One Validates, Two Accelerate: The Rise of Multi-Virtual Engagement Officer Teams

In recent months, there has been a change in the way leaders talk about adding trusted digital labor to their teams.

Early conversations were focused on whether a single Virtual Engagement Officer could work and what it might accomplish. More often now, the question is what it looks like to begin with more than one VEO, and how that choice begins to shape a digital workforce.

We now see many organizations launch with two VEOs from the very start. This decision is less about testing a concept and more about setting a direction. Launching with two VEOs marks the beginning of a digital workforce, one that sits alongside the human team and expands the surface area of relationships.

From what we’re seeing, the move to begin with multiple VEOs comes from two factors. The first is confidence in the results that are visible in the daily conversations VEOs have with donors, the relationships they strengthen, and the metrics and success that Innovation Partners see. Leaders no longer feel the need to inch forward with a slow proof of concept. They see what’s proven possible and are ready to move quickly.

The second is the overwhelming number of constituents and use cases. When teams discuss where to start, there are simply so many avenues because the number of rated but unassigned donors is so vast.

That is what we saw this week at the recently merged Bay Path University and Cambridge College, which launched two VEOs to serve its distinct alumni bases as they define their digital workforce. Norfolk State, one of the first HBCU’s to introduce a VEO and the first to begin with multiple, is also in the process of defining strategic goals for each of their two.

The same pattern is visible across the field. Boston Children’s Hospital uses two VEOs with distinct focuses—one on leadership annual giving and another guiding participants in their peer-to-peer fundraising efforts for an annual walk event.

At the University of Arizona Foundation, one VEO works to reengage lapsed donors while another was recently added to focus on discovery and pipeline development. San Diego State has paired one VEO with planned giving prospects and another with annual fund donors. Texas State uses two VEOs to cover separate portfolios, from reacquiring long-lapsed alumni to renewing and retaining loyal supporters of the Forever Bobcat program. At the Medical University of South Carolina Foundation, one VEO represents the university while another focuses on the clinical side.

The theme is consistent: organizations are beginning to design their digital workforce, not just test digital labor. One Virtual Engagement Officer validates the idea. Two accelerate the impact. That acceleration is how digital labor is taking its place alongside the team and changing the future of what’s possible for nonprofit fundraising.

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