As higher ed marketers, we spend a lot of time focused on student recruitment and enrollment, and rightfully so. But what happens if we leave advancement out of the equation?
What’s often overlooked is that advancement isn’t just a nice-to-have function for generating a little extra revenue—it’s the foundation for long-term sustainability.
Without a robust advancement strategy, your institution could be missing out on critical resources.
Scholarships, research funding, infrastructure improvements—these are just a few of the costs that simply cannot be covered by tuition alone.
But worse than the missed financial opportunities is the failure to build deep, lifelong relationships with alumni and supporters.
If you see fundraising as a transactional, one-time event, you’re not only jeopardizing future donations but you’re also missing the chance to turn supporters into lifelong advocates for your brand.
For most of us in higher ed marketing, It’s time to level up our advancement “game.”
To get the conversation going, we invited Maria Kuntz, the Communications Director at the University of Colorado Boulder, to The Higher Ed Marketer podcast.
In this episode, we discussed the benefits of meaningful advancement through alumni engagement.
This was a fantastic conversation as it can help unlock your team if they are stuck chasing short-term enrollment goals while ignoring the long-term health of the institution.
So let’s dive into Maria’s approach to advancement and see how it can transform your institution from one that’s just getting by to one that will thrive for generations to come.
Advancement as a Revenue Driver
Maria opened the conversation by addressing a topic often overlooked—advancement as a critical revenue driver for universities.
While tuition makes up the bulk of most schools’ income, advancement can contribute significantly by funding scholarships, research initiatives, and development programs.
Often the conversation around what’s happening in marketing and communications in higher ed is focused on the front end of student engagement, student attraction, and enrollment.
There’s a lot of concern about the enrollment cliff, but even getting students to campus requires clear and strong partnership with advancement.
Advancement has the ability to raise funds for scholarships, educational opportunities, research opportunities, which are all critical to the health of a university and the ability to build a dynamic institution.
Our work [in fundraising] is only becoming increasingly important with the handful of social and economic factors that are really impacting higher ed right now.
Today, with social and economic factors heavily impacting institutions, advancement’s role in securing financial support has become even more important.
While I believe that the enrollment cliff is a real threat, I agree wholeheartedly with Maria that advancement is a powerful complementary force for the health of any school.
Whether through scholarships or infrastructure improvements, donors make transformational contributions that enable institutions to thrive.
Building Friendships, Not Just Donations
One of the recurring themes Maria emphasized is the concept of “friend-raising”—a focus not just on securing donations but on building lasting relationships with alumni and community members.
One innovative idea that she proposed in the interview was that alumni engagement strategies should begin well before students even set foot on campus.
“The university experience can be lifelong,” Maria remarked, highlighting how universities engage individuals from childhood through sports events, youth camps, and alumni events, continuing all the way to the end of life.
She shared how institutions like the University of Colorado Boulder are tapping into these connections, nurturing relationships that extend well beyond graduation.
For example, Maria recounted a heartwarming story about the CU Twins, Betty and Peggy. These two sisters are lifelong fans of the university and have attended every football game for decades.
Stories like these demonstrate the deep connections that can be cultivated over time, fostering a sense of community and loyalty that often leads to meaningful donations and support.
Engaging Alumni Through Mentorship
One of the most successful strategies Maria discussed was the development of alumni mentorship programs.
By connecting current students with alumni, universities like CU Boulder are able to strengthen bonds with graduates who may not yet be in a position to donate financially but are eager to give back in other ways.
Maria’s personal involvement in a mentorship program with Loyola University Chicago as an alumna was a powerful example.
“It’s amazing to have current students reach out and connect,” Maria said, describing the fulfillment alumni feel when they can share their expertise with younger generations.
These engagement programs not only help students succeed but also keep alumni closely tied to the university, setting the stage for future giving.
The Power of Data in Alumni Engagement
Data plays an increasingly important role in modern advancement strategies.
Maria shared how digital engagement officers use data to identify alumni most likely to engage, whether by participating in events or making donations.
The first time I’d heard of digital engagement officers was through Kansas State University.
These are folks who start with a marketing funnel—a really, really big group of individuals.
[And they ask questions like] what kind of metrics do we know about? Are they opening emails? Are they attending events?
Then they start to narrow a pool and reach out to them using fully digital strategies like welcome videos and emails rather than depending on a one-to-one face-to-face conversation.
One-to-one meetings is hard to scale! Scale is something that we have to all be thinking about in higher ed and in advancement.
How do you reach more and be more effective with the resources you have?
This targeted approach allows advancement teams to efficiently reach a broader audience, a crucial consideration in today’s resource-constrained higher education environment.
Maria emphasized how critical it is for universities to leverage digital engagement strategies, especially as face-to-face interactions are not always scalable.
Making Donors Feel Like Heroes
Another significant insight from Maria is that donors want to feel like the heroes of the story.
It’s not just about the institution—it’s about making donors feel that their contributions are driving real change.
With that said, Maria stressed the importance of aligning donor passions with the university’s needs, ensuring a win-win situation for both parties.
I’m actually thinking about the book Chasing Mission Fit and about how it’s really important that donors and universities create strategic alignments and alliances.
So, we have to be careful not to do something just because a donor wants to or because they’re passionate about it. It also has to strategically align with the university’s priorities and their trajectory for the future and growth.
[In our case,] health, wellness, and mental health are cornerstones of CU’s longer term strategy, in addition to things like climate science.
She shared an example of a major donor project at CU Boulder—The Crown Institute, focused on mindfulness and mental wellness.
This initiative, driven by a passionate donor family, not only supports research but is beginning to impact campus culture, showing how strategic partnerships with donors can lead to transformative results.
And as you’d might expect, that was driven by the efforts of the advancement side.
Advancement: A Revenue Driver Driving More than Revenue
The conversation with Maria Kuntz underscored how advancement can go far beyond fundraising—it’s about building relationships that stand the test of time.
Universities that invest in engaging alumni, leveraging data, and aligning donor passions with institutional goals are well-positioned to navigate the challenges of the current higher education landscape.
For schools looking to optimize their advancement strategies, Maria’s advice is clear…
…build lifelong relationships, understand generational preferences, and always make your donors the heroes of the story.
If you want to learn more about leveraging advancement as a revenue driver and how to engage your alumni more effectively, be sure to listen to the full episode of The Higher Ed Marketer Podcast with Maria Kuntz.
In the conversation, you’ll get even more insights into:
- Advancement as a key revenue driver in higher ed
- How advancement adds to student success and engagement
- Successful alumni engagement strategies
- Driving engagement through multimodal communication
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Featured image by Santy Hong via Adobe Stock
