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Customer Stories:

How the University of Arkansas Scaled Personalized Engagement Through Relationship-Driven Outreach

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WHO:

For the University of Arkansas Advancement team, engagement is about building meaningful connections with alumni, donors, partners and friends of the university through coordinated, thoughtful and personalized experiences that strengthen lifelong relationships with the institution.

To support that work, the team launched a Donor Experience Officer (DXO) program in late October 2025, in partnership with EverTrue. The program helps the team build more consistent engagement at scale while creating space for more personal donor relationships.

Even in its first year, the focus hasn’t been on immediate results. It’s been on building relationships, strengthening consistency, and uncovering future opportunities – because donors don’t give to data. They give to people they trust.

THE CHALLENGE:

It wasn’t that the University of Arkansas lacked relationships, it was that there wasn’t a scalable way to stay consistently connected to all of them in a meaningful way.

With a limited number of frontline fundraisers, one-to-one outreach across such a large population wasn’t possible. Some alumni and friends had never received direct, personal engagement from the university in a meaningful or sustained way.

At the same time, the team knew there were prospects with strong affinity, history, and future potential within that broader base, but without a structured system, those relationships were not being consistently developed.

The challenge was creating the infrastructure to support coordinated engagement at scale while maintaining the relevance and relationship-building that drive meaningful connections.

WHY EVERTRUE:

The Donor Experience Program and Signal by EverTrue helps the University of Arkansas bring structure and consistency to donor engagement at scale – through organized cadences, task management, and built-in outreach workflows that give DXOs a clearer path to managing communication across large portfolios while keeping engagement personal and intentional.

It helps the team maintain follow-up, stay organized, and ensure more donors receive consistent touchpoints over time. For a program still in its first year, that structure has supported greater consistency and greater confidence in day-to-day relationship work.

The Results:

In its first year, the DXO program is defining success broadly, recognizing that every interaction contributes to long term relationship building.
Early outcomes include:

-Reengaging previously unresponsive donors, including uncovering a $500,000 planned gift opportunity

-Capturing updated contact information and strengthening donor records through outreach

-Creating space for longer, more meaningful donor conversations about memories and campus experiences

-Reinforcing consistent stewardship through follow up and relationship-based outreach

-Expanding personalized engagement, including handwritten notes and video messages tied to campus traditions

The team also learned that engagement doesn’t always happen immediately. In some cases, responses to outreach – including personalized video messages – came weeks or even months later, reinforcing that donor connection often develops over time.

In these first few months, success has included both tangible updates and qualitative relationship-building moments that move donors from quiet to connected.

The Full Story:

The DXO program at the University of Arkansas started with a simple belief: Strong donor relationships require consistent engagement, and doing that across a large alumni base takes structure.

 

Launched in late October 2025, the program was designed to help the team stay more connected to donors and alumni across a large network. Using Signal by EverTrue, the DXOs organized outreach through structured cadences focused on stewardship, listening, and personalized engagement.

 

Early success looked different from traditional fundraising metrics. It included updated contact information, meaningful donor conversations, and stories shared about campus experiences and memories — the kind of engagement that strengthens long-term relationships.

 

One of the most impactful moments came when a DXO, after several outreach attempts, sent a handwritten note to a previously unresponsive donor. That single touchpoint reconnected the relationship and ultimately led to a $500,000 planned gift opportunity.

 

Senior Walk is one of the University of Arkansas’s most cherished traditions, with miles of campus sidewalks engraved with the names of graduates throughout the university’s history. For many alumni, finding their name on Senior Walk remains a meaningful milestone and a lasting connection to their Razorback experience.

 

DXOs filmed short, personalized videos beside donors’ engraved names and sharing them directly with alumni. It was a small gesture with an outsized emotional impact. Not a mass email or templated message, but a moment created just for them and rooted in a tradition they’re permanently part of.

 

Some responses came quickly. Others arrived weeks or months later — but when they did, they carried a depth that faster outreach rarely earns.

 

As the program continues to evolve, the focus remains on strengthening collaboration across advancement teams and building more consistent, relationship-driven engagement.

 

Donors give when they feel known. The University of Arkansas is proving that at scale — and they’re just getting started.

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