Institutional Advancement: How Cadence is the Secret to Success 

If you’re an academic leader, you know just how vital your institutional advancement strategy is to the future of your campus, especially as higher education becomes increasingly important to the general workforce. 

But do you have the right technology in place to make your advancement strategy a success?

In this post, we’ll let you in on a little secret. Cadence, a holistic engagement platform designed to help institutions connect with prospective and current students as well as create lasting relationships with alumni and donors, is the tool you need. Why? Keep reading!

The Key Component of Institutional Advancement: Support

If you’ve been in academic leadership for a while, you know how important it is to ensure your campus continues to provide the necessary resources for your students. From new program initiatives to campus beautification projects to scholarships, each new initiative has a financial or social impact on institutional advancement.

Your campus cannot function without support. You need support from your alumni and donor base, current students and their families, and the local community. The key to institutional advancement, though, is more than just gaining support. It’s keeping it. 

So, how can you ensure you connect with prospective and current students, alumni, and donors? With Cadence, you can ensure your marketing and outreach efforts resonate with your various audiences every time you message them.

4 Ways Cadence Supports Your Institutional Advancement Initiatives

Cadence is conversational software designed for higher education. The great thing about Cadence is that it easily integrates with your current CRM, making it a breeze to connect with your current technology.

Here’s how Cadence can support your institutional advancement efforts.

1. Create Better, More Personalized Connections

It’s no secret that financial support from donors continues to decline. This decline can severely impact institutional operations for colleges and universities that depend on those donations. That’s why fostering connections between your campus and donor base is crucial. 

There are several ways to create genuine connections with your donor base. The first is to find out what your donors care about.

For example, if you know a particular group of donors cares more about establishing scholarship funds than receiving program updates, segmenting your donors into personalized campaign lists would be beneficial. That way, you only send messages you know your segmented lists will read and respond to.

The second way to create personalized connections? It might sound simple, but a genuine, personalized thank you goes a long way. 56% of donors would be repeat givers if they received a personalized thank you. So, if you’re not personally reaching out to your donors, you’re missing out on additional donations.

You can use Cadence Text to follow up with donors and thank them for their support.

2. Understand The Sentiment Behind Donations

If you want your institutional advancement campaigns to be more effective, you need to understand the motivations and sentiments behind donor giving. Despite advancing technology that can conduct sentiment analysis of your interactions with your donor base, only 49% of institutions conduct data analysis to measure the effectiveness of their marketing efforts.

Thankfully, when you integrate Cadence into your existing CRM, you can run sentiment analysis on your campus’ interactions with your donors and supporters. Sentiment analysis helps you better understand your donors and their motivations for giving to your institution. 

When you understand their “why,” you can better market your fundraiser campaigns.

3. More Effective Marketing and Outreach Efforts

Institutional advancement isn’t just about fundraising and connecting with donors. Part of an effective institutional advancement campaign is ensuring your institution continues to meet your enrollment quotas. That means your campus needs to be on top of its lead generation efforts and communication with prospective students.

Following up with prospective students who express interest in your institution is critical to turning prospective students into current ones. Instead of waiting for prospects to submit their contact information to your online contact form, incorporate a chatbot, like Cadence Chat, onto your website. 

Chatbots allow you to collect leads, schedule follow-ups, and answer questions 24/7. Plus, with contact capture mechanisms in place, you can follow up with your leads with information you know they’re interested in.

4. Track Data and Engagement Rates

Sending an email or text campaign that falls flat does nothing to help your institutional advancement strategy. That’s likely why 72% of alumni organizations use engagement rates, such as clicks, responses, and visits, as the primary tool to measure the effectiveness of their efforts.

Knowing whether your emails or text messages are a hit or a miss can help you tailor your campaigns to be more meaningful and engaging. Software like Cadence can help you track your engagement rates so that your communications are successfully set up to connect with your students, donors, and supporters every time.

The Future of Institutional Advancement

With donor giving declining and higher education becoming increasingly important, your campus will need to work extra hard to ensure the success of your institutional advancement strategy.

But you know what they say… Work smarter, not harder. With Cadence, you can analyze your campus’ interactions with students, alumni, and donors, create targeted email and text campaigns, and get a better understanding of the sentiments your audiences hold toward your campus. 

Schedule a demo today to learn more about how Cadence can help support your institutional advancement initiatives.

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