What is CRM?
CRM, or Constituent Relationship Management (more often called “customer relationship management” in other industries), is a technology for managing an institution's relationships and interactions with current and potential constituents. Holy Cross engages a wide range of stakeholders like alumni and donors, but also including current students, faculty, staff, and other community members, such as athletics attendees, and enthusiasts of our performing arts events. The College has selected a leading CRM solution tailored for advancement teams in higher education.
Overview of Affinaquest RM
The new CRM, Affinaquest RM, Powered by Salesforce, is built on a robust cloud platform and offers a comprehensive suite of tools designed to enhance fundraising efforts through streamlined constituent management. Key features include:
- Automation and Personalization: The system supports fundraising campaigns with advanced automation and personalization capabilities, allowing for more intelligent and targeted engagement with constituents.
- Data-Driven Insights: The CRM will provide detailed biographic, demographic, and engagement data, enabling teams to understand and connect with constituents on a deeper level.
- Efficient Campaign Management: The software aids in managing various aspects of fundraising campaigns, from prospect management and gift processing to volunteer and membership management.
Transformational Impact
Integrating this CRM into the College of the Holy Cross's digital infrastructure is a strategic move that aligns closely with Pillar Six (“Culture of Philanthropy”) of the Aspire Strategic Plan. Not just a technological upgrade, this step promises to significantly bolster the College's fundraising and alumni engagement efforts, enhancing our capacity for effective philanthropic outreach and management.
The CRM's functionalities, including advanced automation, precise segmentation, personalization, and wide integrability with other systems, are key to deepening our understanding of and engagement with our constituents. These features enable us to develop and maximize sustainable annual and longer-term philanthropic achievements. This, combined with a yet to be determined marketing automation platform, will propel our capabilities forward into the modern era of fundraising and philanthropy.
In addition to these direct benefits, the integration of the new CRM aligns perfectly with our broader institutional goals, especially as we aim to foster inclusive excellence and a world-class workforce. By empowering our Advancement team with this modern toolset, we will grow our capacity for nurturing a vibrant community of supporters, enhance alumni relations, and ensure our communications strategies resonate with the full diversity of Holy Cross constituencies.
Project Timeline
Tentative kick-off: March 2024, with a go-live of Summer 2025.
Project Leadership & Contact Information
This work is led by Sean Scanlon (Advancement), David Shettler (Information Technology Services), Jeremy Thompson (Office of Marketing and Communications), and Cornell LeSane (Enrollment), in consultation with working group members from Academic Affairs, Advancement, Student Development, and Administration and Finance.
FAQ
- Is this only for alumni records? No. Our CRM is integrated with the central records systems and so along with alumni, we also have all students, faculty and staff, as well as parents and past parents, friends of the College, and organizations like foundations, government entities, and nonprofits. All constituents are in the main shared CRM.
- Is this only for tracking donations and gifts? No. That is one important component and a reason why Advancement is leading this project. However, constituents have many other attributes, interactions, and communications with the College far beyond donations. A shared central CRM allows us to have a full picture of the many ways they engage with and receive communications from Holy Cross.
- How will this work with the current database I maintain in our office/department? To have effective and coordinated communication with our external constituents, alumni, parents, and friends, we need one database where their contact information and history of interactions with any part of the College is stored. External audiences can easily sense when an organization is not coordinated internally, so having all records in one central, shared CRM is important. As part of the conversion process, we will work to import shadow databases into the one CRM and work with partners across campus about effective ways for all of us to communicate with external audiences.