teaming up: oregon state’s approach to alumni engagement...
TRANSCRIPT
Teaming Up: Oregon State’s Approach to
Alumni Engagement and Philanthropy
Melinda Petersen, Director OSUAA Annual Giving Programs
Courtney Ball, Assistant Director of Membership
2015 CASE VIII Annual Conference – Seattle, WA
PAGE 1
About Oregon State University
• Completed our first $1 billion campaign December 31st
– Actually reached our goal one year early!
• 176,000 alumni and 30,000 students
• 14,000 OSUAA members and 22,000 annual donors
• Annual Giving: $18M pipeline-driven program
• OSUAA membership: 8,500 member participation-driven program
– Also have 5,500 life members
How We’re Organized OSUF President & CEO
Executive Vice President for Development
Senior Director of Annual Giving
Director of OSUAA Annual Giving Programs
OSU Vice President of Alumni Relations and
OSUAA Executive Director
Associate Director –Marketing
Assistant Director of Membership
Melinda Petersen
Courtney Ball
Why?
• Stronger collaboration
• Coordinated & donor/member-centered efforts
• Increase OSUAA membership & annual giving
• Reduce telemarketing costs and provide student connection
• To create a dynamic and more meaningfully engaged constituency
July 2011Dues become deductible
October 2012MOU signed
January 2013Partnership launched
March 2013Melinda comes on board
August 2013New OSU VP & OSUAA ED
It all began two years ago…
The first year was challenging!
What’s your role? What’s my role? Wait, I thought I did that? Who’s
gonna do that? What are we working towards here? What are our
goals again? What reports do we have? Oops, these reports aren’t
telling us what we thought they were! ? There are how many
membership types in our database?! People have multiple
memberships? How are we doing? We’re not bringing in the
revenue we’re used to/need! Do we brand this mailing OSUAA or
OSUF? We have a new leader! What are her expectations?
Gaining traction now though!
• Integrated fundraising and membership principals
• Clear expectations and goals established and adopted by all
• Coordinated calendar of solicitations & communications
• Strategic segmentation & messaging
• Solid and growing team contributing individual talents
• Better awareness of each others’ organizational priorities
Hierarchy DMG Code Name Description
1 AA002 AA Life MembersAny HH with a paid life membership; membership types include 05, 06, ID,
IE, IR, JD, JE, JR, LD, LL, LM, LN, LP, LQ, LR, QJ, & QL
2 AA001AA Complimentary
Members
Any HH with a complimentary life membership; membership types include
07, 08, IL, JL, LC, & lh
4 AA005 Active MembersAny HH with an active membership with an expiration date of greater than
30 days
9 AA012 AA Renewals-Nov Any household with an active membership that expired in Oct of this FY
10 AA013 AA Renewals-Dec Any household with an active membership that expired in Nov of this FY
21 AA021 AA Lapsed 1-5 Yrs-PDXAny household in the Portland-Metro or Willamette Valley area with a
membership that expired 1-5 years ago
24 AA025 AA Lapsed 1-5 Yrs-SEAAny household in the Seattle-metro area with a membership that expired 1-5
years ago
28 AA034AA Acquisition-Donor-
PDX
A HH living in the Portland-metro or Willamette Valley regions with a
membership that expired more than five years ago OR is an alumni HH that has
never had and an active membership AND has made a gift to the university in the
past five years
29 AA035 AA Acquisition-PDX
A HH living in the Portland-Metro or Willamette Valley Regions with a
membership that expired more than 5 years ago or alumni HH that has
never had an active membership
Segmentation FY15 - Annual Giving Programs
OSUAA Membership SEGMENTATION GROUP -Sequence 11Alumni/Friends/Parents
* Please apply OSUAA Membership Standard Exclusions
Date Update: 6/2/2014
Decreased cost AND increased revenue!
28% in membership revenue (more about this in a bit)
4% in number of memberships
Nearly 100% participation by OSUAA Board and Council
members by December 31st
29% in annual giving to key funds
Increased reunion giving
Not to mention…
• More strategic thinking cross-organizationally
– Life Members included in Foundation event invitations
– OSUAA program directors feeding solicitation leads to the Foundation
– Foundation feeding volunteer leads to OSUAA
• Organizational leaders focused on strengthening the partnership
even more
– Joint planning and goal setting
• Greater awareness across the institution
The 2015 OSUAA Life
Membership Challenge
• Example of integrating
fundraising with membership
– Led by former OSUAA Board
members making philanthropic
commitments
• Increased membership revenue
as well as increased scholarship
support
• 94% to our goal!
What’s next?
• Building on this year’s success
– How do we retain these new life members as donors?
– How do we continue to build our base of support through annual
memberships?
• Measuring and investing in “engagement”
• Focus on student engagement
• Growing recent graduate participation
• Determining priorities for the Association
Thank you!
PAGE 15
Courtney Ball
Assistant Director of Membership
OSU Alumni Association
Melinda Petersen
Director OSUAA Annual Giving Programs
OSU Foundation