Rethinking Engagement: Data-Informed Strategies for a Changing Advancement Landscape-Recording

Video Transcription

Video Summary

The webinar “Rethinking Engagement: Data-Informed Strategies for a Changing Advancement Landscape” focused on CASE’s alumni engagement framework and how institutions can use data to improve strategy. Jenny Cook-Smith explained the CASE model: alumni are broadly defined, engagement is measured across four binary modes—philanthropy, volunteering, experiential participation, and communications—and engagement rate is calculated from legally contactable alumni. She previewed FY25 findings, noting global engagement at about 15% and 16% in the U.S./Canada, with growth in alumni populations outpacing growth in engagement. A key takeaway was segmentation: institutions can separate alumni into unengaged, philanthropically engaged only, non-monetarily engaged only, or engaged in both ways to guide outreach.<br /><br />Heather Ashley of the University of Florida and Kim Julian Bowden of Georgia Tech shared how they built dashboards and reporting systems to capture engagement data in real time. Georgia Tech uses Power BI and CRM tools to surface engagement across colleges, improve data completeness, and support annual dean briefings. Florida, starting later, built Salesforce dashboards to centralize fragmented data, make engagement visible across colleges, and support leadership decisions. Both emphasized starting small, building confidence over time, and using data to create campus-wide ownership.<br /><br />On strategy, Kim showed how Georgia Tech uses engagement data for pipeline development, annual giving segmentation, predictive modeling, program impact analysis, and targeted volunteer recruitment. Heather described Florida’s plans to expand engagement data collection, build an organization-wide engagement ecosystem, develop engagement personas and scores, launch digital and virtual engagement officers, and create a constituent portal for self-identified interests. The session’s central message: start with available data, build partnerships, and use engagement insights to drive philanthropy and stronger alumni relationships.

Keywords

alumni engagement

data-informed strategy

CASE framework

engagement dashboard

Power BI

Salesforce

philanthropy segmentation

alumni relations

predictive modeling

advancement landscape