For nonprofit fundraisers seeking to grow alumni participation, securing leadership buy-in is critical. As Matthew Lambert, Vice President of University Advancement at William & Mary, noted, “participation is only successful if you have a president and a board and a senior leadership team that make it a priority.”
Without support from the top, participation efforts are unlikely to be sustainable or successful. Presidents and boards shape an institution’s priorities and culture. If they do not adequately value participation, it will never become an organizational priority or “DNA.” As Lambert said, “You have to have a focus across the top of the leadership on participation.”
At William & Mary, Lambert and his colleague Dan Frrezza were able to dramatically boost participation from 23% to 40% over the course of a $1 billion campaign thanks to leadership support. As Frrezza said, “Matthew asked us to look at a 40 percent participation goal several years ago…We built an approach at William & Mary from the bottom up.” Leadership set an ambitious vision, then fundraisers and engagement professionals had license to build a customized, comprehensive strategy to achieve it.
Talking about participation in terms of institution-wide benefits also helps generate leadership buy-in. For example, higher participation signals increased alumni affinity and pride in the institution. It expands the donor base, reducing reliance on a few large donors. And it often correlates with increased giving overall, as a participatory culture takes hold.
However, leaders must understand participation as part of an integrated advancement effort, not in competition with fundraising. As Lambert said, “We took an approach that we wanted to make sure we were both increasing participation and raising a lot more money. You can do this as a both/and and not an either/or proposition.” With leadership promoting participation and fundraising in tandem, both can thrive.
In the end, no single leader or group can drive a successful participation program alone. As Lambert concluded, “This was not just an effort that lived in one area of the institution…It took teams of volunteers, it took our engagement staff, it took our student program, it took the work Dan was doing—we had to have multiple entry points working on this simultaneously for it to be as successful as it was.”
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