PODi Researches Solutions for the Fundraising Vertical Market
Fundraising is a key challenge for educational institutions, and the service providers that help them meet their needs can forge a long-lasting and beneficial relationship. Educational fundraising is big business. According to the Council for Aid to Education’s annual “Voluntary Support of Education Survey,” in the 2009-2010 fiscal year, donors demonstrated their commitment to higher education with $28 billion in private support.
PODi has undertaken a vertical market research effort designed to mine information from its more than 470 digital printing case studies. This research explores the marketing objectives, challenges and corresponding digital/variable-data solutions for verticals such as education, automotive, entertainment and travel, financial services, insurance/healthcare, not for profit and retail.
The recently completed “Fundraising Solutions for the Education Market” study highlights solutions to key challenges including:
- Increasing the number of donors and alumni participation rate.
- Increasing the amount of donations.
- Reducing administrative costs by moving donations online.
Relevant marketing solutions that address these challenges are illustrated with examples from the PODi case studies. One such example is Allegheny College, which developed a direct mail campaign to increase the participation rate of young alumni in it its annual fund drive. Communications were personalized with the recipient’s name, graduation year, major and a personalized URL. Images also varied to reflect the recipient’s extracurricular activities while on campus.
The results of the campaign were outstanding:
- 32 percent of the donors increased their gift size compare to the previous year, and an
- 11 percent increase in the number of donors from the young alumni segment.
The full “Fundraising Solutions for the Education Market” report is available exclusively to PODi members. For more information on PODi membership and benefits including case studies, sales and marketing tools, and training resources visit www.podi.org/membership.
Source: PODi.
