Off to college

Going to college is another great example of a priority point, to borrow Scott's terminology, for both parents and students.

For parents, sending a child to college is a major milestone - one that comes with pride and a big price tag. Sending a child to college affects disposable income and thus philanthropic habits, and to Scott's point, we should solicit parents keeping in mind that they are already making a large financial investment in the institution. In addition to parents of current and former students of your institution, it's likely that alumni from the classes in the 70's and 80's are sending their children to a college and that their household budget has changed. Wouldn't it be interesting to survey parent donors to find out why they support the institution when they are already sending checks for tuition and then use the responses to build future appeals? I wonder too if we surveyed all alumni to determine who among them have children in college if we could more effectively target those alumni in future solicitations.

Current students - starting with the freshman class - are also an important constituent group to consider because in just 4-3-2-or 1 short year they will be your alumni. As such, we should be considering how to form a relationship with these students while they are on campus. I'm talking about more than just student work opportunities in the call center. The annual giving office has a four year head start to teach future alumni about the importance of giving back. Francine Cronin and the Emory Annual Fund did an incredible job of educating and engaging students with blue piggy banks. If you haven't heard about her Blue Pig campaign, I recommend you check this out today. For the last two years, the Emory Annual Fund has handed out blue piggy banks to all freshman when they arrive on campus. the idea is that they will "feed the pig" with their spare change and help fund book awards for other students. So beginning on the first day of their freshman year, Emory students will be taught the importance of giving back to Emory even if it's just with spare change. And - this is critical - they will have fun doing it! The campaign leverages Facebook and Twitter, and the Emory Annual Fund even staged a "pignapping" last year with a $3500 ransom to increase engagement among current students. It is a great way to educate current students on the importance of giving back and to familiarize them with the annual fund.

All of this life point talk leads back to building and maintaining lifelong relationships with constituents. In order to acquire and retain their support constitutents have to feel like members of the community. If any of you have success stories like Emory's Blue Pig campaign, please post a comment so that we can share strategies and hit the ground running with current students this year.