Advancement in higher education: the role of marketing in building philanthropic giving

Abstract

This paper empirically explores ways in which marketers of higher education can contribute to the important task of cultivating alumni philanthropy. Advancement professionals understand that philanthropy is influenced by wealth and affinity. As marketers, we anticipate that our contribution resides with investments in building affinity. Using survey data that measure the affinity of alumni of a large US university who have been commercially screened to reveal individual wealth, this paper provides empirical evidence of the relative contributions of affinity and wealth to giving. Logistic regression analysis reveals that affinity has a greater impact on predicting the likelihood of giving than other variables, including prior giving and wealth. Important to marketers, this study emphasizes the importance of building affinity and also uncovers obstacles to affinity formation. This information can be used to bridge and repair alumni relationships with their alma mater and inform segmented marketing communications to foster alumni enthusiasm for giving.

Keywords:

• Higher education
• philanthropy
• alumni
• enthusiasm
• affinity

Notes

1. The total number of respondents with a wealth score, as given in Table 2, was 2058. However, the missing data on other variables used in the analysis brought the n to 1793.