If you have an alumni club system, here’s an idea to engage new and lapsed donors. Organize a club challenge in support of scholarships. The club that achieves the largest increase in participation year over year wins a scholarship in the name of the club, designated for a student from that geographic region. The club members can contribute to the scholarship over time, host the student for a club event when he or she is home on break (good stewardship opportunity), and the local alumni will feel good about supporting a student from their area.

Steps to Setting Up a Club Participation Challenge:

1. Collaborate with colleagues in Alumni Relations to develop a plan to engage club leaders.

2. Find a challenge donor who will make a gift large enough to fund a current year scholarship or establish an endowed scholarship fund in the name of the winning club. Ideally it will be someone who has served as a leader of a club.

3. Define the rules for the winning club(s) including the timeline for the challenge. Participants do not have to give to the scholarship fund to be counted.

4. Recruit club leaders and volunteers.

5. Pull the data for each participating club, establishing a baseline of participation for the prior year.

6. Set up a way to track progress and communicate both progress and results to leaders and club members.

7. Establish a marketing plan and remember to exclude challenge participants from your other marketing efforts or integrate this campaign into your regular marketing efforts by adding special messages.

8. Give the club leaders a marketing kit to use locally in addition to the direct marketing done by the annual giving team.

9. Send periodic updates to club leaders with standings and ideas to increase participation. Ideally you have a web site that tracks progress.

10. Declare a winner and work with the winning club on local publicity and stewardship plan.

For details on how to execute this plan or more ideas to increase participation, contact Theresa@TJLPartners.com