Reaching Rated but Unassigned Donors: What Autonomous Fundraising Makes Possible

Identifying who should stay in a portfolio and who should be removed, is a difficult decision frontline fundraisers have to make. Once removed, it's unlikely those rated, known prospects will receive one-to-one engagement again. But that one-to-one engagement is exactly what these donors need to move through the pipeline. This is the common pain point across advancement: not enough capacity to reach the volume of rated and known donors who could make a real impact on the mission.

Our team has been working with Appalachian State University for nearly a year. They were facing this same capacity challenge when we started working together. AppState's advancement team has 23 frontline fundraisers across athletics, academic units, and annual giving, managing 1,160 assigned donors. But with more than 150,000 alumni — over 20,000 of whom are rated for capacity and unassigned — there was a clear gap between who the team could reach with that personalized, one-to-one engagement and how many donors were waiting in the pipeline.

AppState Raises $184K with Autonomous Fundraising

What AppState didn't do was try to reach all 20,000 rated but unassigned donors by stretching their frontline team thinner. At the same time, they didn't accept the status quo. Instead, App State built a strategic portfolio for Ava, a Virtual Engagement Officer, to manage: current and recently lapsed donors (1–3 years) with a rated capacity of $10,000+, lifetime giving under $25,000, and a history of academic giving. Known, warm, and ready to re-engage from day one.

Often, portfolio decisions are binary: a highly rated donor gets placed in a relevant and available portfolio; they either stay under management or get removed, falling to whatever mass communication the organization can afford to send everyone. AppState built a third option. A portfolio comprised of 1,000 rated but unassigned recent donors most likely to respond to consistency: people who had demonstrated philanthropic affinity, who had room to grow, and who already had a reason to care.

In 10 months, Ava generated $184,903 from 961 gifts, with 3x ROI in giving since launch and 68% donor retention. Over a quarter of total revenue came from upgraded giving and lapsed recapture.

App State's results are a story of what happens when you put the right donors in the portfolio and let consistent, personalized communication move people through the pipeline the way any great gift officer would. That's really the whole idea behind Autonomous Fundraising: reaching the right people, consistently, for as long as it takes.

Book a demo and see how a Virtual Engagement Officer can expand your organization's one-to-one reach and drive revenue.