Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most discussed topics in the fundraising landscape today. AI is leading many of us to step back as fundraisers to evaluate how we interact with our donors and how we can streamline our efforts to be as efficient and precise as possible. For many of us, we’re also still trying to figure out how AI fits into our traditional (and perhaps nontraditional) fundraising efforts (something we have also been discussing). While AI may be “new” to us in fundraising, it’s already been incorporated into a space we regularly visit—our email communications. AI has b ..read more

Three-quarters of alumni give to charitable causes or volunteer. RNL recently sponsored a national alumni survey, partnering with fifteen institutions and advisor Howard Heevner on the project. We asked alumni to share feedback about their philanthropic priorities, engagement preferences, and feelings of current connection to their alma mater. What did we learn? With responses from more than 20,000 alumni, the survey results paint a picture of the changing support base for higher education and confirm many of the trends you’ve likely seen firsthand. Alumni are philanthropic. More than three-qu ..read more

July is just around the corner, and with summer comes the RNL National Conference, in Dallas (July 23-25). This year’s agenda is set and it full to the brim with sessions that will engage you, inform you, and prepare you to go back to your campus and affect change and advance enrollment. Because enrollment health is increasingly a careful balance between traditional undergraduates, graduate students, and online students at both levels, we present here a mix of featured sessions meant to show how interconnected all our student populations are and how much our enrollment success hinges on a com ..read more

RNL will soon release its second national study of the preferences and expectations of online students. What did we learn from our 1,500 prospective and current online students? Get all the insights at our study release webinar on May 1, as RNL experts explore how the data can inform policies, practices, and priorities to ensure they align with student expectations. We asked students about their motivations, concerns, search patterns, and decision-making processes, but also about their views on online study, the key features of programs they prefer to enroll in, and specifics about how to mak ..read more

Stephen Drew, RNL’s new Chief AI Officer, and I recently sat down for a discussion I entitled “Why won’t we solve today’s challenges without AI.” When I posed this opening question, Stephen made an important clarifying point: AI is not the solution, or at least not the sole solution, to solving any particular challenge. Perhaps a better question is, “How can we use AI (generative models, predictive models, conversational systems, etc.) to help solve our challenges better?” This reframing of my seminal question provides insight to the thoughtfulness that Stephen brings to RNL and was covered in ..read more

Aaron Basko This is a guest blog from Aaron Basko, vice president for enrollment management at Lynchburg University. Aaron is a higher education professional with more than 25 years of experience in enrollment management. He has written previously for RNL about best financial practices for universities and has also written for The Chronicle of Higher Education among other publications. Everyone loves a David and Goliath story, and at this moment in the history of higher education, small colleges could use one. The news has not been good. A recent Forbes article noted that Fitch Ratings is pred ..read more

At RNL’s recent Graduate and Online Innovation Summit, I had the chance to sit down with Stephen Drew, RNL’s Chief AI Officer, for a wide-ranging conversation on how AI is going to change how we do and what we do in higher education. Steve and RNL’s AI development team are hard at work getting ready to launch RNL’s first AI-driven solutions in May of this year, but he was happy to sit down to cover topics ranging from the highest level like “What is AI?” to “Why won’t we solve today’s challenges without AI?” (a question that Steve astutely reframed for me) and on to “How does AI help instituti ..read more

Pipeline. Inclusivity. Omnichannel. Give-to-Get. Collective Impact. HENRYs. When it comes to analysis of donors by generation, the nonprofit blogosphere is full of flashy buzzwords, with many consultants and organizations offering their take on a “quick fix” for reaching and retaining the youngest alumni donors. The supposedly elusive “Gen Z” donors have been labeled difficult to recruit (and even more difficult to retain), disconnected, untrusting, and incentive-seeking. Some of the proposed “magic solutions” for engaging this new generation of donors and fundraisers seeks to combat or avoid ..read more

Read the report This blog was written by Howard Heevner, a fundraising leader for more than two decades, serving in key giving roles at institutions including the University of Iowa, Penn State, The University of Michigan, DePaul University, and the University of California, Santa Cruz. Howard currently serves as executive director of annual programs at the University of California, Berkeley, a leadership role he has held since 2019. It was a pleasure to collaborate with Howard and 15 institutions participating in the RNL 2024 National Alumni Survey project. RNL has just released the results o ..read more

At RNL’s recent Graduate and Online Innovation Summit, I had the chance to sit down with Stephen Drew, RNL’s Chief AI Officer, for a wide-ranging conversation on how AI is going to change how we do and what we do in higher education. Stephen and RNL’s AI development team are hard at work getting ready to launch RNL’s first AI-driven solutions in May of 2024, but he was happy to sit down to cover topics ranging from the highest level like “what is AI?” to “Why won’t we solve today’s challenges without AI?” (a question that Steve astutely reframed for me) and on to “How does AI help institutions ..read more