School

University of

Challenge

University’s strategic vision for 2030 called for transforming alumni and advancement activity

Existing systems within alumni and advancement division were disparate and lacked integration

Sharing information about alumni engagement, donors, or gifts was a cumbersome process requiring manual data entry

Solution

Education Cloud provides a foundation for improving and modernizing alumni and advancement activities, with products like Gift Entry Manager streamlining operations

Products

Sales Cloud Takes an Service Cloud Gift Entry Manager Automated and Integrated Approach Education Data Architecture (EDA) to Alumni and Advancement Results

An Ambitious Vision Bring enterprise-scale personalization and automation to all alumni and The University of Portsmouth has bold plans for the future. By 2030, the University aims advancement activities to be the top modern university in the UK and one of the top 100 young universities in the world. Create streamlined donor journeys by making the One of the key pillars of this ambitious vision is a commitment to transforming the end-to-end processing of University’s alumni relations and advancement activity, which will, in turn, help support inbound donations a world-class research, education, and student opportunities. seamless and instant process

To do great things, of course, it takes more than good intentions. To that end, the Eliminate manual data entry University has also committed to radically transforming its digital technology and systems. and save multiple hours per month, freeing up team to spend more time on higher The University of Portsmouth had already implemented Salesforce to drive marketing value activities campaigns and student recruitment. Alumni and Advancement was the next great area of opportunity to tackle with Salesforce. Nimbly adjust to COVID-19 pandemic with flexible The Alumni and Advancement team, under the leadership of Dorothy Albrecht, the approach to donor outreach Director of Marketing, Advancement and Communications, put in motion an overhaul and communications that would enable the team to reach its goals. “The systems we had in place to support our processes were Having heard about the success of the gift entry capabilities in the functional; however, there was no integration of the systems – United States and Canada, University of Portsmouth was thrilled each was working independently of the other,” explained to become the first university in Europe to deploy the product. Derek Thomas, Advancement Operations Manager for the Alumni and Advancement Team. “Any data integration “We’re not afraid of being trailblazers and pushing the between the systems had to be done manually, including on boundaries,” said Thomas. “A certain forward-looking spirit is the gift management side of things. This setup was not in line built into the DNA of the University, so we were keen to be with our plans and ambitions for Alumni and Advancement.” early European adopters of Gift Entry Manager, particularly because it was exactly the type of product we were looking for. In practice, this meant that if an alum or other donor The fact that it was a native part of the Salesforce platform went to the University of Portsmouth website and made a helped seal the deal.” donation, that contribution would be routed straight to the finance department. Fundraising That Combines A notification about that gift would then have to be sent to Automation with Personalization Alumni and Advancement, and the team would have to manually load the gift into their CRM system if they wanted With the Salesforce platform in place, University of Portsmouth to record it and manage communications with the donor. has seen several important benefits, notably around data automation and integration. “We wanted more automation and integration, and less manual work whilst also allowing us to develop and maintain “We have workflows now that didn’t exist before that ensure the strong relationships with our alumni, prospects, and donors,” right data automatically populates in all the various systems said Thomas. “That’s the purpose of technology: to do a without anyone having to manually load it in,” said Thomas. lot of the heavy lifting so that we can focus on higher “For a typical task like the management of our direct debit/ priority activities.” recurring donations, we are now saving multiple hours on a monthly basis. This type of saving will also increase in line with our Transforming Alumni Activity activities. We’re not a big team, so freeing up our resources like that really adds up, and helps us do more with less.”

Salesforce Education Cloud – encompassing Sales Cloud, The flexibility of the Salesforce platform has also enabled the Service Cloud, the Education Data Architecture (EDA), and University to better adjust to the ever-shifting landscape of the Gift Entry Manager – provided University of Portsmouth with COVID-19 pandemic. an ideal solution for its Alumni and Advancement team. The University worked with Salesforce Technical Partner “We have had to adjust some of our fundraising plans because Creation Technology Solutions on the deployment. of the pandemic,” said Thomas. “Asking for a small one-off donation is different than asking for a major gift, and some “The EDA framework is perfect for capturing the multiple ways conversations need to be had in person, which is difficult to do people engage with the university,” said Thomas. “A donor at the moment.” could be an alumnus and/or a member of the business community and at the same time affiliated with particular groups within the University. We can accurately capture that information in Sales Cloud and have one clear, 360-degree view of the individual across all those roles and affiliations, which allows us to manage our relationships cohesively in an individualized and relevant manner.”

Beyond this foundational functionality around building and maintaining relationships, the University also appreciated that Salesforce offered a specialized product to support the gift entry process.

Gift Entry Manager is a purpose-built solution for one of the most pivotal functions of higher education advancement operations. Once gift information is captured through Gift Entry Manager, teams can leverage the power and capabilities of the broader Salesforce ecosystem to gather new insights, steward donors, and engage alumni and other constituents in new and meaningful ways. “Salesforce lets us plan our outreach activities so that we are approaching fundraising activities in a way that makes sense while still keeping enough irons in the fire to reach our goals.”

— Derek Thomas, Advancement Operations Manager for the Alumni and Advancement Team

Meanwhile, regular donations and fundraising activities have been greatly streamlined by the University of Portsmouth’s investment in the Salesforce platform. Leveraging Gift Entry Manager’s flexibility and integrations, donations can be made through giving pages, and direct debits can be easily set up online. University of Portsmouth is using WorldPay for credit cards and GoCardless for direct debits – and the end-to-end processing of inbound donations has become seamless and instant, creating streamlined donor journeys.

Enterprise Approach, Astounding Results

Moving forward, University of Portsmouth is looking forward to leveraging additional aspects of the Salesforce platform to operate in an even more optimized fashion.

“We're focusing a lot on building up our reporting capabilities at the moment,” said Thomas. “That's going to give us a tool to show people – whether it's faculty or Senior Management – different slices of information in a very understandable way and through a very clear interface. That will allow them to understand exactly what’s going on with different Alumni and Advancement activities, or where we’re at with different fundraising goals or objectives.”

From improving operations internally, to providing a higher level of service externally, Thomas feels that Salesforce has helped the Alumni and Advancement team take a big leap forward.

“The vision was enterprise scale personalization and automation, and that’s what Salesforce is helping us achieve,” said Thomas. “We are really happy with it. It’s astounding what it has been able to deliver in such a short amount of time. The University will also be going live with an enterprise solution for managing events and Research & Innovation, as well as B2B activities in early November. Salesforce will be a truly integrated enterprise solution for the University, with further integrations and projects in the future."

About University of Portsmouth:

Located in Portsmouth, , the University of Portsmouth serves more than 25,000 undergraduate and graduate students from over 150 countries. Since its earliest incarnation in 1869, the University has continuously evolved, from a municipal college, to a polytechnic, to a full-fledged, widely regarded, and innovative university with more than 250,000 individuals in its alumni community.