Instagram is, without a doubt, one of the best platforms for marketing brands. Since 2010, it has grown tremendously from a simple photo-sharing app to a platform where businesses and nonprofits alike get to share their stories and advocacies. Through the app, brands have been able to effectively gain a loyal following with the help of perfectly filtered photos and compelling captions.

With the rise of peer-to-peer fundraising and donation drives hosted on social networking apps, coupled with Instagram’s staggering 1 billion monthly active user base, there is no doubt that nonprofits need to sign-up for an account ASAP. 

Through images and mixed visual media, you can communicate your cause and update your followers in the most powerful way. Here are eight essential Instagram tips for nonprofits.

 

Sign up for an Instagram Business Account 

Unlike a regular Instagram profile, an Instagram Business Account allows you access to essential data such as post-performance, impressions, and information about your followers. This is helpful when it comes to building your strategy and figuring out what type of content works best for you. 

Having a Business Account also allows you to have call-to-action buttons such as “Contact” and “Directions”. CTA buttons like these are particularly beneficial for nonprofits because you want to make it easy for interested donors to get in touch. If you have an event, for example, you can add a “Buy Tickets” button just below your bio. 

Source: https://www.instagram.com/humanesociety/

@humanesociety added convenient CTA buttons just below their bio.

Another crucial feature of an Instagram Business Account is the ability to boost content with just a tap. If you’re launching a campaign on Instagram, for example, you can boost a preview or teaser of your campaign video to reach people beyond your followers. Giving your audience a bite-sized version of your full content will keep them wanting more. If they are interested, they will have to go to your profile to view the full-length video.

Curate Your Photos 

Instagram is all about visuals, and you know what they say about the number of words a photo is worth. To stand out among the sea of brands on Instagram, your organization must have a profile that represents itself accurately through the images you post and the kind of language you use.

Source: https://www.instagram.com/natgeo/

With 127 million followers to date, National Geographic has certainly mastered the art of Instagram. Their secret? Raw unfiltered images by over 100 contributing photographers. Instead of going with uniformity, the differing angles and subjects of their photos keep their grid dynamic and striking. 

If you are successful in establishing a cohesive aesthetic, followers can easily associate your posts with you at a glance. One way of doing this is by having an identifiable photography style or filter. 

Planning your grid in advance is the key to creating a successful brand on Instagram. While simply posting beautiful photos can work for personal Instagram accounts, brands should have a general idea of how their next nine photos will look like as a grid.

One simple way to get creative with your grid is by alternating between a still photo and a solid-colored image with typography. This way your Instagram feed will look consistent, and followers can anticipate what you’re posting next. Other brands like combining three to nine photos to reveal one giant masterpiece such as panoramic views and skylines. 

Create Captivating Captions

While photos or any other visual media will always be the heart of every Instagram post, content does not stop at great photos. Captions are an excellent way to tell the story behind each photo

Source: https://www.instagram.com/unicef/

Alongside their powerful photos, @UNICEF updates their followers through detailed captions.

if you want to emphasize a particular message, you can also place text directly on an image. This works for campaigns, quotes, and other situations where a still photo is just not enough. To do this, try using a photo editing app like Instasize. Instasize allows you to choose from a variety of stylized fonts that you can easily add to an image and upload straight to your feed. 

Take Advantage of Stories and Highlights

Instagram Stories is a great tool for brands to document certain events that are happening in real-time, share behind-the-scenes moments, and showcase company culture. As stories expire in 24 hours, you can save your favorites to your highlights so that anyone who visits your profile can find them. 

Stories also allow you to ask questions and start polls. This is a simple way to gather user-generated content and interact with your followers. TED, for example, often does this by asking yes or no questions to learn more about their followers. 

Engaging with your followers can be as personal as a live Q&A or as simple as a multiple-choice question. To make your followers feel like their opinion matters, you can ask them certain things like where your next fundraiser should be or if they’re interested in a certain topic. To keep it fun and engaging, make sure to add stickers and GIFs. 

Source: https://www.instagram.com/habitatforhumanity/

@habitatforhumanity makes sure to add important stories to their highlights.

Don’t forget to use hashtags and boost important stories so other Instagram users can discover your organization without having to click or search for your profile. 

Make Yourself Discoverable

Think about your profile as your organization’s homepage. It’s where all pertinent information about you can be found, and you only have 150 characters to do so ― use it wisely. Of course one of the first ways to go about this is by using your organization’s complete name followed by a short description of your cause. You also want to use keywords that are associated with your page so that when people search for them, you will be one of the profiles that pop up. 

