Made it EXceptional — Exeter’s integrated fundraising and volunteering campaign
Record-breaking year at Exeter
The University of Exeter is coming towards the end of its largest ever philanthropy campaign. ‘Making the Exceptional Happen’ aims to raise £60 million and 60,000 volunteering hours by 2020 and was publicly launched in February 2017.
Fundraising for the campaign crosses six key themes:
· Health
· Environment and Sustainability
· Living Systems
· Society and Culture
· Tomorrow’s Leaders
· Sporting Success
The first four of these focus on critical research undertaken at the University of Exeter in areas such as dementia drug development and climate change. The final two focus on students; both support to undertake studies such as scholarships, and support for the overall experience such as societies and student projects.
The current financial total for the ‘Making the Exceptional Happen’ campaign is £50.3 million (84% of the final goal). This is already twice as much as was raised during the whole of the previous fundraising campaign at Exeter. In February 2018, the University also passed its target for volunteering hours and this now stands at 71,000 hours or 118% of the overall goal.
2017/18 was the most successful year for fundraising in the University’s history, with £15 million raised in donations. Key to this was the largest ever single gift to Exeter — a £10 million donation from the Dennis and Mireille Gillings Foundation to support work at the Medical School.
Global Advancement
‘Making the Exceptional Happen’ is run by the University of Exeter’s Global Advancement department. Global Advancement is made up of several smaller interlinked teams: Supporter Engagement, which is responsible for regular giving, volunteering and alumni communications and engagement events; Operations, which manages a database of more than 125,000 contactable alumni along with additional supporters, and provide market research and leads on donor relations; and Philanthropy, which is responsible for major gifts and submissions to trusts and foundations. There are 12.8 FTE working in Philanthropy, 11.5 FTE in Supporter Engagement and 9.5 FTE in Operations, along with one Director of the whole department.
The whole team played a part in the record-breaking year, but a few key milestones were managed by the Head of Volunteering and Alumni Relations (exceeding 60,000 volunteering hours), the Trusts and Foundations Managers (£3.4m in awards including £1 million for agriculture and £750,000 for autism research), the Regular Giving Manager (record increase in donor numbers) and in the case of the £10 million gift, the Director of Global Advancement.
Greatest number of donors
In 2017/18 nearly 3,300 alumni and supporters made a financial donation to the ‘Making the Exceptional Happen’ campaign. This is up from 1,775 in 2013/14, an increase of a record 85% over the past five years. This rise also means that, over the last three years, the University of Exeter has averaged the highest growth rate of donor numbers in the Russell Group.
Regular donors make up the bulk of this increase. The team have diversified channels to take more of a multi-channel approach, understanding that individuals will respond to different types of appeal, as well as the fact that some channels work really well in isolation, but others work best together. A wide range of activity now makes up the Regular Giving Programme, including e-appeals, direct mail, telephone fundraising, events, crowdfunding, social media, the annual magazine, staff payroll giving and memorial appeals. This activity also has a significant influence on the delivery of legacy giving as a high number of enquiries and pledges come from mass appeals.
The team also uses data to drive all campaigns, looking at who has given in the past, to what, and by which method, when choosing who to select for each appeal. With a very limited budget, it is crucial to be really selective to ensure each appeal gets the best return, maintaining a balance between asking as many people as possible, and ensuring it is those with both warmth and propensity who are included.
This targeted approach and more personalised asking — looking at what may interest someone and motivate them to give, rather than just asking everyone to give to everything all of the time — has led to a better response rate. Increased stewardship of this group has also reaped rewards, improving both donor retention and upgrade rates.
There has also been an increase in the number of younger alumni giving, which is due to an increased effort to demonstrate the impact of giving to students while they are here, leading them to then want to give back once they have graduated.
Largest ever single gift
In 2018 Exeter received its largest ever single gift — a £10 million donation from the Dennis and Mireille Gillings Foundation. The bulk of the donation was to fund a new building for the Medical School that will help to transform dementia research and diagnosis.
The Mireille Gillings Neuroimaging Centre will help accelerate clinical trials for potential dementia treatments and will be equipped with state-of-the-art PET and MRI scanners. It should double the number of drugs in development through innovative use of brain scanning technology and techniques. The donation also supports cancer diagnosis by GPs and leadership training for the next generation of female leaders in medicine, science and business, helping to address a shortfall of women in senior roles worldwide.
The donors have an existing connection to Exeter. Dr Dennis Gillings completed both his undergraduate degree and his PhD in Mathematics at Exeter, and they have previously supported research at the Medical School including £1 million for pioneering work in genetic disorders.
Mireille and Dennis were convinced of the potential of the research during a series of meetings with University staff including the Director of Global Advancement Dr Shaun Curtis, and the Medical School’s Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Clive Ballard. Dr Dennis Gillings was formerly World Dementia Envoy and Dr Mireille Gillings is a neuroscientist and founder of HUYA Bioscience International, so both are familiar with the condition and the work that needs to be done to help find treatments and ultimately a cure.
