Customer Spotlight: How a Virtual Engagement Officer Transformed Bucknell University's Mid-Level Donor Strategy

Our mission at Version2.ai is to build the most consequential company in nonprofit fundraising. We exist to push boundaries, ask deeper questions, and deliver technology that empowers organizations to evolve and meet the needs of their communities.

Earlier this week, we released a customer story from Bucknell University that shows what this path looks like, and why it matters.

Leadership from Bucknell, Scott Rosevear, Jennifer Shimp-Bowerman, and Amy Baker identified an opportunity to strengthen their pipeline by elevating the experience of donors giving at the $1,000 - $20,000 level. These important supporters were not able to be placed in gift officer portfolios because of staffing capacity, so they were having the same one-way communications and stewardship as all annual giving donors, and leading to a lengthy and cold discovery process for major gift officers further down the line. 

The team knew that consistent two-way engagement would drive these donors to both renew and increase their giving, as well as warm and qualify prospects for gift officer portfolios. When they turned to Autonomous Fundraising via their Virtual Engagement Officer (VEO), Lauren, they saw an immediate impact that changed these donors’ relationships with the institution.

Amy Baker, Director of Annual Giving, Marketing and Participation explained: 

"The VEO has helped to fill an important gap in our fundraising strategy. We're now engaging mid-level donors more consistently and meaningfully, which helps them feel heard and valued. Lauren’s work has contributed to increased giving, offered clear insights into our return on investment and encouraged us to consider how other donor segments might benefit from similar engagement.”

In less than seven months, Lauren, the VEO, raised $388,126 from the portfolio, including $199,000 in upgraded gifts from the previous year. Along the way, Lauren also generated $42,000 from lapsed donors, and even secured a $10,000 gift. Those are consequential results.

For the first time in history, we can now imagine what it actually looks like when we manage donors with individual and long-term strategy and two-way engagement at scale. We can think about those donors who we wish we could do more for and bring them closer to our organizations and our missions.

We invite you to take a look at Bucknell’s story for yourself and think about the consequential results and where that opportunity lies for your own organization, because we have and will continue to completely change the narrative of what’s possible.