KTH Opportunities Fund was launched in 2012 when a graduating international student approached KTH Alumni to make a donation. He was grateful for the opportunity to study abroad and wanted to make sure others could do the same. From this point, KTH worked on creating a fund through which alumni could give back to their alma mater by making a donation or giving their time.
Today donations given to KTH Opportunities Fund enable KTH to give grants to new student initiatives which improve the student experience, fund research projects led by young researchers, and support scholarships to attract and retain talented international students. Most recently KTH conducted its first telephone campaign “we are getting in touch” which has raised over one million in donations and pledges from alumni.
‘We are getting in touch’
The telephone campaign was designed to both to raise money and build relationships with alumni. Joe McAleer and Adela Rodrigo were responsible at KTH and during the spring recruited a team of 32 students and managed the campaign to call 2000 alumni over four weeks.
– We worked hard to find some of our most engaged students and matched them with alumni so they would have something in common. The students got a lot out of it as they received career tips from those who had studied their program maybe 10 or 20 years previously.
And we also specifically targeted alumni we had not had so much contact with so we could inform them about alumni activities. The conversations averaged around 15 minutes in length so they were really meaningful exchanges. The students received a lot of valuable feedback from alumni on what was like to study at KTH and what they would like to see in their alumni programme. We also collected a lot of valuable information, including new contact details and employment details as well as alumni who wanted to become volunteers, says Joe McAleer, Alumni and Stewardship Officer at KTH.
Exceeding the campaign’s goal
The goal of the campaign was to raise 500.000 SEK from single donations and 3-year pledges. In the end over a third of alumni who were asked agreed to make a donation and over 1 million SEK was raised.
– We are really pleased with the response and it was great that so many chose to donate online. We had developed our ability to receive online donations through the Mira-system so that alumni could choose to make recurring gifts. With automated acknowledgement emails and a reliable processing system, the administrative element of the campaign went really smoothly. Now we are working on updating all the details we had exported from the system at the beginning of the campaign, says Joe McAleer, Alumni and Stewardship Officer at KTH.
About KTH Opportunities Fund
KTH Opportunities Fund provides a way for alumni and friends of KTH to contribute to the future of the university by donating money to enrich the student experience, promote global exchange and invest in research talent. Read more!
[share title=”Share this !” facebook=”true” twitter=”true” linkedin=”true” email=”true”]