CONNECT . MOTIVATE . INSPIRE .
PayPal, and other financial apps. This shift took place at the HBCUs for one of two reasons: Institutional Advancement or noting that the pandemic forced his institution to consider alternative giving platforms to keep donations coming in while event fundraising was on hold. He explained by saying, “So when we focused on, during the pandemic, people using other diverse platforms (CashApp, PayPal, mobile calls to make gifts), we had a lot of first-time donors making smaller gifts.” Identifying and Overcoming Challenges All the participating HBCU leaders named the challenges that they faced in enlisting alumni donations. Many of these challenges were related
to an over-reliance on a single fundraising source (event fundraising) or miscommunication that led to skewed power dynamics. The competition for power in the alumni/ institution dynamic is an important challenge to consider because it is possible for alumni chapters to siphon much-needed funds from the institution. One HBCU leader noted that his institution established memoranda of understanding for its alumni chapters and the national association. Leveraging Every Person HBCUs tend to have challenges when it comes to capacity building due to high staff turnover (Burgess, 2020). The same was true for one of the HBCU leader pairs participating
in the study. However, a common theme among the participating HBCU leaders was the idea that every person on campus—from students to faculty to the executive cabinet—could play a role in fundraising. At one institution, that included empowering students to become philanthropists as well. Not only does that program reduce the workload for the advancement office, it gives students four years of being exposed to messages around philanthropy and how it helps the university thrive. At that institution, students also staff the call center that is used to keep alumni up-to-date on what is happening at the university. This is a considerable achievement, given that it keeps alumni connected to the student
alumni will be able to relate to.
As we continue to move forward past the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic and focus on fiscal recovery at HBCUs, it is critical that HBCU leaders continue to play a large role in engaging alumni and encouraging them to donate to their alma maters. By implementing some or all the strategies presented by the participants, HBCU leaders could tap more deeply into new revenue sources, meaningfully increase alumni engagement, create a pipeline of alumni who give, and increase knowledge of fundraising best practices among HBCU leaders.
experience, which is something that most
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