Source: https://www.instagram.com/nypl/

The New York Public Library keeps their Instagram bio short and sweet with a link that leads to their website.

Instagram allows you to post one link on your bio, which more often than not, should be a link to your website. If you have an active campaign, however, you might want to direct your followers to a special landing page. There are also third-party tools such as Leadpages that allow you to post multiple links at a time if needed. 

Change Up Your Grid

Instagram will always be associated with photos, but this doesn’t mean you should limit your posts to just that. Today, you can add videos, infographics, and even illustrations if you want to. By coming up with different types of visual content, your followers are more likely to look forward to your next post. So try changing up your content to figure out what works and what doesn’t. 

Source: https://www.instagram.com/pencilsofpromise/

@pencilsofpromise makes it a point to change it up with a combination of typography, videos, and still images. 

Get Followed by People Who Matter 

If you already have a certain target demographic in mind, make sure to anchor your content to those people. This means posting images and crafting call-to-actions that would attract your chosen audience. 

Remember: your follower count means nothing if it doesn’t reflect in your engagement. 

Source: https://www.instagram.com/themuseumofmodernart/

@themuseumofmodernart’s has a significantly large and active following.

Now with close to five million followers and tens of thousands of likes per post, it’s clear that the people behind @themuseumofmodernart know what their followers like. The MoMA often uses branded hashtags, which when clicked, lead to more related images. 

To connect with the right people, post follow ads that should appear on your target audience’s timeline as they scroll through it. Use hashtags to be discoverable and to get more profile visits. 

For instance, the British Heart Foundation was able to get young female runners to join their upcoming marathon using targeted messaging and boosted posts. By understanding their target demographic, they were able to get more than 10% of marathon sign-ups through Instagram alone. 

To find insights into your Instagram audience, simply tap on “Insights” and select “Audience”. There you’ll see statistics on your audience such as gender, age range and location. Building a following on Instagram is initially a challenge for smaller organizations, but as long as you understand your audience and have great content, the numbers will follow. 

Get Funding Through Stickers and Buttons

Fifty-five percent of people who engage with causes on social media are inspired to take action. 

Knowing that, it’s now a matter of getting your cause out there. As a nonprofit, raising funds is a critical part of staying afloat. Thankfully, Instagram has designed simple ways for charities to receive donations without having to leave the app.  

Now, aside from the “Contact” and “Get Directions” buttons, you also have the option to add a “Donate” button to your profile. After pressing on the button, followers can simply select the amount they want to contribute. 

Just this year, a donation sticker has been added to the arsenal of stickers found in the stories tab. Any U.S. Nonprofit can do this by signing up to accept donations via Facebook and connecting it to their Instagram account. Organizations like the American Cancer Society, No Kid Hungry and the Wounded Warrior Project have already successfully done so. 

@nokidhungry was one of the first foundations to use the Donate Sticker. 

To announce the release of the sticker, No Kid Hungry created an announcement on their stories and added a simple tutorial, which is now available in their highlights.

With an average of 2-7% engagements on each post, Instagram is considered the most engaged social platform for brands. This makes the photo-sharing app a great touchpoint for nonprofits to reach out and interact with their followers. So, add that donate sticker, and let the good you’re doing be known ― a billion are watching. 

Source: https://www.instagram.com/nokidhungry/

The post How to Optimize Instagram for Nonprofits appeared first on Nonprofit Hub.

Parental involvement has been a term widely used and positively viewed in K-12 education. For years now, we have read a multitude of research correlating strong parental involvement with positive outcomes in elementary and high school. These positive effects include higher standardized test scores, higher self-esteem, reduced substance use, better high school completion rates, positive social/emotional outcomes, and aspirations for college. In fact, parental in­volvement in education has been proven to be more important to children’s academic success than fam­ily’s socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, or educational background.

I was an engaged parent and remember many evenings during my daughter Sofia’s elementary and high school years attending school events, conferences, meetings, volunteering in her classroom and in other areas of the school, helping to organize events, being a homeroom parent, organizing holiday parties for her class, and chaperoning more field trips than I care to remember. By doing this, I felt I was supporting my daughter’s success and getting to know the people I trusted her care and education to, and they were getting to know me as well. It felt like a win-win.

This fall, I took Sofia to college for her first year. I was humbled to meet parents who flew and drove from every corner of the United States (some of them with very limited resources) to move their children into their residence hall. I was touched by a dad’s willingness to help me unload boxes from the car, from the mom across the hallway who helped me carry empty boxes to the recycling station, and to the family who spoke broken English but was happy to share their garbage bags with us. I participated in parent orientation programs, presentations by the president and others, and got to know a few administrators.

