Challenge
As one of the most prestigious and well-known private research universities in the U.S., New York University, more commonly known as NYU, boasts an impressive roster of successful alumni. In an era where communication is increasingly digital and everyone receives many such communications every day, NYU was faced with the challenge of not only keeping in touch with alumni but also keeping them engaged with the university. Doing so was crucial for cultivating a robust donor pipeline and for gathering data and statistics on alumni employment, graduate school admission rates, and more. The rise of spam calls and the ease of phone “spoofing” has led many institutions to pivot away from making calls to alumni, either for data collection purposes or to solicit donations. The phrase “phone is dead” has become commonplace in the space. But NYU disagreed. “I get a little combative with people who think that phone is dead,” said the assistant director of annual giving at NYU. “I just tell them they’re not doing it correctly. Phone is not dead, it’s just changed.”
Solution
NYU and the Encoura team developed a multi-pronged, multi-channel strategy for reaching out to alumni and donors, one that included both calling and texting. Using available alumni data to model who is more likely to answer the phone, the team then narrows its focus to that group, reducing labor hours to more efficiently utilize resources and time. The engagement center, which is staffed by students, then places phone calls to the target audience. Conversations are then followed up with personalized text messages. Since 2020, NYU has sent nearly 2,750,000 text messages to alumni, families, and friends — helping build trust by engaging people, not just soliciting them.
RNL Engage
