Constituent Relations in an E-World Washington DC, USA March 13, 2003

1. Embracing a New Era in Alumni and Donor Communications Constituent Relations in an E-World Washington DC, USA March 13, 2003 Andrew K. Tiedemann Communications Director Alumni Affairs and Development Harvard University

2. Questions to Ask • How do we define engagement? • Can it be measured? • How much do we know about our alumni and their engagement levels?

3. Potential Engagement Indicators Cares about you Reads your publications, visits the alumni website (is well informed) Stays in touch with classmates Files class notes Participates in class events Attends local club events Gives at levels appropriate to capacity Serves as a volunteer in some way

4. What We Know • 309,000 alumni • 260,000 postal addresses • 110,000 email addresses • Harvard College Class Reports • Giving history

5. Alumni Attitudes “How informed are you about Harvard today?” % = College respondents 1997 1994 1997 1994 1997 2001 2001 2001 1994 Not informed Somewhat informed Very informed

6. Harvard Alumni Online • 93% with email • 57% visit alumni website • Connection to classmates • Access to intellectual content • Career mentoring

7. What Harvard Has Online • Harvard Monthly Email • Harvard@Home • Post.Harvard Community • Online Directory • Club and Class Website Hosting

8. What’s Missing? • Individual engagement levels • Individual interests • Life stage histories • Correlation of involvement and giving • Measurability of existing programs

9. Smart Investments Age 21 Age 81 AA&D Resource Allocation Lifetime Engagement Index Lifetime Giving Value

10. Metrics Model Institutional ROI • Summary Data – Giving • Raised – New Gifts and Pledges by School, Fiscal Year • Received – Gift Receipts by School, Fiscal Year • Giving consistency – University-wide by Fiscal Year • Year end pledge balances by School, Fiscal Year • Scale of gifts – University Wide by Fiscal Year • Giving vehicles • Donor constituency • Economic indicators of Development Environment (Calendar Year)

11. Metrics Model Institutional ROI • Summary Data – Engagement • Engagement opportunities • Number of donors by School • Reunion attendance • Other alumni affairs events • Memberships • Continuing education • Lost alumni counts • Alumni attitudes • Online activities

12. One to One • Build lifetime profile for each alumnus/alumna • Capture self-identified interests • Personalize all messaging • Record all contacts online and off • Create engagement indices

13. Alumni Profile Channels of alumni communication aresources of information: • Classmates on giving committees • Volunteers on numerous other committees • Class notes • Class reports • Phonathon calls (both students and volunteers) • Surveys • Club associations • Other involvement

14. Alumni Profile Types of information to consider: • Professional information • Marital and family information • Other Harvard affiliations • Salutations • Interests • Personal Harvard experiences • Reasons for giving or not giving • Communication preferences • Participation/engagement with Harvard • Volunteer activities, across the University, in all areas Email received • Print mail received • Phone call received • Responses/lack thereof • Messaging

15. Alumni Relationship Management Capture all alumni communication channels Analytics Clubs Trigger Systems Events Channel Integration Peer To Peer Marketing Database Alumni Voice Campaign Management Systems Website Email Operational Systems Management Reporting Print

16. Alumni Relations Engagement

17. Donor Relations Engagement

18. Engagement by Segment Engagement Indices Age Group AR DR 20s 30s 40s 50s 60s 70s • Disengaged • Passive Engaged • Active Engaged • Leaders 0-9 10-24 25-100 100+ 0-9 10-24 25-100 100+ X X Source: Charlie Cardillo, Andy Tiedemann, and Jonathan Byrnes

19. Disengaged alumni don’t give.

20. How Can We Improve Affinity? Affinity Expressed by Giving: Transactions Expressed by Engagement: Attendance and Leadership • Use Data to: • Better understand the nature of affinity expressed by one’s gift giving • Better understand the evolution of affinity over time

21. Donor Relationship Metric: Annual and Accumulated Participation Fully 75% of the Undergraduate Alumni base contributed to Harvard over the period while 44% contributed in ‘00 Challenge: How to increase frequency of giving? Source: Connie Cervilla, Core Group

22. Recent Retention of Alumni Donors In ’02, Alumni donors giving more frequently had higher retention rates than less frequent donors.

23. Recent Reactivation of Alumni Donors In ’02, Alumni donors who gave in recent years were “reactivated” at much higher rates than those dormant for more years. Finding: Frequency correlates to retention over the short term.

24. Components of Alumni Donor Value • Size of the Alumni donor base & its growth – Participation * Challenges: Younger classes & recent donor growth • Size of the gift – Gift size & its evolution over time * Challenges: Encourage frequent giving & tailor the message to the sequence of gift • Retention of the Alumni donors – Reactivation & Attrition *Challenges: Encourage frequent giving & convert first time donors to a second gift

25. Alumni AssociationObjectives • Measure effectiveness • Gauge resource productivity • Target segments with programs • Create market-oriented support systems

26. Project Overview • Establish a baseline by program and School • Cost • Segments • Engagement 2. Map onto ladder of engagement and analyze • 3. Design – implement supporting systems • Analytical system • Operational system • 4. Refine Association activities using the new information • marketing/outreach • portfolio of programs • program operations

27. The Ladder of Engagement Alumni overall Class notes Reunions Clubs Travel study SpeakerPrograms Web Magazine SIG Others Very Active Active Passive Unengaged • Which programs affect which segments? • Which programs move alumns up the ladder (at each level)? • Which programs are most productive for which segments? • What is the best portfolio of programs to maximize engagement? Source: Charlie Cardillo