But what is my role now that Sofia has enrolled at college? Even after her first term, I’m not completely sure. I know I am not alone, thousands of parents are wondering exactly the same things. What is my role now? Is there a place for me? How can I support my son or daughter? How can I support her college experience? And, how can I help the college?

What research tells us about parental involvement in college

Across the country colleges are welcoming families in many different ways and fostering parental involvement in college in ways that are positive for the students, the families, and most importantly for the institutions themselves. Nearly all the parents of high school students whom RNL surveyed in 2019 thought that college was the most important thing their children should be doing after high school, and nearly all of them were dedicated to making sure their children went to college. It is clear that parents support their children’s postsecondary plans and dreams as much as they supported their success through the elementary to high school years.

There are important opportunities for institutions to regularly gather satisfaction feedback from currently enrolled students and their parents. The RNL Parent Satisfaction Inventory asks parents to indicate how important and how satisfied they are on a series of items about the student experience both inside and outside of the classroom.

Results from the 19,746 parents completing the Parent
Satisfaction Inventory at 37 four-year private and public institutions
indicated that:

• 88 percent participated in orientation activities.
• 31 percent communicate with their child at least once a day, with an additional 47 percent connecting with the student multiple times a week.
• Phone (44 percent) and text (42 percent) were the most popular methods for communication between parents and students.
• The security of their children is top of mind for parents, with 98 percent saying it is important that the campus is safe and secure and 97 percent indicating it is important for security staff to respond quickly in emergencies.
• Parents are also concerned about faculty and advisors caring about students as individuals and students getting access to the classes they need with few conflicts. 
• Another key issues for parents, and for students, is the perception of the tuition paid being a worthwhile investment. 

How can you increase parental involvement in the college process?

In our continued search for answers in how RNL can help our campus partners figure out the right balance to parental involvement in college, we worked our partner CampusESP as well as TeenLife to produce a detailed study: the 2019 Parents’ Role in College Planning Report.

I recommend downloading the report and learning more about the expectations and experiences of parents of college students. You can also learn more about our partner CampusESP and how their platform for parent engagement can help you turn parents into enrollment advocates.

While you check out our research, I hope you will think about how you can help parents like me become positively engaged and be part of their children’s and your institutional success!

The post Parental Involvement Now That My Daughter Has Gone to College appeared first on Ruffalo Noel Levitz.

For many years, I and my colleagues at RNL have worked with colleges to improve quality service in higher education. Much of this work has focused around improving the student experience, but a recent conversation with my sister illustrated how important the issue is for student recruitment and parent engagement as well.

During a visit with her (we live nearly 700 miles apart and see each other just a handful of times each year), she shared three different negative quality service experiences with colleges she had in the last month. Usually one to respond with kindness and move on when faced with a negative experience, this time my sister was visibly upset and still bristling about it several weeks later. I tell you this because the next big purchase my sister, and her daughter, are shopping for is a best fit college. I can assure you that 1) my sister will not leave her expectations for service at home when she and her daughter visit campus and interact with faculty and staff, and 2) like any child, my niece shares her parent’s expectations, and has a few of her own. In other words, my sister and niece’s perceptions of any intuition are going to be shaped by the quality of service they receive. Is your campus focusing on quality service as a competitive advantage?

We all intuitively understand the importance of public image in recruiting and retaining students. Campuses strive to create a positive image in many ways, through the physical appearance of the buildings, by the condition of the grounds, with adequate signs for visitors, through their web and social media presence, and through their graduates. The biggest part of the image, however, comes from the people who make up the educational community. Although prospective and current students may be attracted by new buildings or a first-rate academic program, they won’t return unless the people—the faculty, administrators, staff, and coaches involved in those programs—contribute to their education, academically and socially. The way that faculty, administrators, and staff act is critical to conveying an overall image of value and quality.

In addition, research with our Student Satisfaction Inventory tells us that items related to campus climate influence student satisfaction and ultimately student retention. Campus climate items include

• Most students feel a sense of belonging here.
• I feel a sense of pride about my campus.
• It is an enjoyable experience to be a student on this campus.
• Students are made to feel welcome on this campus.
• I generally know what’s happening on campus.

