EverTrue TV Ep 3: Understand

Courtney Petrouski
01/27/2015

Through our ongoing video series, our founder and CEO Brent Grinna will be exploring the emerging methodology of social donor management (SDM) and how it can streamline your work in advancement to make you (and ultimately your team) more efficient and productive.

Watch the video below to learn about the second pillar of SDM: Understand.

If you missed it, check out the first pillar of SDM in Ep 2: Build. Then check out the last video in the series, Ep: 4: Ask!

FULL VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Engagement = giving. It’s science, right?

It actually is science. In a 2002 study, the MIT Alumni Association found that “involved alumni are more likely to give.”

But back in 2002, the definition of “involved” was limited to club leadership, reunion attendance, and volunteerism. At that time, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was a freshman in high school, and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman was getting his professional network off the ground.

In a social world, the definition of “involved” needs to evolve. It’s now possible for donors to engage—and be involved—through social channels. But what hasn’t changed is the clear correlation between engagement and giving.

That MIT study showed that reunion attendees are 30% more likely to give than non-attendees. That’s pretty good.

But EverTrue data shows that Facebook fans are 90% more likely to give than non-fans. Yes, 9-0. That’s amazing!

However, we’re finding that most educational institutions spend a lot of staff time and resources tracking event attendance and reunions. But they don’t spend an equal amount of time measuring social engagement…and that’s a missed opportunity.

If you work in fundraising but you aren’t keeping track of who’s engaging with you on Facebook, it would be like hosting reunion and not taking attendance. Who does that?!

So get started by asking yourself the following question:
What was the participation rate of our Facebook fans last year?

If you can’t answer that simple question, you’re missing out on an important source of donor intelligence. It can be answered with some manual digging, and social donor management software can help streamline the process.

By combining internal and external data, you can quickly deliver a high return on investment for your social media efforts.

So MIT, when you’re looking to update that study…call me.

Have questions? Insights? Want to learn more about social donor management? Join our next Social Donor Management Tutorial!

Endowment Spending & Growth Calculator

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4. Continue to Steward Donors

Your relationship with the donors who give to your endowment doesn’t end when you secure their gifts. Because your endowment exists to make a difference in the long term, your supporters will want you to keep in touch about its progress. Ongoing stewardship means keeping donors updated about your endowment’s performance and impact. A report that strengthens your relationship with donors should cover:

The fund’s balance at the start and end of the year
Spending amounts and allocations
How the fund’s returns compare to your investment targets
A short narrative detailing the specific impacts the endowment achieved

Create a report for each endowment rather than sending an identical document to everyone. A donor who endowed a scholarship wants to hear about the students it supported, while a donor who endowed a building fund wants updates on construction projects.

5. Upgrade Your Endowment Management Tools

Your endowment management tools should make applying your spending policy across every fund easy. Investing in dedicated software is especially useful as your endowment grows. Handling unitization in spreadsheets might work for a few funds, but as you begin to manage dozens or hundreds of gifts, dedicated software can save your team time spent manually calculating gains and losses for each one.

Why Nonprofits Need Dedicated Endowment Management Software

Dedicated endowment software brings accuracy and consistency to every part of the management process, from tracking individual funds to improving security. See how these solutions compare to a spreadsheet-based approach:

nfographic table outlining the information below.

How These Methods Compare:

In managing your endowment with traditional spreadsheets, you may see:

High administrative burden: Manual entry across disconnected systems
Limited security and audit footprints: Reduced version control and audit trail visibility
Difficulty with donor transparency: Spreadsheets provide only static data that is difficult to turn into custom results.

By using dedicated software, you are likely to find the following improvements:

Lower administrative burden: Automated fund tracking and calculated allocations
Enhanced security and audit footprint: Audit-ready reconciliation with clear tracking
Greater donor transparency: Connects with reporting platforms

Dedicated endowment management software keeps your organization compliant while freeing up the time your team once spent manually managing spreadsheets.

Secure Your Endowment with Balance by EverTrue

Effective endowment management begins with excellent accounting. Balance by EverTrue handles unitization, applies spending rules, and produces audit-ready reports, so your team can spend more time on the donor relationships that built the fund in the first place.

Turn your data into a clear picture of long-term impact. Combine accurate fund accounting with donor reporting that showcases impact.
Connect with the tools you already use. Pair Balance with Impact by EverTrue and ODDER by EverTrue to create and deliver compelling digital endowment reports that you can send to donors with ease.
Know where every fund stands in real time. Check market values, gift history, and available spending for any fund. Then, share view-only versions with your team, so everyone stays informed.

With Balance, your team can stop spending all your time on manual management and instead add balance to your endowment workflow.

Additional Resources

To learn more about managing your endowment and other ways that technology can help your organization, check out these additional resources:

Webinar: Building a Seamless Relationship Between Endowment Finance and Advancement. In this webinar, we cover the keys to un-complicating your institution’s financial endowment reporting process. Explore how building a connection between your finance and advancement teams can lead to happier donors and happier staff.
The Best Alumni Management Software Solutions in 2026. Alumni management software allows your university to maintain an active community that supports your school in a number of ways. Review top software solutions.
Donor Segmentation: How Organizing Donors Boosts Retention. What is donor segmentation, and how can you use it to boost retention? Learn the need-to-know information in this guide from EverTrue’s fundraising experts.

Less stress, higher endowment funds. Discover how Balance provides the organization, security, and accuracy your endowment needs. Request a demo.

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