Dr Mireille Gillings is also passionate about supporting the next generation of business leaders in medicine. Research conducted by Professor Ruth Sealy, Director of the Exeter Centre for Leadership, found that while eight out of ten students in medical-related subjects are female, women hold just a quarter of directorship roles in private companies specialising in health research and pharmaceuticals worldwide. This inspired the donation for two five-year fellowships that will help boost entrepreneurial skills as well as supporting research.
60,000 volunteering hours
Two years ahead of schedule, in February 2018, ‘Making the Exceptional Happen’ reached its target of 60,000 volunteering hours. That equates to an alumnus giving their time every hour of every day since the campaign started.
This was possible thanks to the high level of engagement with Exeter’s alumni community. Alumni are contacted about a series of programmes, and are generally targeted with particular requests depending on demographics and past behaviour. For example, recent alumni often provide careers profiles or give careers talks on campus. Those with more experience become career mentors, give mock interviews or become involved in curriculum development, while others organise alumni events to help fellow graduates build their networks. The structure of the team ensures an Alumni Engagement Officer works with each academic college to develop relevant volunteering opportunities to support College priorities, as well as to maintain personal contact with alumni volunteers and help to build a deeper relationship.
Volunteers often say they give their time because they enjoyed their Exeter experience so much and want to give back, or because they want to do something to help the next generation succeed. Knowing their motivations helps to ensure they have a positive experience volunteering and wish to return, and also supports more tailored asks for time.
With separate targets for gifts of time and money, it’s possible to clearly recognise and celebrate the value of volunteering alongside financial giving. Alumni who volunteer make an impact at Exeter regardless of whether they give financially or not and the institution is grateful for their invaluable contributions. However, it is certainly true that gifts of time and money are not mutually exclusive. For example, currently 20–25% of alumni mentors on any one scheme are also donors (both regular and major donors). Volunteering that is authentic and satisfying deepens engagement, leading either to first-time gifts or providing quality on-going stewardship that leads to continued involvement in financial giving. The data shows that being involved in volunteering activities increases the propensity to donate, the size of their gift and the likelihood of them giving more than once.
Top tips and lessons learned
Know your audience — whether you are running a mass giving campaign, seeking volunteers, or speaking to an individual about a major gift, make sure you understand their motivations for giving. What are they looking to get out of the situation? Do they have a particular interest that aligns with the University’s plans? Do they already have a connection with the institution and want to give someone else the opportunities that they had? Are they looking to solve a specific problem?
It is also worth noting that the internal organisation within universities isn’t that important to an external audience. You can’t build a successful campaign around administrative structures, many of which are temporary anyway. Donor motivation is based on the more permanent matter of impact, wherever it is located and it’s a mistake to hold up a mirror to the internal complexity of an institution.
Get your products right — having too many areas for donors to support can be overwhelming and off-putting and you end up diluting your message on impact. They began with a huge list of products, which we’ve refined over time as we’ve learnt which areas donors are most keen to support and which motivate people most to give.
Volunteering should be authentic and impactful, with volunteering activities designed to support key institutional objectives (for example, mentoring to improve student employability) and to be satisfying for the volunteer. Try to avoid shoe-horning prospects inappropriately into volunteering — instead find other, more appropriate engagement opportunities initially.
Planning is crucial — a successful campaign takes time to come to fruition. Relationships with major donors have to be cultivated over time and with plenty of opportunity for people to meet with those involved in potential projects so that they can understand the need. Wider appeals also need to be targeted at relevant individuals, at good times, and with pre-emptive answers to the key questions potential donors might ask. This takes preparation.
Everything links — it can be easy to focus on one aspect of fundraising but the different elements do not operate in isolation. Volunteers often start with a careers profile, before committing more time to mentor a current student and then making a financial donation. Regular donors can also move from making small gifts to much larger ones as their circumstances change. So it is important for all areas to work together and to build a high level of alumni engagement continuously, whether or not people are currently supporting or considering supporting. These individuals may be crucial for the future.
Go public at the right time — success requires a clear vision and the building of a coherent and talented team that is committed to the cause. Without this, it will be hard to generate momentum from the private to the public phase. It’s better to have a longer private phase if needed, rather than go public with unresolved issues or uncertainties.
Keep trying, keep testing — due to the length of campaigns, it is natural that some things will have to change. Whether that’s the way in which you are asking, the specifics of what you’re asking for, or indeed who is doing the asking, it’s important to be adaptive to change.
Communicate, communicate, communicate — time spent on internal stakeholder engagement will be well rewarded. Re-work your external campaign communications for an internal audience and consider involving your internal stakeholders in as many ‘hands on’ ways as possible. Meeting donors/volunteers and attending alumni events is the most effective way to bring even the most reticent of colleagues on board.
You can hear more on organising successful engagement and philanthropy campaigns from a line-up of speakers at this year’s CASE Europe Annual Conference in Birmingham on 27–29 August 2019. View the full programme here.
Emma Clark, Communications Manager (Alumni & Supporters), University of Exeter