Focusing on quality service will enhance the campus public image and student satisfaction with campus climate, and thus overall enrollment. When I reflect on what my sister was really upset about, it boils down to communication, follow through, and service recovery. I’ve detailed a few strategies for these areas below. Are the frontline staff, supervisors, faculty, and administrators on your campus using these and other strategies, insights, and skills for ensuring excellent quality service?

Mastering the art of positive communication

Talking isn’t the same as getting your message across. The words we say are only a small part of how we communicate. Applying these simple techniques can minimize communication breakdowns with students and families.

1. Communication means keeping students and families informed, using language they can understand, and then listening to them.
2. Consistent positive communication is the key to quality service and includes being genuine, specific, timely, and sincere.
3. Actions also leave lasting impressions. Body language — a smile or making eye contact—is an important art of face-to-face communication.
4. Remembering and using a person’s name sends a strong positive message of acknowledgement.
5. Listening which includes anticipating, reading between the lies, asking questions, getting involved, caring about students and their needs is a key component of communication.

Electronic communication is a powerful force in our lives too. Check out our 2019 E-Expectations Trend Report to learn how digital engagement and communication shapes the way students choose a college.

Giving your professional best in the campus workplace

Every staff member is working to serve students in one way or another. Campuses need caring, dedicated people to succeed in today’s competitive environment. Students and families can be served better by improving performance by staff, administrators, and faculty. Giving other people value will result in providing quality service. Some areas for focus can include:

1. Providing quality service to internal and external constituents in every contact.
2. Empowering staff to act and including them in decision-making.
3. Teaching students and families to be intelligent consumers of campus programs and services.
4. Building teamwork within and among departments.
5. Partnering with your team and other administrators in improving systems as well as identifying and solving problems.
6. Creating a learning environment in the classroom that focuses on individual student needs.
7. Being timely and accurate with grades and academic feedback.
8. Being an advocate for student-centered course scheduling-offering courses that students need at the frequency and times they can take them.
9. Delivering on promises. When you agree to provide something to another person, provide it. People resent having promises broken; it is worse than not addressing a problem in the first place.

Making service recovery a priority

When it comes to quality service in higher education, every moment of the student’s and family’s experience is a big event. Service recovery helps us restore the student’s and family’s positive feelings toward us and our institution. Handling most issues involves six simple steps.

1. Listening carefully and
   with interest
2. Putting yourself in the
   student’s / family’s place and responding in a caring way with phrases such as,
   “I see,” “I can understand,” or “I don’t blame you for being upset.
3. Asking questions in a
   caring, concerned manner and listening attentively to the student’s / family’s
   answers.
4. Suggesting one or more
   alternatives.
5. Apologizing.
6. Solving the problem or
   finding someone who can solve it.

By no means do these three topics cover all aspects of quality service in higher education. Rather, they give you a taste of what might be included in an institution wide quality service initiative: a key enrollment fundamental. A quality service initiative should include a college-wide service strategy, a review of all major service systems, and staff development and training for managers, supervisors, and frontline staff.

My sister is hardly unique in her expectations for service and the fact that those expectations will influence her daughter’s college choice, satisfaction as a student, and eventually alumni loyalty. When my sister and I get together again, I know we’ll discuss their college explorations. I hope I only hear stories of exceptional quality service, feelings of being welcome on campus, support by faculty and academic advisors, and a sense of belonging on every campus!

Create a great quality service experience with your campus visit program

The campus visit is one of the critical points of quality service for higher education. Creating a great experience for parents in particular can help turn them into enrollment influencers for your institution.

Our colleagues at RNL + Render held a webinar specifically on how you can create a great campus visit experience. Listen to their on-demand presentation, The Do’s and Don’ts of Successful Campus Visits for Gen X Parents.

The post Focusing on Quality Service in Higher Education for a Competitive Advantage appeared first on Ruffalo Noel Levitz.

A new report by the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC)— Some College, No Degree: A 2019 Snapshot for the Nation and 50 States—shows a significant enrollment opportunity for colleges recruiting adults returning to college. According to the report, there are 36 million American adults with some college but no degree. Of those adults, 10 percent (or more than 3 million) have characteristics of students most likely to return to college and complete their degrees. This helps colleges understand how to best target these individuals. These adults are a prime student population enrollment growth for colleges and universities.

However, adult learners have different expectations, motivations, and decision time frames than traditional undergraduates. The new NSC report profiles key statistics and identifies trends since their first report on this topic in 2013, and uses the records of the 29 million students identified in the 2013 report to determine which characteristics indicate an adult learner is most likely to complete a degree.

