From Commencement to Close: How VEOs Work the Final Stretch of the Fundraising Year

Caps and gowns are packed away, campuses have quieted down, yet for many advancement teams, the clock is ticking on the final stretch of the fundraising year.

The Ask That Wasn't an Ask

Commencement season isn't just a milestone for graduating students. For fundraising teams, it's one of the most emotionally resonant moments in the alumni relationship, a time when many reflect on their institutional connections and the impact it made on their lives.

This spring, VEOs across our higher-ed partners leaned into that moment in a way that mass emails simply can't replicate. Instead of generic appeals, they were asking for something else entirely: advice and connection.

Some institutions used the commencement moment to connect alumni, parents, and friends with graduating students, sharing career resources, internship opportunities, and mentorship pathways. Others simply asked for wisdom. 

And alumni responded.

Graduates from the class of 1973 wrote in alongside alums who graduated in the last decade. A donor who retired after 50+ years in his field shared what he wished he'd known on day one. Alumni parents wrote in celebrating their own children crossing the stage, with one even asking how they could donate to honor their child. 

The range of voices reflected how these institutions left a mark on their alumni. That's not something a mail merge produces.

Warm Donors Don't Happen by Accident

Making a meaningful connection with alumni during commencement season builds a relationship that lasts. Donors who received a thoughtful, personalized message in May are warmer heading into the June 30 ask. The best giving asks don't arrive out of nowhere. They come from the natural progression of a relationship arc. And for the donors in VEO portfolios, that arc has been building all year. They've been reminded of their connection to their institution. They've given something — time, reflection, a piece of themselves — and that kind of engagement tends to precede giving.

The Shift from Cultivation to Close

With the final stretch of the fundraising year on the horizon for many organizations, VEOs are moving from cultivation to solicitation, and doing it in a way that's segmented, sequenced, and calibrated to where each donor actually is.

Donors who haven't yet given this fiscal year receive direct, urgency-forward outreach that makes the case clearly and prompts action. Meanwhile, donors who have already given receive lighter messaging (planned giving education, acknowledgments, stewardship, etc.) because over-soliciting engaged donors is a relationship risk, not a revenue opportunity. Lapsed donors are re-engaged with messages that reconnect before the ask.

What none of these messages sound like is a fiscal calendar, because the relationship doesn't operate on that schedule either. There's no transactional urgency that strips the human layer off a relationship that's taken months to build. The ask is real, but so is the context around it.

Built for This Moment

The advancement teams already using VEOs have been building toward a fiscal year-end ask for months. Their donors have been heard, engaged, and cultivated. The ask, when it comes, will land in the context of a relationship, not out of the blue.

If your team is still relying on only mass communications to reach unmanaged donors, there’s a different way to create stronger connections and deeper giving — one that emphasizes relationships, not transactions.

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