Steps to Advancement Success
Unify donor engagement.
The antidote to inconsistent communications and oversolicitation is to design a unified donor engagement journey. Especially important in large universities where different departments and colleges have their own systems, this will allow for the personalized approaches and reporting that donors now expect.
Donor personalization best practices
Leveraging data to build automated, personalized engagement strategies is key to maintaining connections with donors. Marketing automation tools can scale these efforts, making it possible to engage with a larger number of donors without sacrificing personalization.
Aligning donor engagement with specific giving opportunities maximizes impact. Automating recommendations based on donor engagement history and surfacing donation impact can build donor trust and loyalty—both are enabled by an efficient tech stack.
Align your team on shared goals. The first step towards integration is understanding each other's roles and departmental goals. This involves regular meetings where team members share their primary data points, key performance indicators, challenges, and successes.
Using shared metrics quantify the institution's standing and provide a clear picture of overall performance, identify fundraising priorities and allow better tracking of progress. A unified vision and story across the organization ensures everyone is working toward the same objective as well as producing a consistent experience for constituents.
Use visual tools like relationship maps to illustrate areas of overlap and mutual dependence. This helps in clarifying how different roles support the entire team.
Integrate your school's advancement office. An integrated advancement team can significantly enhance the success of an institution by improving coordination, aligning workloads, and achieving greater outcomes across teams like marketing, fundraising, and IT. By working together, team members can ensure that their efforts are well-coordinated, leading to more efficient and effective operations. This integration allows for better alignment of tasks and responsibilities, ultimately resulting in improved performance and outcomes.
Streamline and bolster your tech stack. Every organization wants to grow its donor base in a cost-effective way but understanding how that is done is more than just a CRM conversation. Technology and advancement leaders should take a broad view of your ecosystem and determine what can stay, what can go, and what can be enhanced. You should develop a Technology Roadmap that identifies the technologies beyond your CRM that bring efficiencies, optimize your return on investment, support your current needs, and have the capacity to grow with you..
How we approach advancement tech at Heller Consulting
In an operational assessment, we work collaboratively with our advancement clients to help them identify what areas of the organization they’re trying to impact.
- Review existing technology, process documentation, reports, staffing charts, and training materials to audit how the organization is performing current work
- Identify gaps between the current state and the organization’s goals
- Develop an action plan that includes clear recommendations for people, process, and technology changes that will positively impact the operational goals
The organization can then put the action plan to work, or we can help with operational streamlining services that include:
- Business process mapping and documentation
- Training, staffing plans, and change leadership
- System configuration and support