An Assessment of the Trinity University Annual Fund Campaign - Essay Example

Overview The case is about an assessment of the Trinity Annual Fund Campaign. Mariya Yurukova, the person responsible for carrying out the initiative, is concerned about raising $600 000 for the following years fundraising. Though not so much compared to the previous year, it shows an increase and the main issue of concern is about how to reach that specific target. This targeted amount of money has to be reached with limited resources. Indeed, there are various commitments to be met using the money raised but there seems to be limited commitment in terms of improving the overall process of fundraising. Thus, Yurukova has a responsibility to come up with a brilliant strategy that can be implemented in order to improve the fundraising process. Marketing approach At the moment, Trinity University mainly relied on using telefundraising channels. This is a marketing approach that uses telephone to reach different people in different parts of the country. The targeted people are mainly graduates from Trinity University. Mariya is contemplating segmenting the targeted donors by using different strategies in order to make generate as much money as possible. One of the segmentation methods is to target the people by either alumni or by graduation year. The other strategy used to segment the targeted people is by using their faculties. It has also been envisaged that the targeted people can also be segmented on the basis of extracurricular activity as well as Trinity University involvement. The other marketing strategy used is direct marketing and this involves face to face interaction with the targeted people. The marketing mix approach (price, place, product and promotion) of the university involves different strategies. The price for conducting clients using direct mail is pegged at $0.88 while the price of doing the same using telefundraising is estimated to be $5.60. The product involves donations made by the targeted people to the university. The place for this activity is centralised since it is coordinated from the institution while targeting people from different places across the country. As part of its promotion strategy, the university is also contemplating to use direct mailing strategy where direct mails are sent to the people found in the institution’s database. The other promotion strategies include online giving and telefundraising. Critical issues The real issue is finding and training quality telefundraisers. At the moment, the university is relying on a single individual alone. This initiative requires the the efforts of many people in order to be a success. The other critical issue is related to managing the institution’s current space and hardware which is already a challenge. The other critical issue is that the graduate database is far from complete. Some vital information is missing from the database which also poses a challenge since the fundraisers may not be able to contact all potential donors who can make significant contributions towards the cause of the university in raising the much needed funds. Financial analysis In some cases, the people contacted would not be able to donate and this would be a loss to the university. The return on investment (ROI) would not tally with the total amount of revenue generated (Appendix 1 for detailed financial analysis). Telefundraising costs about $5.60 to contact one person. A critical analysis of the statistics provided shows that the percentage of the amount generated from the fundraising initiative mainly depends on the department from which the person involved belong. For instance, the Education department contributed about 3% of online fundraising while the international and human services had the highest contributions amounting to 16 % and 25 % respectively. It can also be seen that there has been a gradual increase in the money raised by the university on the basis of alumni by graduation year and faculty since 2009. Appendix one shows a table reflecting the figures of money raised on the basis of graduation year and faculty. SWOT analysis The section below outlines the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats available to Trinity University. Strengths The major strength of Trinity University is that the number of graduates in its alumni is gradually increasing every year. This means that it can generate more funds from former students. Weaknesses The following factors contribute towards the institution’s weaknesses: Only employs one full time employee, Mariya and part-time student callers. Mainly relies on tele fundraising and it is costly It has no up to date information about the targeted people in its database Opportunities The institution can use new information and technology to reach as many people as possible. This method of communication is viable since it can instantly reach many people and this platform also provides a two way communication channel which makes it possible to provide feedback to the targeted people. Threats The major threat is that the institution may waste resources and effort trying to contact people who will otherwise not respond to their requests. Instead of gaining money from such initiative, the institution risks incurring losses from such initiative. Alternatives and Recommendations (1) It has been observed that the university mainly relies on one method of fundraising namely telefundraising. This approach is costly hence the need for the university to adopt other fundraising methods. For instance, the institution can adopt the strategy of online solicitation. The internet provides a very effective platform that can be used to reach many people. For instance, social sites like face book can be used to carry out this marketing initiative. There are many advantages of adopting this strategy which include the following. It is relatively cheap It can reach a lot of people Many people use social sites for performing various business In order to implement this approach, it is imperative to search and list the names of the targeted people in the data base. After this stage, specially designed messages are sent to them periodically. In order to properly implement this strategy, it is imperative to provide feedback to the targeted people. Alternatives and Recommendations (2) The other alternative recommended for this initiative is direct marketing. There are likely chances of face to face interaction between the parties involved when direct marketing strategy is used. This can also involve direct mailing system where letters of request are sent to people whose names have been saved in the organization’s database. There are many advantages of using this approach. For instance, it is cheap and it is possible to convince people to contribute towards the cause of the institution when they are in direct contact. When implementing this strategy, it is imperative to identify the targeted people. It is also important to design the message so that it appeals to the interests of the targeted people. The other important step is follow up and providing feedback to the targeted people. This alternative is likely to improve the number of potential donors who can contribute varying amounts of money to the institution. Appendix 1 Year Total alumni Applied health Business Education Humanities Health sciences Social sciences 2009 901 156 230 59 78 242 136 2010 968 166 241 68 75 263 155 2011 1004 172 252 79 84 259 158 Read More