Cleveland State University Raises $100K+ and Builds a Loyal Donor Pipeline

"If you do the right things to engage your community, philanthropy will follow. It’s been really promising seeing what Ava has done with her portfolio through one-to-one attention."

—John Templeman, Director of Annual Giving

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The Story Behind Success

Cleveland State University has roughly 140,000 living alumni and a development team that can’t reach them all. With 12 frontline fundraisers managing a little over 1,300 prospects, the mid-level donors weren’t being served due to staff capacity.

The Challenge

Cleveland State University's leadership annual giving donors were active, loyal givers, but didn’t meet the threshold for major gift assignment. The CSU team knew this donor group was too valuable to leave in the mass solicitation pool, but if left unmanaged, they risked lapsing.

The Solution

Cleveland State deployed Ava, a Virtual Engagement Officer, to manage a portfolio of 1,000 donors across retention, re-engagement, and acquisition segments.

The Results

Since launch, Ava has raised more than $102,000 from 267 gifts, including $63,103 in net new revenue (upgrades and lapsed recapture).

Impact By The Numbers

$102K

$36K

Raised

Upgraded Giving

$26.9K

Lapsed Recaptures

12K

Personalized touchpoints

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Increased Participation and Revenue

The participation of the portfolio before being managed by Ava was 12.5%, which has now jumped to 19.7% this fiscal year, a testament to receiving personalized, year-round cultivation. And that increased participation has resulted in $36,126 in upgraded giving and $26,977 in lapsed recaptures.

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