSUF) took the CRM initiative. The foundation is the fundraising arm of the university and is organized as an independent, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization.
A large volume of alumni records were scattered and difficult to access. Very
A campus becomes more enterprising with CRM Call it customer relationship management. Or call it constituent relationship management. Either way CRM is today’s tool for building, managing and optimizing relationships. And the potential lifetime of a college rela-
tionship is uniquely long-term. So much so that “lifetime communications” is a term commonly heard on many a campus. “We want our students to develop a life-long rela- tionship with Indiana University and remain actively engaged in our programs and activities long after they graduate,” says IU President Michael McRobbie. With eight campuses, 100,000 students, and 500,000 alumni, Indiana University is one of the first major universities to embrace a system-wide CRM platform. Each “touch”—regardless of the com-
munication medium—can be logged in CRM. This makes visible how a person responds or does not respond to certain mes-
little information was shared across departments. The foundation, alumni affairs, development services, athletic development, vice president of institutional advance- ment, and the university president’s office all needed access to these records at various times for different reasons. What’s more, they wanted to be able collaborate using the same data. Sissy Spence, major
gifts officer in the devel- opment office, now says, “We work with other groups on campus such as the alumni association. CRM is very helpful, espe- cially when planning an event. We’ll know before- hand who will be there, and we can use the soft- ware to do some research on them. Joseph Serviss, vice president of institutional advancement, also notes, “When
we’re in a capital campaign, representatives from different departments meet weekly for discussions using a wide-range of CRM reports.” The foundation’s overall fundraising results have grown from $3.7 million in 1989 to more than $20 million today. The capital campaign jumped 452 percent in two years, from $794,454 in 2003 to $3,591,180 in 2005.
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