1. Digital Age Communications & Giving
Our goal is to talk about how does your social campaign tie to you print piece and everything in between. Focusing on the idea of how you are telling your institutional story.
Acm ALUMNI, Annual Giving, and careers conference 2019

2. Director of annual giving
Sarah Stoklosa
Director of annual giving

3. Associate director of engagement
Jamie Williams
Associate director of engagement

4. Bringing your President’s Letter to the 21st century
Calendar and Fiscal Year End Cycles are 2 of our 4 cornerstone appeals
Alumni, parents, and friends – College stakeholders – who for the past 10+ year who are conditioned to wait for the Letter from the President in December and May.
But, how do we tie this traditional letter on College stationary into a social media campaign? How do we get this message to millennials or even the decade of the 90s.

5. Mirror the President’s request in monthly e-newsletter
Mirror on social media
Pushed Facebook ads

6. Donors like things done for them:
Pre populate form
Increase in gift amounts
The more you can do for them, the better.
Pre-populating things shows greater conversion & increased dollar amounts

7. Year to Year Growth

8. From traditional to modern
That traditional appeal works because of it’s history in the fundraising world. Yes, we’ve had to add layers to adapt to current trends, but it still rides deeply on the print piece.
Crowdfunding has taken the fundraising world by storm – how can you best utilize this digital tool to benefit your institution?

9. FORESTER DAY 2019 Giving Day is about what it means to be a Forester
What’s your “Forester Thing”
Print, digital (social, , GiveCampus), in person, & texting
We focus on giving our constituents the ability to support what THEY love about their experience at Lake Forest College; their “Forester Thing”.

10. Share. Celebrate. Advocate.
Important to note: sender was not our department – not just president/vice president. Students work great, from video

11. Events

12. Event texting
Morning of – within 5 miles of event location, not registered. Hours before – registered guests; 1 hour in – checked in guests

13. Day of mirroring

14. Thank you
From the voice of the students because that’s really who they’re supporting.
We mirror throughout the process on multiple channels so that we can hit everyone possible.
On social too

15. Using texting for stewardship and solicitation

16. Stewardship

17. Solicitation
Asking a yes or no question – don’t just provide link right away. Good way to get a conversation started and perhaps learn something new.

18. Best practices in texting
Yes/No questions
Clear question (Can you support with $5 again?)
Use their names
When individually texting, have identity (Hey, it’s Jamie Williams at LFC)
Ask questions about their life
Parents are engaging
Parents use texting to connect with their student so they’re very responsive to that as well – very particular specific window to get to them

19. Lessons learned Print piece for Giving Day – not worth the time
Test timing constantly
Phoning program
Be wary of mass texting
Think outside traditional communication channels
Hitting a different crowd with Forester Day vs. CYE FYE and doesn’t work the same way as President’s appeal
Even though it is the digital age, we have those alums who expect and require a phone call, outside of those we’ve cut
Use facebook messager, use LinkedIn

20. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS Video tips?
How do you supplement a poor or phone campaign?
How does your institution react to a poor /mailer? i.e. what’s the next step?
How else are you utilizing your crowdfunding platform?
Are you utilizing apple pay/google pay/etc. in any capacity? How?
How many clicks does it take to make a gift off of your institutional webpage?
Discuss other digital stewardship/solicitation materials