9 key findings and characteristics of adults with some college but no degree

1. Eight years out, one-third have still not graduated.Approximately 2 million students annually enroll for the first time, but eight years later, one-third still have no credential in hand. Completion rates haven’t discernibly changed in many years.

2. Most were not enrolled very long. 29 percent of this population only enrolled for a single semester/term, and 61 percent were enrolled for more than one term but less than two years. Only 10 percent were enrolled for 2+ years.

3. Those enrolled for 2+ years are significantly more likely to finish. Among 36 million students with some college credit but no degree (6.6m more than in 2013), the 10 percent with 2+ years of credit are significantly more likely to re-enroll and finish a credential. The report labels them “Potential Completers.”

4. Potential Completers are younger and closer to their last enrollment. Compared with all of the students with some college but no degree, Potential Completers:

• Are younger today (58 percent under 30, compared with 23 percent of 36 million adults)
• Were younger when they last enrolled (75 percent under 30, compared with 56 percent of the entire pool)
• Were enrolled more recently (4.4 years on average, compared with 10.8 for all).

5. Potential Completers well match other racial/ethnic patterns. There are no significant differences among those who return and complete a credential and the general parameters of the American higher education market. However, when looking at those who return to complete a bachelor’s degree, both African American and Hispanic students well out-pace their proportion in the general undergraduate market.

6. Data differ considerably by state.” California, Illinois, Ohio, and Washington have large numbers of Some College, No Degree students, but have less than the national average of 10 percent who are Potential Completers.

New York, North Carolina, and Texas also have large cohorts but exceed the Potential Completers national average with 11 percent.

The states with the largest proportions of Potential Completers are: Delaware (15 percent), Arizona and Mississippi (each 14 percent), and Indiana Hawaii (13 percent for each).

7. Most attended community college. Two-thirds of this population started at or last attended a community college (compared with about 20 percent at four-year publics); the largest share (57 percent) chose to re-enroll at a community college; and the largest share (44 percent) graduated from a community college. Not surprisingly, associate degrees are the most common credential.

8. Those who choose online succeed: Only 4 percent of this population were last enrolled online. Three times that (12 percent or all returning) choose an online program upon reentry, and nearly all of them complete their studies (11 percent of all graduates).

9. Completers are preparing for further study or a business career. The largest share of associate degree completers (40 percent) get their degree in liberal/general studies—a common precursor to a bachelor’s degree—while the largest share of bachelor’s degree completers (23 percent) get their degree in business/management.

Additional takeaways about adults returning to college

This report makes is
clear that colleges seeking to recruit adults returning to college who have
less than two years of college credit will have a difficult time doing so; they
will have a harder time keeping these students enrolled through to completion.
The report also makes clear that while community colleges are the largest source
of the some college, no degree phenomenon, they are also the most popular route
to eventual completion.

Four-year colleges looking
to benefit from this ever-growing population of students may be best advised to
focus on promoting the significant lifelong advantages of completing a
bachelor’s degree in partnership with community colleges in their region. While
they can go directly after these students, doing so may imply that they can
only attract 20 percent of the 10 percent of all “some college, no degree”
population that is most likely to finish.

Explore more research and solutions for adult learners

RNL has several
resources to help you understand the adult and online learner market so you can
identify your best prospects, engage those students, and nurture them toward
enrollment.

• Read our white paper, Growing
  Graduate and Online Enrollment: A New Alternative, outlining a new alternative to online program management
  providers.
• See how RNL
  Graduate and Online Enrollment Solutions can help you modernize your outreach to adult, online, and
  graduate students.
• Ask for a free
  consultation with our adult,
  online, and graduate enrollment experts.

The post Adults Returning to College: More Than 3 Million Are Ready to Finish appeared first on Ruffalo Noel Levitz.

Along with everything we’re doing for the holidays in our personal lives, those of us who have worked in higher education development know that the ramp up to CYE (or Calendar Year End) is intense. And, if you have done things right over the previous six months, it can also be one of the most productive times of the whole academic year.

Despite your carefully crafted appeals in September and your excellent crowdfunding campaigns in October, many donors will only begin the scramble to make their annual gift (and manage their tax burdens) during the last two months of the year, sending gift officers and development staff scurrying.

To recognize the unsung heroes of the Calendar Year End blitz, I made a suggested gift list for those annual giving officers and development staff who deserve some extra recognition this holiday season. VPs take note:

Give them cash

Your annual giving team wants to meet their goals. So, offer to add a little to the CYE mailing budget to add a segment or two. This is a great place to experiment with a new or emerging audience.

