On the latest episode of our DXbyET series, EverTrue’s Maureen Camerato went behind-the-scenes of Tufts’ Donor Experience program to unpack the close collaboration between annual giving and prospect management that has made the program a success.
EverTrue Donor Experience programs across the country are propelling pipeline and cultivating relationships with donors who were overlooked in gift officers’ portfolios for years – or falling through the cracks of broad scale annual fund messaging.
In partnership with EverTrue, Donor Experience Officers (DXOs) build personalized relationships with 1,000 donors every year. That’s a lotta prospects – about 8x the size of a traditional MGO portfolio.
From our 40+ Donor Experience partners, we’ve learned that there are few key ingredients that teams combine to see incredible ROI from this high-volume, tech-enabled donor engagement.
One is good change management. Launching a Donor Experience program means new strategy (cadenced outreach), new people (DXOs), and new technology (the EverTrue tech suite). It’s a shift that requires frequent cross-team communication and effective internal marketing to get the whole advancement shop on board and ensure the DX program is a success.
Another key to a high-performing Donor Experience program is a solid partnership between the Annual Fund team and the Prospect Management team. The most successful DX programs are built with close collaboration between EverTrue’s data team, annual fund experts who will manage the program, and the prospect research pros who will identify the right subset of 3-4,000 long-overlooked donors to assign to DXOs.
With these cross-team communications in place, a Donor Experience program can take off – just like Tufts’ did. Within 1.5 years of establishing the Donor Experience program at Tufts, donors assigned to a DXO have seen a 524% increase in activity and a 242% increase in meetings.
Donor Experience in action at Tufts: Through the prospect management lens
DXbyET is a short video series that takes a behind-the-scenes look at EverTrue Donor Experience programs through interviews with some of our top-performing partner institutions.
On the latest episode of DXbyET, EverTrue’s Maureen Camerato digs into the inner workings of Tufts University’s Donor Experience program, focusing on how the program has had a successful launch with close collaboration between Tufts’ annual fund and prospect management teams.
Maureen tackles some big questions with Erica Lennon, Senior Associate Director of the Annual Fund and Tory Pedonti, Senior Associate Director of Prospect Management and Analytics, including…
- Where does the Donor Experience program sit, within the broader Tufts advancement shop?
- How does the DX program collaborate with Prospect Management?
- What does the DXO portfolio review and assignment process look like?
- How do prospects flow in and out of DXO portfolios, given this high volume of qualification work?
- Advice for new DX clients from the Prospect Management perspective
- The importance of educating other annual giving and major gift fundraisers about DXO impact
Erica and Tori share valuable advice for organizations who are considering launching a Donor Experience program, through the prospect management lens. Here’s one of our favorite clips. You can watch the full 20-minute conversation here.
Ready to get your best folks on board with launching a high-performing Donor Experience program? Let’s chat.