Some of UAB’s biggest opportunities weren’t new names. They were donors already in the database, waiting for someone to see their potential differently.
Who
The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is a higher education institution focused on continued growth, and its development team needed better data to help advancement officers find the right people to engage.
The Challenge
UAB’s team knew there was more potential within its donor file, but finding it wasn’t always easy. Their existing approach kept bringing familiar names to the surface, making it harder to uncover donors who had the capacity and propensity to become major supporters.
The team needed a better way to answer a simple question: Who else should we be talking to?
Why EverTrue
UAB turned to DonorSearch’s MLR (Most Likely to Raise) score to take a closer look at its donor file and identify people who might have been overlooked.
“It’s giving us really wonderful information in terms of what a[n MLR score looks like, and we’re able to sort accordingly and drill down to some really interesting prospects that we didn’t have on our radar before.” — University of Alabama at Birmingham
And the impact went beyond finding new names.
The data gave development officers a reason to re-engage with donors they may not have otherwise prioritized. It helped turn overlooked prospects into real conversations, and real conversations into new opportunities for UAB.
The Results
UAB uncovered mid-level and major donor prospects it hadn’t previously flagged, including several donors who are now building new relationships with the university.
Most importantly, those weren’t just names added to a prospect list. Several mid-level donors went on to make major gifts, in some cases after just their first qualification visit.
The result was a re-energized development team and a pipeline that looked different from the one they started with.
“It’s re-engaged our development officers in a way that we hadn’t had before. It’s really yielded some really good names, and even some of the mid-level people have secured some major gifts.” — University of Alabama at Birmingham
For UAB, the value wasn’t simply in having more data. It was in using that data to see familiar donors differently, start new conversations, and create opportunities for gifts that might otherwise have been missed.
And as UAB’s team put it, the technology is only part of the experience. The other is having people at EverTrue who go above and beyond to help the team put those insights into action.