Customer Stories:

How Boston University is Finding Success with EverTrue

Who:

Boston University is a leading private research institution with two primary campuses in the heart of Boston, programs around the world, and a constituent base of more than 400,000 records.

The Challenge:

Since 2010, Boston University had increased staff time and budget on social media, attracting over 200,000 Facebook fans. However, the advancement team didn’t understand how that large social audience could support advancement objectives including annual fund participation, major donor identification, and stewardship.

Why evertrue:

By bringing together valuable insights from their database and sources such as LinkedIn and Facebook in an easily accessible way, EverTrue has helped Boston University maximize the insights available for its entire team, effectively understand its growing social presence, and increase alumni engagement.

The results:

Surfaced 14,000 socially engaged non-donors to target.

Prioritized over 1,400 rated, socially engaged, unassigned prospects to add to pipelines or target for larger annual fund gifts.

Thanks to EverTrue, Boston University has gained additional valuable insights on its constituent base of more than 400,000 records.

With career data from LinkedIn, the BU team has more up-to-date job information readily available to help with stewardship and identification. Because BU constituents working in venture capital and private equity have the largest giving capacity, BU’s frontline fundraisers can prioritize their portfolio efforts on donors in these industries or identify new prospects who are engaged in higher capacity industries.

With EverTrue’s Facebook integration, BU now easily tracks the performance of its major Facebook pages—including the Boston University and Boston University Alumni pages—to effectively publish content that resonates with alumni and supports the institution’s fundraising strategies. The team has surfaced 14,000 socially engaged non-donors who may be a good target for the annual fund, an event, or an upcoming volunteer opportunity.  And the team has prioritized over 1,400 rated, socially engaged, yet unassigned prospects to add to pipelines or target for larger annual fund gifts.

With the data from their CRM and insights from LinkedIn, Facebook, Zillow and more, BU fundraisers now can easily and independently connect the dots. Instead of opening multiple screens and tabs, fundraisers like Pat Hewett can complete most of their research right in EverTrue. And instead of spending time tracking down reports or queries from the advancement Services team, the team can quickly complete this work right in EverTrue and spend more time preparing for and meeting with donors.

By quickly seeing all of the Facebook posts a donor has engaged with over time, frontline fundraisers have a better view of what a donor is most interested in. Perhaps a donor often likes content about BU’s band or another tends to engage with content about the school’s sports team. Equipped with this information, leadership gift officers can tailor conversations to areas of affinity while annual fund officers can ask for a donation to a particular fund.

To maximize these engagement insights, Leah Davis and the communications team continue to invest in compelling social content to support BU’s fundraising targets. By easily finding out who has engaged with a specific Facebook post, Leah is able to identify alumni for targeted projects, new products, or events.

By bringing together valuable insights from their database and sources such as LinkedIn and Facebook in an easily accessible way, EverTrue has helped Boston University maximize the insights available for its entire team, effectively understand its growing social presence, and increase alumni engagement.