Insightful’s Donor Intelligence for Higher Ed In Action
By Sarah Landman, Executive Vice President, Insightful
Colleges and universities in the United States have finally arrived at the dreaded “demographic cliff,” a long-anticipated downturn in student enrollment due to the falling nationwide birth rate that started in 2007. This decrease in enrollment, combined with increasing operational costs and shrinking federal and state support, highlights a need for more effective fundraising.
Recent research reveals two realities shaping the current fundraising landscape for higher education institutions: total giving is on the rise, but the number of donors continues to decline. In other words, major gifts are a top priority, making donor cultivation paramount to fundraising success.
Fortunately, Insightful Philanthropy delivers a promising solution for advancement leaders who need comprehensive donor intelligence to make informed, strategic decisions about cultivation. From California to New York, Insightful delivers critical donor intelligence to fundraising teams at universities and colleges across the nation, equipping them to develop relationships with their biggest supporters.
See how we can serve your college or university.
How Does Donor Intelligence Support Higher Education Fundraising?
Higher education fundraising is unique because an institution’s supporters have varying connections to the college or university. For example, fundraising efforts may target recent graduates, active alumni, students’ parents, local businesses, prominent community figures, or even current students.
Engaging these diverse supporters starts with understanding their motivations and connecting with them on a deeper level, beyond simple fundraising appeals.
According to the Giving USA 2025 report, recent fundraising data reveal several opportunities to maximize success using donor intelligence:
Engage Constituents
Most donations in the education sector come from individuals directly engaged with the organization, like alumni. In fact, alumni donations are the second largest source of support for higher education, behind foundational giving.
Major gifts result from deep donor relationships, not surface-level fundraising appeals. Focusing engagement efforts on your institution’s existing constituents and using donor intelligence to guide personalized, meaningful communications is the key to deepening relationships that lead to long-term support.
Prioritize Cultivation and Stewardship
As is, 94% of higher ed donations are restricted to a specific program or purpose. However, donors are more likely to give freely and flexibly when they feel bonded to and passionate about your mission.
Donor intelligence fuels personalized stewardship, empowering institutions to reach out with the right message at the right time. As a result, universities and donors can align on a shared mission and work together to further that cause.
Expand Giving Opportunities and Methods
Today’s fundraising landscape offers more ways than ever to earn donor support, including recurring donations, planned gifts, and even noncash contributions. That’s good news for higher education institutions, considering diversified revenue streams can combat the instability of a shrinking donor pool.
Equipped with timely donor intelligence and automation tools, advancement teams can uncover and appeal to the preferences of their target audience.
How Insightful Philanthropy Supports Higher Education
Insightful collects data from more than 14,000 news and information sources worldwide, including over 40 years of historical data.
Our platform helps you strengthen donor engagement and prospect research efforts by surfacing timely, relevant insights. Insightful automatically delivers alerts to your fundraising team’s inbox, so they never miss an update that could impact their outreach.
Here are just a few of the features that make it possible:
Real-Time Monitoring & Timely Alerts
Major life events, like purchasing a company or being appointed to serve on an organization’s board, can significantly influence a prospect’s decision to give. Insightful notifies users right away when significant events occur for those connected to your university through daily summaries of relevant news mentions.
Actionable Donor Intelligence
Look beyond basic wealth screening and demographic data to authentically understand your institution’s students, alumni, and other supporters. Our platform consolidates insights into philanthropic activity, professional affiliations, and other engagement indicators to help institutions tailor their communications.
Local Coverage
Educational institutions and their local communities are deeply intertwined. Local businesses and civic leaders support and advocate for your university, while students and alumni enrich the community through their work, service projects, and long-term impact after graduation. Insightful taps into often overlooked sources, zeroing in on data that uniquely pertains to your university.
Insightful In Action: Oklahoma State University Foundation
The Oklahoma State University (OSU) Foundation relies on a six-person team to manage prospect research and engagement for over 60 frontline fundraisers. Traditional tools like Google Alerts proved too disorganized for the institution’s fundraising efforts, delivering large amounts of data but none of the local information needed for relevant insights.
As a result, the Foundation’s team was:
- Facing an overwhelming volume of information
- Lacking coverage of local and regional publications
- Missing opportunities due to manual research processes
Needing a solution that delivers timely, vetted, and actionable news, the OSU Foundation adopted Insightful into its daily workflows, reading Insightful’s email digest every morning. Here’s a quick look at the changes their team experienced after implementing Insightful:
- Significant time savings and improvements in efficiency
- Improved outcomes from timely, relevant, and actionable news
- Enhanced donor engagement and relationship-building efforts
“Any bit of information that can help inform that relationship with the prospect or donor… is incredibly valuable,” explains Jacob Astley, Assistant Vice President of Prospect Development at the OSU Foundation. “Having an efficient means to get those news stories to the people that need to see them is a critical tool in the toolbox.”
Takeaways
Insightful is dedicated to helping organizations know more so they can raise more for their causes. For colleges and universities, this means turning large amounts of current and historical donor data into actionable insights that fuel advancement efforts.
That’s why our platform offers real-time monitoring, automated prospect matching, and other features that equip educational institutions to strengthen donor relationships. Over time, you’ll start to see real relationships turn into long-term support that sustains your mission for generations to come.
