Our February blog post comes from Lisa C. Ukuku, Director of Research at The Citadel Foundation.
Here at The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, we have a unique solicitation strategy that has worked very well for several years. It’s called CRC, which stands for the Class Reunion Campaign. The idea is for classes to hold a mini-campaign and have an immediate impact on campus as a collective group. The milestone reunion classes, those celebrating their 10th, 25th, 40th, and 50th class reunion, are assigned to a CRC officer, who is responsible for both major gift and annual gift donations made as part of the CRC.
The CRC officer begins the process by recruiting a committee of volunteers, who determine a project and monetary goal for the CRC. Once the project and goal are approved, the CRC officer presents them to the class. Then, the CRC officer meets with class members whom the Research Office has designated as the class’ top prospects. The campaign includes gifts and pledges made two years before and pledge payments made up to three years after the reunion year.
The process for selecting the top prospects of each class is very precise and is done twice a year for each reunion class. This report can be a bit of a “beast” to format. However, the data is very helpful to the CRC officers, because it assists them in determining the giving history/pattern of the class members. The Research team creates a query from the Raiser’s Edge database and exports it into an MS Office Excel spreadsheet. The following material is retrieved:
1. Contact information
2. Employment
3. Spouse
4. Company
5. Class year
6. Total giving for last three years
7. Cumulative lifetime total giving
8. Number of gifts
9. Date of first gift
10. Date of last gift
11. Name of fund to which last gift was made
12. Date of last action (i.e. touch)
13. Target gift dollar range (for an annual gift)
14. Major giving likelihood score (MGL)
15. Solicitation code
This data is then sorted three ways and saved on separated tabs of the spreadsheet; the tabs are labeled as follows:
MGL: MGL score (Major Gift Likelihood) ranging from 1-1000 based on the constituent’s ability to make a major gift to The Citadel Foundation.
Company: The name of the barracks where the cadet lived while he/she was a
student at The Citadel
Total Giving: The cumulative lifetime giving amount, sorted from highest to lowest amounts
To further segment the MGL group, the list is sorted from the highest to the lowest scores and divided into three tiers, based on the MGL score and total lifetime giving of $25,000 or greater.
After the list is compiled, it is sent to the Director of Development for Annual & Reunion Giving and copied to each of the corresponding CRC officers. The Research team saves each class list in a folder on the network so that all CRC officers and staff have access to this information.
The benefit of the CRC is that the Foundation is educating alums on reunions and preparing them for capital campaigns, board memberships, etc. The alums who give are actually being cultivated to become the next annual and major gift donors to The Citadel. Once their class campaign is over, the CRC officer meets with the Research department and discusses the donors individually and recommends if they should be assigned to Major Gift Officers or to Annual Gift Officers. Another option is that if the CRC officer and the alum have formed a good relationship, the CRC officer can choose to remain assigned along with an Annual Gift Officer or Major Gift Officer. The team assignment offers continuity of the class reunion experience and gently upgrades the alum to the next step in philanthropy.
The “beauty” of the CRC is that it enables graduates, who formed strong unions as cadets, to continue to challenge and support each other after graduation. It also plants the seed of giving and provides much needed funds to special projects, programs, and scholarships for future cadets.
Here at The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, we have a unique solicitation strategy that has worked very well for several years. It’s called CRC, which stands for the Class Reunion Campaign. The idea is for classes to hold a mini-campaign and have an immediate impact on campus as a collective group. The milestone reunion classes, those celebrating their 10th, 25th, 40th, and 50th class reunion, are assigned to a CRC officer, who is responsible for both major gift and annual gift donations made as part of the CRC.
The CRC officer begins the process by recruiting a committee of volunteers, who determine a project and monetary goal for the CRC. Once the project and goal are approved, the CRC officer presents them to the class. Then, the CRC officer meets with class members whom the Research Office has designated as the class’ top prospects. The campaign includes gifts and pledges made two years before and pledge payments made up to three years after the reunion year.
The process for selecting the top prospects of each class is very precise and is done twice a year for each reunion class. This report can be a bit of a “beast” to format. However, the data is very helpful to the CRC officers, because it assists them in determining the giving history/pattern of the class members. The Research team creates a query from the Raiser’s Edge database and exports it into an MS Office Excel spreadsheet. The following material is retrieved:
- 1. Contact information
- 2. Employment
- 3. Spouse
- 4. Company
- 5. Class year
- 6. Total giving for last three years
- 7. Cumulative lifetime total giving
- 8. Number of gifts
- 9. Date of first gift
- 10. Date of last gift
- 11. Name of fund to which last gift was made
- 12. Date of last action (i.e. touch)
- 13. Target gift dollar range (for an annual gift)
- 14. Major giving likelihood score (MGL)
- 15. Solicitation code
This data is then sorted three ways and saved on separated tabs of the spreadsheet; the tabs are labeled as follows:
MGL: MGL score (Major Gift Likelihood) ranging from 1-1000 based on the constituent’s ability to make a major gift to The Citadel Foundation.
