After over two years of work, the Rutgers University Foundation has launched Phase II, which integrates campaign, gifts, engagement, and reporting functions into a new constituent relationship management platform or CRM.
Phase II uses Affinaquest, a CRM software that helps universities boost revenue from fundraising efforts. Affinaquest will help the Foundation continue to enhance and personalize the experience for donors while increasing efficiencies within processes.
“We are excited to be fully ‘live’ in Affinaquest, especially after more than two years of work,” says Candy Huber, managing director, Systems and Technology. “It was a full team effort throughout. We will now use one CRM system, so we will not have to maintain and access data in two places. Through the use of Salesforce, we’re able to enhance the donor experience and personalize at scale, while increasing efficiencies within our processes—leaving less of a technology footprint.”
The last step before going live with Phase II was testing to ensure that all the data was correct as the Foundation team transitioned from the legacy CRM system to Affinaquest.
The Foundation recorded a series of accomplishments since launching Phase I in October 2023. For example, in that time, 48 percent of the total Rutgers alumni base engaged with the Foundation, growing from an annual average of about 13 percent. The Foundation also transitioned from four online giving platforms to one website, give.rutgersfoundation.org, via Commerce Cloud.
Reducing the technology footprint led to the average online gift increase of 20 percent in FY24. In addition, with one website, the Foundation realized overall operational savings of nearly 13 percent for FY24.
The give.rutgersfoundation.org website boasts a new 30-second gift “checkout” process plus digital wallets, a write-in option, and the ability to make major online gift pledge payments. Another new feature, an integrated “Double the Donation” widget, has generated more than $210,000 in incremental donations since March 2024.
In other Scarlet Journey news …
- The integration into Salesforce of the Rutgers School of Health Professions is now planned for December.
- The project team is working with campus units on a list of priorities and enhancements for the next academic cycle.
If you have any questions about the Scarlet Journey initiative, send them to scarletjourney@finance.rutgers.edu.