McMaster University Gains Back Lost Online Donors with iModules
Background Named after Senator William McMaster, who bequeathed substantial funds to endow “a Christian school of learning,” McMaster University was established in 1887 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The University relocated to its present home in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 1930 and became a non-denominational institution in 1957. One of the world’s top 100 universities, McMaster has 29,000 undergraduate and graduate students and more than 185,000 alumni in 140 countries around the world. The McMaster Alumni Association, established in 1894, became an iModules client in 2011.
Challenge In 2011, the McMaster Alumni Association was bucking the online giving trend, but not in a good way. Due to an outdated and clunky online giving page, the alumni association had seen a 29% decline in the number of online gift transactions and a 20% decrease in dollars raised compared with 2010.
Solution and Results Working with the iModules Implementation team, the McMaster Alumni Association team launched its website with iModules in May, 2012. Utilizing the Donations system from iModules, the alumni association is able to customize its general giving form with: A stylized display of the giving form steps, creating an easy-to-follow visual for donors An embedded video, letting donors know their gifts make a difference to the university A direct link to an online Giving FAQ page Convenient, on-screen access to an employer search for matching gifts Collapsible headers for non-essential items, streamlining the online giving experience Additionally, the online giving form allows the alumni association to capture a donor’s social media account names for a special “thank you” from the university, as well as capture why the donor chose to support McMaster (both are optional for the donor to provide).
After the launch, McMaster’s donation numbers increased dramatically, resulting inan 87% increase in number of gifts and a 107% increase in dollars raised.
2012 was not only the year McMaster Alumni Association launched its website with iModules, it was also the 125th anniversary year for McMaster University. Additionally, in late November of 2012, McMaster’s football team made the national championship game in Toronto. The alumni association found itself in the midst of two big anniversary wrap-up events and a series of events that accompanied the football team’s championship game when they realized they also needed to address being behind in their fundraising goals for the year. Page 1 (Continued) McMaster University Gains Back Lost Online Donors with iModules
So, in early December 2012, the alumni association team decided to run a last-minute, online fundraising campaign. The alumni team challenged the McMaster family to raise $125,000 in just two days for the 125th Anniversary Bursary established to mark the university’s commemorative year. Utilizing the email marketing system from iModules, the alumni association was able to promote the campaign and associated challenges throughout the two days with a series of targeted email communications.
The two-day fundraising campaign resulted in more than 700 donations and a total of $158,156.05 raised.
In 2014, the McMaster Alumni Association launched a crowdfunding initiative through the iModules platform under the brand of iFundMac. iFundMac allows for a grassroots approach to fundraising for small university projects and lets individuals of all means make a philanthropic impact on specific university initiatives. The individual project landing pages are created through the content management system in iModules and provide descriptions and details about each project as well as real-time updates of incoming donations. The alumni association team says the uncomplicated design, management of projects, and reporting through iModules have made their crowdfunding efforts easy to manage and have resulted in a 31% increase in dollars raised and an 89% increase in number of transactions processed.
Since McMaster Alumni Association’s website launch in 2012 to end of 2016, overall online dollars have increased by 226% and number of transactions have increased by 156%. “We would have never been able to handle any of those expected and unexpected events and initiatives with our old online platforms. iModules has enabled us to gain back our lost online donors. Through the use of tokens, the ability to role base, tracking of appeal codes, and delightful email design and email reporting, our solicitations are more appealing.” - Karen McQuigge, Director of Alumni Advancement (Alumni Relations & Annual Giving), McMaster Alumni Association
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