fundraising IT

Breaking records: How this Texas university achieved its best fundraising year


Here are four benefits associated with adopting new technology to meet your fundraising end goals.

The world of higher education fundraising has changed considerably over the past three decades. It’s noisy out there; your message and your asks are at risk of being lost or forgotten. Not to mention, alumni from your institutions are being marketed to and solicited by thousands of relevant, deserving causes. Plus, higher education institutions are increasingly reliant on small pools of major donors for anywhere from 75 to 95 percent of their annual fundraising totals (source: Forrester Consulting).

The loss of only a few donors could have a damaging impact on fundraising goals. What can you do about it?  Well, universities and schools must prioritize building, growing and retaining relationships with their donor base; moreover, the opportunity to achieve record-breaking revenue awaits those who adopt new processes, technologies and data.

In a recently commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Blackbaud*, Forrester found that the University of North Texas (UNT) received a record-breaking 176 major gifts in 2017 — 56 percent over its ten-year average and 24 percent over the height of its 2012 major giving campaign.

How did they do it? They embraced a cloud-based fundraising technology to increase total fundraising revenue, improve stewardship, capture team metrics, and improve gift officer productivity.

Here are four benefits associated with adopting new technology to meet your end goals:

1. Potentially Raise Your Revenue by Millions

After implementing the Blackbaud cloud solution, Raiser’s Edge NXT, UNT increased gift revenue of $2,165,383, primarily by fostering a 56 percent growth in major gifts. Raiser’s Edge NXT is a comprehensive, cloud-based solution built specifically for the needs and desires of the fundraising and advancement community.

By adopting a tool that was smart, scalable, and predictive, UNT successfully set a new fundraising record with over $30 million raised in 2017–with no increase in development staff—$3.7 million higher than the previous year and with 24 percent more major gifts than even at the height of the university’s last major campaign in 2012.

(Next page: 3 more benefits of adopting tech for fundraising efforts)

2. Get Out of the Office and In Front of Donors

Frontline fundraisers are hired for their talent in developing relationships and pursuing donations, not necessarily for their technical savvy.  Shouldn’t you be using them for what they’re best at? Once fundraisers started using UNT’s new technology, the university saw a 20 percent increase in personal visits to donors. Gift officers spent less time in the office performing administrative tasks, including logging their work, ultimately saving 2 hours per month, per user. One UNT staff member reported, “Gift officers are not spending as much time in the office—they are more active than I’ve ever seen before.”

3. Productivity Sky Rockets

By adopting intuitive, easy-to-use cloud technology, UNT gift officers reduced research time by 40 minutes per personal meeting and 10 minutes per phone or email action, and saved 20 minutes for scheduling per meeting. Staff also saved 2 hours per month logging activity. Improved employee efficiency enabled UNT to recapture 6,411 hours of gift officer productivity worth $180,814. Adopting technology gave UNT a better user experience to make information easier and faster to access.

4. Work Seamlessly across Departments to Drive Greater Giving

All too often advancement professionals work in silos, but there is great value in technology which enables greater transparency as it can allow departments to align their efforts for greater results. Clint Shipp, executive director of Advancement Services at UNT summed up the issue: “If our athletics fundraiser visits someone and makes an ask, and doesn’t record that because it’s too difficult, then who knows—our college of business fundraiser may go to the same person not knowing there was an ask already made, and we look foolish as a university.”

This problem was solved with cloud technology and supporting processes which enabled more effective team coordination. Ultimately, UNT reduced mistakes and improved outcomes. Mobile access and improved user experience led to better data aggregation, helping staff trust the data was accurate. Team members leveraged collaboration and scheduling features to coordinate their work and avoid interfering with each other’s efforts.

Status quo, or business as usual wouldn’t have produced the above results for UNT.  They were bold, took a risk and upgraded their technology to equip their team with the best fundraising tools they could find–and it paid off within 6 months. UNT saw a 484 percent return-on-investment over three years from their purchase of Raiser’s Edge NXT.

To learn more about UNT and the Forrester Consulting Total Economic Impact Study, check out these resources.

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