Boise State University advancement team implements fundraising AI to raise over six figures in 90 days
BOISE, IDAHO, December 13, 2023—Advancement leaders at Boise State University are seeing early success through a newly implemented AI and digital giving strategy, powered by Gravyty, a leader in engagement and fundraising technology.
Like most higher education institutions, Boise State has thousands of alumni within their database, and they weren’t always assigned to a gift officer. With such large portfolios, the advancement team needed a way to prioritize and engage those with the highest potential to become major donors. Additionally, Boise State wanted to ensure they were staying ahead of evolving donor behavior and drive a highly personalized donor experience through digital channels.
A key driving factor in Boise State’s decision to partner with Gravyty was the goal of consolidating their tech stack while achieving pipeline goals.
“A major part of our decision to partner with Gravyty was our focus on improving our efficiency, without sacrificing impact—to be able to do more with less. Gravyty also better integrates with our CRM to easily and reliably track donor actions and see behavior patterns, pivotal for delivering a personalized donor experience while reducing workload on our frontline team,” said Quinn Anderson, Director of Advancement Information Systems at Boise State.
The team turned to Gravyty to power their annual giving campaigns, portfolio saturation, pipeline building, as well as personalized video stewardship and engagement.
“By moving to one platform, we can spend more time focused on the donor experience and less time dealing with procurement, vendor management and contracts,” said Anderson.
Within the first three months of implementing Raise, Gravyty’s AI-powered fundraising solution, Boise State saw immediate results:
- Over $118,000 raised, $60,000 of which was from new or increased gifts
- The team’s four leadership giving officers sent nearly 4,500 personalized emails to those in their pipeline portfolios
- Significant decrease in overall technology costs
“Time is one of our most valued resources, and choosing a platform that integrates seamlessly with our systems of record (CRM) saves our team a lot of time and energy so they can spend it on what matters most—meaningful interactions with donors,” said Joseph Boeke, Associate Vice President of Advancement Services at Boise State.
“With fewer vendors and strong integration amongst the platform and our CRM, we can quickly see patterns in donor behavior which helps us deliver the experience most relevant to our donors to foster greater engagement and philanthropic support,” adds Boeke.
The Boise State advancement team is also finding benefit through Gravyty’s video messaging tool, which lets them request personalized videos from people within the institution such as athletes, deans, and students and send them to donors with the click of a button, with all of the donor actions published to their CRM. They plan to use the video messaging feature to thank all donors from their upcoming Bronco Giving Day to drive continued engagement.
“Donors will give the day of, and we’ll be able to authentically thank and steward them months beyond the day itself, keeping our institution top of mind for donors and building meaningful relationships,” said Boeke.
To learn more about Boise State’s success, watch the recent webinar, “The future of fundraising: How to power your donor pipeline engine with AI,” featuring Carly Snider, Associate Director of Development at Boise State and Kristy Herrington, Director of Annual Giving at the University of North Florida: Watch here.
