Challenge
As an Ivy League school, Cornell University is one of the most prestigious higher education institutions in the United States. Established in 1865, the university has a student population of over 26,000 (undergraduate and graduate) across its multiple campuses, with the main campus located in Ithaca, NY. For such a large and prominent university, advancement is key to its continued success, as is keeping its many alumni engaged with not only Cornell, but their own communities. Given the large population of donors, stakeholders, and alumni that the university seeks to connect with, a tool that is reliable, secure, and can handle large traffic volumes is crucial.
Solution
To support its critical work, Cornell turned to the Encompass advancement CRM platform in 2016, at which time they began processing most online transactions through the platform. In 2019, the advancement team at Cornell worked with the Encompass team to build a new front-end giving form, a “shopping cart” of sorts, which funnels donors to the funds with the greatest need. All donations then feed into Cornell’s primary giving form.
Cornell also leveraged Encompass for alumni outreach, utilizing its community and networking tools to send approximately 35 million emails to alumni each year. With over 100 alumni subcommunities and over 500 volunteers, Cornell now provides a central place for communications, event pages, and websites for various alumni chapters — helping alumni spread the word about affiliated events in their areas. These events have generated over $500,000 in donations directed toward both general and dedicated scholarships and specific programs.
Encompass