28. Program Evaluation A. Data Feeds C. Planning B. DATABASE • Program/Activity Sources • University-Wide • College • Graduate School • Clubs • Classes • Vendors • Analysis/Targeting • Engagement Metrics • Profiling/Modeling • Resource Productivity • Gap Analysis • Program Portfolio • Prioritization • Cost/Benefit – Budgets • Program Activity • Production • Class Reports • Travel Study • Reunions • Regional Events • Club Activities Source: Charlie Cardillo

29. Value to Alumni • Access to shared interest groups • Relevant message/content • Peer-to-peer communication • Life stage programming • Involvement opportunities • Fun, lifelong friendships

30. Value to the University • Develop segment-appropriate engagement programs • Measure program effectiveness • Integrate online and real-time • activities • Increase engagement • Identify leaders • Ability to survey opinions by numerous segmentations • Resource-allocation indicators

31. Engagement Process Overview Specify System Obtain HAA Commitment Obtain Stakeholder Participation Obtain Data Set up Ongoing Data Collection Perform Analysis Improve Practice Done In Process In Process In Process In Process Beginning Done

32. Obtain Data – Clubs On-line Participation 2003 – 20 Clubs 2004 – 40 Clubs 2005 – All Clubs • HC – DC • HC – Denver • HC – Maryland • HC – San Francisco • HC – Silicon Valley • HC – So. California • HC – UK • 11 more HC • 2 HBS Clubs (Toronto, Dallas) • HC – Boston • HC – New York

33. Harvard Club of Chicago • Alumni within a 40 mile radius • Member = 1,397 in 2002 • 16.8% “market share” • 30% of members have College degree • 76.6% renewal: why did 24% leave? • 10+ years from graduation = 17.4% • 10<years from graduation = 13%

34. Club Membership Now Participation: (acquisition, retention, and reactivation) • Do not capture club membership history • Track self-reported data on membership composition and club practices per annual survey of club presidents • Provide updated regional contact lists for snail mail • Produce clubs directory and give out to College seniors when the pick up Commencement Tickets • Provide website hosting (template) and online listing of club websites Transition: (Moving Club Members) • Nothing

35. Club Membership In a Knowledge Managed Environment Participation: (acquisition, retention, and reactivation) • Individual Harvard Club (potentially HBS and HLS clubs) membership history data captured through online membership registration • Identify members and profile them by tenure, activity, interests • Establish baseline membership and event programming standards • Customize membership appeals based on program participation and interest data for members and non-members • Help clubs establish membership appeal frequency strategy based on member loyalty profiles • Share membership data with other schools to inform their regional programming • Inform the development prospect profiles to enhance research efforts and predictive modeling • Push online membership registration to graduating students before they leave campus • Create loyalty recognition program • Provide data to clubs on alumni who move to their area who were club members in the city they left Transition: (Moving Club Members) • Provide data to clubs on alumni who move to their area who were club members in the city they left

36. Club ProgrammingNow • Support Clubs’ Annual Dinner programs through Speakers Bureau Program • Facilitate Harvard-Yale Telecast • Work with club leadership to promote University- wide membership • Broadcast advertising • Most Club events not open to non-members

37. Club ProgrammingIn a Knowledge Managed Environment • Programming targeted toward member interests • Programming targeted toward non-member interests • Personalized communications • Online event registration • Program benchmarking across clubs • Tie club programming with Harvard sports in their club region

38. Club AdministrationNow • Provide Clubs manual to encourage standard practices • Online membership and Event Registration Prototype launched to gather data • Most Club administration done at the local level either by a paid administrator or by volunteers

39. Club AdministrationIn a Knowledge Managed Environment • Club administrator tools provided by HAA to facilitate membership and event registration, communication and list segmentation; integrated with central database.

40. MIT Alumni Association • Total alumni population: 110,000 • Student population: 10,000 graduate & undergraduate • Approximately 100 alumni clubs worldwide • 6,000 alumni volunteer each year • 33% participate in Alumni Fund • Infinite Connection: Used by 46% of all alums, features include alumni directory, email lists, career services

41. MIT’s Technology Five years ago, MIT’s Alumni Association used technology the same way everyone else uses it now: • Central alumni database • Clubs/association depts. also used Filemaker and Excel • Alumni website launched in 1995 • Web limited to number of registrants, email addresses on file • Marketing

42. MIT’s New Metrics • Clubs, Alumni Association staff and alumni now enter all data into a central resource • Event and marketing activity is also recorded, not only by number but also by type • All program activities and events are assigned an activity code • All marketing pieces – print and email – are also assigned codes • The result: Any activity can be measured against any other activity, demographic group or marketing piece.

43. Goals of MIT Alumni Metrics • Measure effectiveness of programs • Measure effectiveness of email and print marketing • Examples: Costa Rica trip, graduate alumni marketing, alumni leadership conference • Measure ROI of programs and marketing, better allocate resources: MIT on the Road • Correlate alumni activities with giving

44. MIT’s Best Practices • Start with a small team • Build up support for the project – clubs and departments will benefit greatly from advanced metrics • Recognize primary issues – databases • Determine why you want to work with advanced metrics • Launch a pilot project • Designate translators • Make sure all groups use the same standards to report and interpret their metrics • Don’t go overboard with releasing data

45. Questions? Contact: Andrew K. Tiedemann Communications Director Alumni Affairs and Development Harvard University Email: andrew_tiedemann@harvard.edu Phone: 617-495-5945