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DONOR
SOFTWARE STUDY REVEALS MOST SATISFIED USERS
Campbell Rinker this week announced the winners of the 2003
Donor & Member Database Survey User
Satisfaction Awards. The software program Donor2 from
Systems Support Services earned the highest level of
user satisfaction in the software category, while the
online provider eTapestry captured top ratings in its
class. In addition to these, awards were presented
to Advance from Sungard BSR, PledgeMaker by Softrek,
Matchmaker 2000 from Heritage Designs and Direct to
Donor from DonorDirect.
The awards
resulted from an independent online survey by Campbell Rinker of 2,124 users of donor software
programs, service bureaus, and online “application
service providers” (ASPs). Respondents came from
a wide range of development and membership roles in
many nonprofit sectors, representing both large and
small organizations. More than 100 systems were rated.
The Association of Fundraising Professionals cooperated
with Campbell Rinker by fielding the study to its
members, as did associations such as CMA, CSA, NCDC
and EDM.
According to this study, most nonprofits use software
to manage their donor and/or member databases (95%),
as compared to service bureaus or ASPs (5%), though
service bureaus and ASPs generally earned higher satisfaction
ratings from users compared to software systems.
The most
important characteristics of software were report
accuracy, system reliability and report flexibility,
averaging 9.2 out of a possible ten points. This was
true for smaller organizations as well as the largest
organizations, though larger organizations tended to
appreciate system flexibility as well. Users were most
satisfied with system scalability (the ability to grow
with the organization), system reliability and ease
of data entry – which averaged 6.7 out of a possible
ten points.
The study also revealed that nonprofits usually review
their software every two years or so, though a surprising
one out of five organizations re-evaluates their software
choice every year. The average organization has had
their software for about four and a half years. The
data show that smaller organizations are likely to
replace or upgrade their software more often than larger
organizations.
MAJORITY OF WIRED ALUMNI HAVE VISITED THEIR COLLEGE
WEB SITE
Nationally,
62% of wired alumni report having visited their four-year
college or university’s
web site.
This figure
represents a considerable increase from the 46% noted
in Campbell Rinker’s first national
alumni poll in Fall 1999. While both results were based
on a subset of alumni who report having online access,
this is not an apples-to-apples comparison due to differing
data- collection methods. Because the 2002 survey was
done online (the 1999 version was done by
phone), the 62% figure is likely inflated somewhat due
to sample bias. Still, we believe it is likely that the
proportion of wired alumni visiting their college or
university web site has increased since 1999, largely
due to the increasing use of email newsletters featuring
links to institutional web sites.
Private colleges and universities saw both a larger
proportion of alumni visiting and a larger increase (64%
to 85%) than did public institutions (50% to 55%). |
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IF
YOU BUILD IT WELL, WILL THEY COME? MAYBE!
One finding of note was that the web sites with
the most alumni traffic also tended to get the
best ratings among visitors. This isn’t begging
the question – the ratings were based on
the proportion of site visitors giving the site
the top rating on a five-point scale. The correlation
between the percentage of alumni visiting the site
and the percentage of visitors giving it the highest
rating was statistically significant.
The two institutions with the lowest traffic received
the lowest proportion of “excellent” ratings
among visitors. Meanwhile, the site with the strongest
traffic received a much greater percentage of “excellent” ratings
than those of other institutions.
So what do the results mean? Our take is that
the most effective advertising for your web site
is and word-of-mouth. When alumni forward e-newsletters
to friends or send links to pages they’ve
found helpful, it provides “free” advertising
plus a user endorsement. So do all you can to encourage
alumni to spread the word -- an “Email this
page to a friend” link can pay dividends.
So can encouraging alumni to forward an e-newsletter
-- along with remembering to put how-to-subscribe
info
into all your e-newsletters.
This is not to say that traditional “push” advertising
is bad -- referencing a web site in alumni magazines,
e-newsletters, event materials and direct mail
reflects sound integrated marketing strategy. But
acknowledging the secondary audience is key, and
costs very little. Our other conclusion is that
quality counts. You can promote a web site all
you want, but promotion must be backed up with
substance. A site that delivers content effectively
will be noticed and referenced, generating both
appreciation and traffic.
In the next issue, we will explore the information
that alumni are seeking on your web site and which
issues influence alumni web site satisfaction.
TAKE
THE ATHLETICS CHALLENGE!
After
our past two newsletters highlighted the influence
of following athletics (both while enrolled and
as alumni) on the likelihood to donate, one thoughtful
reader wrote to question our analysis.
This helped
us realize two things:
a. we should encourage and reward our readers for doing their own alumni
research; and
b. we should clearly communicate the methodology supporting our findings.
So first,
a challenge to all who are still wondering if following
athletics has a greater influence on donor status
than attending alumni events or pursuing continuing
education.
Take a
look at your own alumni database and see what you
find. Specifically, examine individual-level data
on whether alumni have:
- given
to the institution
- used the institution's career placement/resource center
- have attended alumni events (reunions, etc.)
- have bought athletic tickets
- have taken continuing education courses
Code each
person with a 1 if they have participated in an
activity, a 0 if they have not. Then run correlations
of the first item against each of the others. Results
will show the degree to which each activity is
linked to giving status.
Let us
know what you find out at info@campbell-research.com.
We’ll be glad to note your results in future
issues of The Alumni Report.
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