Get on the phone

Round up all the development assistants and gift officers one night to make pledge fulfillment calls when student callers are all mysteriously sick during finals week. The personal touch from a staff member will make a big difference.

Book leadership commitments, and boost morale

Reach out to your most involved supporters personally, and secure your trustee/leadership match pledges for you spring Giving Day BEFORE the end of the year. Rather than waiting until the week before the actual event, announce these commitment early at a staff meeting in December and pump up the team as they go into the holiday. Tell your leadership donors about what you are doing and that you want their help. This will make them feel like they are part of an effort, not just cutting a check.

Tech gifts are always appreciated

Explore an AI-powered content management system. These solutions are now less expensive and easier to get started. The personalized communications and solicitations will boost results during the second half of your fiscal year.

Be the example

Complete and turn in your own donor/prospect holiday greetings early, not at 5 PM on the last day of the semester.

Make your gift

And do it in a way that supports the team’s effort. If they are pushing monthly gifts, sign up yourself. If a crowdfunding campaign is nearing it’s deadline, join the effort. These gestures go a long way to boost morale.

Get social

Share the university’s holiday greetings/year end appeal on your social media feeds and help to expand the digital footprint for the appeal.

Make it easy to give

Update your holiday out of office response before you leave with instructions for making an end of year gift.

Show them them they matter

Walk through the office and hug, handshake, or high-five for the die-hard folks who are putting in long hours during the last few days of the year to bring in those crucial end-of-year gifts. A little appreciation for the hard work goes a long way!

Share the holiday “spirits”

Leave a bottle of wine, a box of chocolates, or other appropriate holiday treat for the development staff who got stuck with the December 31 mail run.

Let’s talk now or in the new year

Happy Holidays from RNL. I hope you meet your CYE goal, and you emerge from the holidays with energy to take your donor engagement to the next level.

My RNL colleagues and I are also happy to talk with you about how you can meet your goals in 2020. Reach out for a free consultation and let’s figure out how you can make next year your best year of giving ever.

The post 10 Holiday Gift Ideas for Your Annual Giving Team appeared first on Ruffalo Noel Levitz.

Over half of higher education institutions are using crowdfunding to engage supporters and entice new donors. Crowdfunding lets you engage key stakeholders on campus from student groups, faculty and staff, alumni projects, and even within annual giving to provide a menu of time-sensitive campaigns that donors can share with their networks. Using matching campaigns, project champions, and impact updates with videos and social media help make crowdfunding a key 21st-century donor engagement tactic.

RNL recently reviewed 6,100 higher education crowdfunding campaigns totaling $105 million in donations. Here are some key insights from our 2019 Crowdfunding and Giving Day Index. These results are taken from institutions using RNL Crowdfunding and RNL Giving Day powered by the ScaleFunder platform.

Student campaigns remain strong, but advancement office-driven campaigns raise double.

Student group campaign or travel campaigns on average are the quickest in duration and raised about $5,500. Athletics, institutional campaigns, research, and scholarship campaigns raised more than double this amount. Alumni crowdfunding campaigns raised a whopping $84k on average, with much of that coming from major gifts.

Crowdfunding Performance by Type (click for larger size)

Most campaigns raise half their money offline.

While crowdfunding leads to a lot of online donations, the campaigns with the highest totals had donations that also came from other sources, such as direct mail, phone, and gift officer visits. A big part of this is early adopter giving before a campaign launches and leveraging matching challenges.

It’s not just about student and faculty micro-campaigns.

Institutional campaigns, including fun ways to brand scholarship funds and annual giving, took the largest leap this year. Crowdfunding-style engagement is growing, and we’re learning how to use it for more-and-more types of giving.

Schools are very interested in making donations easy.

This includes integrating smooth payment options like Apple Pay, a featured integration of RNL Digital Giving platforms powered by ScaleFunder.

The average institution raised $83k in their first year.

This means an excellent ROI on leveraging a powerful and complete crowdfunding platform.

Read the report, or see a demo of RNL Crowdfunding

To get the full story on how this socially-engaged and personalized donation engine continues to change the face of fundraising, read the RNL Crowdfunding and Giving Day Index .

And if you’re ready to take your crowdfunding program to the next level with the solution being used by top programs, request a demo of RNL Crowdfunding Powered by ScaleFunder. You can see how you can excite your alumni and harness their interests and enthusiasm for your institutional philanthropy.

The post 5 Crowdfunding Insights for 2019 appeared first on Ruffalo Noel Levitz.