This past winter, the GGF met with these influencers individually to talk about the Next Generation initiative and invited them to a social hour and roundtable discussion event.  At the gathering, members of the athletic department, including coaches, along with the invited guests discussed ways to grow this young alumni group.  Following the meeting the group attended a home basketball game in which they all sat together.  Out of the 30 that were invited, three to four offered to champion the Next Generation effort to ensure its success.

There were a couple of key takeaways from this meeting.  The first being that the group identified three aspects that they thought needed to be incorporated within Next Generation for it to have broad appeal.   It was brought up that young alumni are particularly interested in networking opportunities, family oriented events, and the chance for increased amenities and access.   Also, the GGF staff identified that the best way to move forward with increasing young alumni membership would be through organic growth.  The efforts of those that were invited to attend the first Next Generation event would act as volunteer representatives of the Minnesota Athletic program and would develop a “representative program”.

The Golden Gopher Fund approached their need to have more participation from young alumni in a unique and innovative way.  It takes a lot to organize a program such as this but those efforts will surely pay dividends down the road.  To see more recent graduate program best practices examples please click here which will take you to a copy of the Young Alumni Giving report.

Special thanks to Jason Butikofer, Director of Annual Fund & Premium Seating for the Golden Gopher Fund, for his contribution with this story.

This report was designed to be a compilation of the best practices of young alumni giving programs from all areas of development, not just athletics. By broadening the scope of the project, the researchers were able to find some success stories that could be implemented in athletics, and vice-versa.

The authors use four main themes to guide their research:

1. The need to develop a culture of giving
2. Young alumni will take advantage of benefits at reduced membership rates
3. Young alumni respond when challenged
4. Young alumni want more than game watch parties

Each of these themes are supported by research and examples of projects that are on the ground at various Universities from around the country.

You can read their executive summary by clicking here. The full report is available for reading and download by clicking on the image below.

ADF would like to thank the authors of the report, Beau Bauer, Phil Carden, Michael Speight, and Drew Ossakow for their work on the project.

In the end, the report uncovered many unique ways that technology is being used to enhance the donor experience. Whether it is a graphic filled e-mail, a timely Twitter post, or even a Personal URL campaign, offices around the nation are being creative in their approach to these new opportunities.

Click below to view the report or download it to your computer.

Taylor Wood

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Feel free to contact us at twood@athleticsfrontier.com to send us any feedback you may have on the report or if you would like your own website evaluated.