Company: The name of the barracks where the cadet lived while he/she was a
student at The Citadel
Total Giving: The cumulative lifetime giving amount, sorted from highest to lowest amounts
To further segment the MGL group, the list is sorted from the highest to the lowest scores and divided into three tiers, based on the MGL score and total lifetime giving of $25,000 or greater.
After the list is compiled, it is sent to the Director of Development for Annual & Reunion Giving and copied to each of the corresponding CRC officers. The Research team saves each class list in a folder on the network so that all CRC officers and staff have access to this information.
The benefit of the CRC is that the Foundation is educating alums on reunions and preparing them for capital campaigns, board memberships, etc. The alums who give are actually being cultivated to become the next annual and major gift donors to The Citadel. Once their class campaign is over, the CRC officer meets with the Research department and discusses the donors individually and recommends if they should be assigned to Major Gift Officers or to Annual Gift Officers. Another option is that if the CRC officer and the alum have formed a good relationship, the CRC officer can choose to remain assigned along with an Annual Gift Officer or Major Gift Officer. The team assignment offers continuity of the class reunion experience and gently upgrades the alum to the next step in philanthropy.
The “beauty” of the CRC is that it enables graduates, who formed strong unions as cadets, to continue to challenge and support each other after graduation. It also plants the seed of giving and provides much needed funds to special projects, programs, and scholarships for future cadets.
Here at The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, we have a unique solicitation strategy that has worked very well for several years. It’s called CRC, which stands for the Class Reunion Campaign. The idea is for classes to hold a mini-campaign and have an immediate impact on campus as a collective group. The milestone reunion classes, those celebrating their 10th, 25th, 40th, and 50th class reunion, are assigned to a CRC officer, who is responsible for both major gift and annual gift donations made as part of the CRC.
The CRC officer begins the process by recruiting a committee of volunteers, who determine a project and monetary goal for the CRC. Once the project and goal are approved, the CRC officer presents them to the class. Then, the CRC officer meets with class members whom the Research Office has designated as the class’ top prospects. The campaign includes gifts and pledges made two years before and pledge payments made up to three years after the reunion year.
The process for selecting the top prospects of each class is very precise and is done twice a year for each reunion class. This report can be a bit of a “beast” to format. However, the data is very helpful to the CRC officers, because it assists them in determining the giving history/pattern of the class members. The Research team creates a query from the Raiser’s Edge database and exports it into an MS Office Excel spreadsheet. The following material is retrieved:
- 1. Contact information
- 2. Employment
- 3. Spouse
- 4. Company
- 5. Class year
- 6. Total giving for last three years
- 7. Cumulative lifetime total giving
- 8. Number of gifts
- 9. Date of first gift
- 10. Date of last gift
- 11. Name of fund to which last gift was made
- 12. Date of last action (i.e. touch)
- 13. Target gift dollar range (for an annual gift)
- 14. Major giving likelihood score (MGL)
- 15. Solicitation code
This data is then sorted three ways and saved on separated tabs of the spreadsheet; the tabs are labeled as follows:
MGL: MGL score (Major Gift Likelihood) ranging from 1-1000 based on the constituent’s ability to make a major gift to The Citadel Foundation.
Company: The name of the barracks where the cadet lived while he/she was a
student at The Citadel
Total Giving: The cumulative lifetime giving amount, sorted from highest to lowest amounts
To further segment the MGL group, the list is sorted from the highest to the lowest scores and divided into three tiers, based on the MGL score and total lifetime giving of $25,000 or greater.
After the list is compiled, it is sent to the Director of Development for Annual & Reunion Giving and copied to each of the corresponding CRC officers. The Research team saves each class list in a folder on the network so that all CRC officers and staff have access to this information.
The benefit of the CRC is that the Foundation is educating alums on reunions and preparing them for capital campaigns, board memberships, etc. The alums who give are actually being cultivated to become the next annual and major gift donors to The Citadel. Once their class campaign is over, the CRC officer meets with the Research department and discusses the donors individually and recommends if they should be assigned to Major Gift Officers or to Annual Gift Officers. Another option is that if the CRC officer and the alum have formed a good relationship, the CRC officer can choose to remain assigned along with an Annual Gift Officer or Major Gift Officer. The team assignment offers continuity of the class reunion experience and gently upgrades the alum to the next step in philanthropy.
The “beauty” of the CRC is that it enables graduates, who formed strong unions as cadets, to continue to challenge and support each other after graduation. It also plants the seed of giving and provides much needed funds to special projects, programs, and scholarships for future cadets.
