2. Helping Students Say ‘Thank You’ Stephanie Boeding Alumni communications coordinator Wartburg College Waverly, IA stephanie.boeding@wartburg.edu www.wartburg.edu

3. What a ‘thank you’ can do iModules tools have helped us more than double the number of personal notes sent to scholarship donors! The results: more notes, and better notes. Students Donors Young alumni Students Donors Young alumni www.wartburg.edu

4. Wartburg: Who are we? Mumford & Sons came to visit! You may have heard of our “summer program”...

5. Wartburg: Who are we? Named for Wartburg Castle … not Hogwarts Castle www.wartburg.edu

6. Wartburg: Who are we? ● Enrollment: 1,661 students ● More than 1,000 involved with music or athletics ● Largest majors: biology, business administration, journalism and communication, elementary education, music education ● Strong German heritage, and affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America ● Our four pillars: Leadership, Service, Faith and Learning www.wartburg.edu

7. Scholarships ● More than 90% of our students receive financial aid. ● This past year, 441 donor-funded scholarships were awarded to students. Students saying “thank you” makes students aware of where their gifts come from, helps our donors stay committed to their giving, builds connections between different generations, and even leads to young alumni funding new scholarships soon after they graduate. www.wartburg.edu

8. So how do we do it? It starts with iModules data import and profile fields…

9. Then we send our students an email…

10. Which links to a form…

11. ...where they can write a note!

12. The end result: A note that would make Mom proud! We print off the notes, and then...

13. … in the words of the hit Mumford & Sons song: “I will wait, I will wait for you!” In the form’s confirmation email, we remind students to come into our office to personally sign their notes.

14. Most of them come within a day or two to sign their thank-you notes with an orange pen. (A little incentive helps!)

15. Email, round 2 With a data query, we can find all the students who have a value in the “Scholarship 1 Name” field, but who have no value in the “Thank You Note 1” field. This identifies the students who have not yet written a thank-you note. Then we send them an email reminder… or two…

16. Our results Donors love the personal notes (yes, they can tell) and even write back to our students! Before iModulesUsing iModules Fewer than 60 notes completed Between 140 and 200 notes completed in each of the last 3 years

17. The rest of the story... Our annual Scholarship Luncheon in April ●Donors meet their award recipients ●Relationships are formed

18. Students are inspired ●Students UKnight group highlights philanthropy

19. ● Graduating students give back Young alumni are inspired

20. Contact me Email: stephanie.boeding @ wartburg.edu @StephBoeding sboeding www.wartburg.edu