Fundraising Impact Reports — Say thank you and inspire donor confidence

Background

Imperial College London is a science-based university with an international reputation for excellence in teaching. It is also home to the greatest concentration of high-impact research of any major university in the UK. Imperial is committed to developing the next generation of researchers, scientists and academics through collaboration across its four faculties: Engineering, Natural Sciences, Medicine and Business.

In its 2015–2020 Strategy, Imperial reinforced its commitment to building strong relationships with alumni and friends, with the aim of increasing overall alumni engagement and participation. The Regular Giving programme supports this mission by engaging alumni and stakeholders in Imperial’s fundraising priorities.

The campaign centered on the University’s annual fundraising report called ‘Impact of Giving’, a publication targeted at an audience of over 9,000 donors and prospects. The publication has three aims:

1. to recognise current donors;

2. to engage lapsed and prospective donors;

3. to inspire donor confidence by demonstrating the impact of philanthropy at Imperial.

As a project, Impact of Giving is led by the supporter engagement team, the remit of which is to foster stronger relationships between Imperial and its supporters by delivering regular points of contact throughout the year, in the form of events, stewardship activities and donor communications. This broad remit contributes to one of Imperial’s main strategic priorities for 2015–2020: to ‘revitalise our relationship with our alumni and friends and seek their support in delivering our academic mission and building Imperial’s global reputation’.

The story so far

The Impact of Giving publication has two main audiences:

1. Regular giving donors, current and lapsed, who give to support their faculty, student welfare or institutional priorities. The majority of readers in this group are alumni, giving at relatively low levels but with a strong sense of connection to Imperial College and current students.

2. Major and principal gift prospects whose giving is often — although not only — motivated by their interest in research or the potential for wider societal impact, rather than a pre-existing relationship with the University.

The campaign had three main objectives:

1. To thank those who have given through things like recognition in its Impact of Giving publication about the contribution of donors and the value of their donations. The publication recognised any individuals who made a gift of £1,000 or more.

2. To engage lapsed or prospective donors and offer them a new opportunity to donate again. Although the Impact of Giving is primarily a stewardship publication, it did include a donation form in the pack mailed out to current and lapsed donors, which enabled them to donate if they were motivated to do so. More than £78,000 was donated with a response rate of 2.7%, a significant increase on the amount raised in previous years (in 2015 the University raised £56,424 with a response rate of 1.8%). This increase suggests that the redesign and new editorial approach resonated with the audience, resulting in a greater level of engagement.

3. To build confidence in Imperial College London as a worthy recipient, and steward of, philanthropic support. The Impact of Giving report included case studies and financial reporting which aimed to assure donors of the effectiveness of their gift. To support this, the University also surveyed donors about their perceived impact of donating to Imperial College which would then feed into how the publication can support greater awareness of impact.

The campaign also had two subsidiary objectives, which were to raise awareness of wider institutional programmes, such as the creation of a new campus in west London, and to reinforce institutional messaging around its commitment to investing in student well-being.

Lessons learnt

One of the challenges of the Impact of Giving publication was the fact it had two very different audiences. This was addressed by emphasising the diversity of the Imperial donor community — in nationality, age, giving level, mode of giving and philanthropic interest. Messaging throughout the publication emphasises this sense of “together, we are…”, which appears, for example, in the opening lines of the President’s welcome, the highlights of the year, and in the year in numbers, which highlights the impact and importance of collective giving. The publication also ensured that the choice of research features (aeronautics and autism) appealed to the interests of a wide group of readers, while also profiling the impact of high-value gifts.

Impact of Giving was redesigned for the 2016 issue, moving away from a previous format that used Imperial’s formal corporate visual identity and tone of voice, in favour of a less text-heavy, image-led, and more donor-orientated approach. This change was intended to support a more general move towards a community-focused publication that celebrated the interests and motivations of donors as much as Imperial’s fundraising successes.

Dan Mapp, Development Communications Officer (Advancement Operations), Imperial College London