Top 10 BBNC Sites - Trent University 2647

Top 10 BBNC Sites - Trent University

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We're counting down the top 10 websites built on NetCommunity as bbcon 2016 approaches. The latest installment to our list of Top 10 NetCommunity Sites comes from Trent University.



3dade591acde26c91fdd59fcefc9391a-huge-giAs an alumnus of Trent University, Christopher Armitage, Manager of Advancement Services, is intimately familiar with the aspects of his alma mater that have forged deep connections between the school and its alumni. If you take time to look at their alumni and community webpages, it becomes clear that a lot of work has been done to recreate and encapsulate the Trent experience through their NetCommunity site. The site skillfully weaves together a variety of opportunities for supporters to make a personal connection based on their unique experience with the University, and in turn to take meaningful action.
 
Christopher and his team have been committed to delivering to alumni, faculty, staff, and community members a personalized and engaging experience through a process of constant innovation. “When we first implemented NetCommunity we had a single landing page and we quickly realized that might not be the best approach,” he explains. “We took the first iteration as a learning opportunity and realized that we needed multiple pathways to show our different audiences what was most important to them.”
 
e1594d874431d37182eb970a105edaba-huge-asThis valuable lesson of customizing content to the varied interests of the website’s audiences paid dividends when Christopher’s Advancement Services team got to work on Trent’s Alumni Student Centre Challenge, a campaign to raise funds for the new Student Centre being built at their picturesque Peterborough campus.
 
"The University has a college-based structure, and many of our alumni are very passionate about the college system and the benefits they got from that experience. But we also knew that their perspective on the new Student Centre would be strongly influenced by the decade they were a student here. By grouping alumni this way, we could anticipate their questions about the Student Centre and best explain how it fit into the University’s plan to improve the student experience.”
 
The Alumni Student Centre Challenge is part of the University’s current $50M campaign. Fundraising captains led teams of their fellow classmates from their decades and all campaign communications were specific to the experience at Trent during the recipient’s era. The alumni response was excellent. Email open rates ranged from 53-82% throughout the campaign and yielded an average online gift of nearly $600 over the course of the eight week campaign.
 
Christopher is quick to attribute credit for the success of the NetCommunity site and Trent’s Alumni Student Centre Challenge to a collaborative spirit that runs through the University.
 
"As a smaller University, collaboration and leadership are essential to our success. Our Vice President of External Relations and Advancement, Julie Davis, provided executive sponsorship and senior-level commitment to our projects from the outset. Not only did we have a shared vision among leaders in Alumni, Development, Community Relations and Advancement Services, but we also received strong support from our core IT and Marketing departments.

The result is a web platform with content and navigation that complements each area of the University while also reflecting consistent messaging and branding. Without that you'd definitely see a ‘disconnect’ and our site would not be the great resource it has become for our alumni and community members.”

Do you have a site that you want to share? Use the comments to tell us all about it!
News ARCHIVED | Blackbaud NetCommunity™ Blog 08/30/2016 10:47am EDT

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