5 steps Catholic University took to secure a major gift through parent engagement
Based in the heart of Washington, D.C., The Catholic University of America serves approximately 3,000 undergraduate students. Catholic University needed a more centralized, streamlined system to communicate directly with parents and family members. The University Advancement team also wanted to better connect with potential and current members of their Parents Council, which requires an annual $5,000 contribution.
Catholic University turned to CampusESP for Family Communication in 2019, which became their go-to resource for both Parents Council recruitment and general family engagement. In 2022, the Advancement team joined the beta program for CampusESP for Parent Giving to further improve how they communicated with potential donors. Through it all, Catholic University leveraged strategic parent communication and data captured in CampusESP … and secured a $50,000 gift from a major gift prospect.
“CampusESP has helped us identify, engage, and cultivate donors,” said Kyra Lyons, Senior Director of University Advancement at Catholic University. “It's really made an impact on our Parents Council recruitment and major gift strategy.”
There were a lot of touch points in that process, but when you pull back, there were five strategies the team utilized to keep engagement high and bring this gift to fruition. Here’s how they achieved their win:
Step 1: Begin communicating with families of incoming first-year students over the summer
Catholic University engages families early on to help build affinity and connection with the university and start the relationship off strong. Over the summer, incoming families receive a welcome email that invites them to join Catholic University’s family portal, also known as The Family Nest.
Families also start to receive automated, bi-weekly email newsletters that keep them in the loop on important news, deadlines, and reminders from Catholic University. Initial newsletters cover topics to help ease the college transition, such as information on welcome events, Move-In tips, and other advice for families. The major gift prospect received more than 15 emails from Catholic in the summer before their student arrived on campus.
Step 2: Identify families interested in giving to their student’s institution
Parents can take an onboarding survey when joining a CampusESP parent portal to further personalize their experience. The survey allows institutions to collect specific interest information, such as if parents are interested in giving, joining the family association, and more.
One question in Catholic University’s survey asks if parents are interested in becoming a member of the Parents Council. The parents that respond “yes” are essentially raising their hands to identify themselves as gift prospects. As part of their recruitment strategy, Catholic University’s Advancement team uses the survey data to schedule visits with prospective Parents Council members and invite them to information sessions. The major gift prospect had indicated interest in the Parents Council, representing the first significant signal to the Advancement team to pursue things further.
Over the last four years, 4.5% of Catholic University parents that indicated interest have joined the Parents Council – resulting in 30 new members and $150,000 raised!
Step 3: Cross-reference donor interest with donor capacity to focus on the families most likely to give
Capacity data helps further qualify parents’ likelihood to give and focus efforts on top prospects. Criteria can be defined and tracked in CampusESP based on:
Wealth screening thresholds
ZIP codes
Private high school status
Student athlete status
With 670 families interested in the Parents Council, Catholic University needed a way to narrow down their list and focus on parents most likely to commit. By cross-referencing interest data from CampusESP with capacity data, Catholic tailored their list to around 60 parents. The major gift prospect is included in that list. CampusESP integrates with Catholic’s donor CRM, Raiser’s Edge, making it easy to transfer data between systems.
Step 4: Utilize personalized digital communication and in-person programming to cultivate the donor over time
CampusESP’s automated email newsletters and drip campaigns keep parents continually engaged with their student’s institution. Content from CampusESP is personalized based on interest and demographic data.
For Catholic University, this major gift prospect stayed involved through the family portal by registering for events, staying updated on their student’s academic progress, and more. The prospect received 330 emails from CampusESP over the course of their student’s time at Catholic University – and most of them were automated! CampusESP helps Catholic University scale their communications while building meaningful relationships with families.
Step 5: Leverage donor data to maintain focus on those most likely to make a gift… and ultimately convert the individual into a major gift donor!
Parent Promoter Score™ identifies parents with the highest engagement and affinity. Paired with capacity data, CampusESP segments the parents most likely to give so institutions can continue to focus their efforts on the right individuals.
With a Parent Promoter Score™ of 90, Catholic University’s major gift prospect falls within the top 1% of engaged users. This individual is very engaged – they have a 74% open rate, 39% click rate, and also logged over 120 sessions in the family portal. The Advancement team used the data to make informed decisions, such as prioritizing additional visits and making solicitations.
Catholic University ultimately secured a $50,000 gift – a major gift, and a major win for the team. Leveraging insightful data such as Parent Promoter Score and fostering prospect relationships through consistent, tailored engagement is a powerful combination. CampusESP helped surface the identification and qualification data that mattered and cultivate the parent relationship through strategic engagement to secure the major gift.
Want to learn more about how CampusESP can help you identify major gift prospects?