20 years and $40 million of fundraising partnership with the University of Georgia

2015 marks a special time in the history of Ruffalo Noel Levitz; the 20^th anniversary of the on-campus fundraising partnership between Ruffalo Noel Levitz and the University of Georgia. This long-standing collaboration between our two organizations shows how a highly respected institution of higher education and a strategic, marketing-oriented business can work together to accomplish critical goals and objectives. Along the way, tens of millions of dollars have been raised, many fundraising records broken, and many annual and long-term goals accomplished. Most importantly, there has always been a mutual respect and professional friendship between our groups that has driven the success we have experienced.

(Note: The University of Georgia began this partnership with RuffaloCODY, which became Ruffalo Noel Levitz in fall 2014.)

Building a foundation for fundraising success on the University of Georgia’s campus

The University of Georgia (UGA) had been a fundraising client of ours in 1993, making calls from our offices in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. While they were impressed with what they saw and heard in terms of results and call quality, the UGA staff felt it was important to use their own students for alumni outreach and fundraising efforts. After several plans were shared back and forth, an agreement was struck to bring our expertise to Athens.

The decision to create this new on-campus fundraising model was a turning point in my young career. At the time, I was a full-time fundraising supervisor, managing fundraising programs for a host of clients. The University of Georgia was my responsibility as a supervisor in charge of the calling program from Cedar Rapids, IA, and when the opportunity arose to consider moving to Athens and managing the program on-campus, I jumped at the chance. In just a few short months, I would be become a Georgian, an Athenian, and most importantly—a Bulldog.

In January 1995, we cut the ribbons and opened the doors to a new 24-station call center near the UGA campus. The early days of that first year were spent laying the foundation for what would eventually become a dynamic fundraising operation for more than two decades, and in fact more than $1.5 million was raised for the university that very first year.

Those early results are even more remarkable considering where we were in terms of technology and resources in 1995. At that time, our only initial source of communication back and forth to Cedar Rapids or the UGA offices was by telephone. For nightly wrap-ups and statistical progress reports, we left voice mails for the team of managers and UGA staff, ensuring they understood how we performed the previous night. We faxed copies of hand-signed timecards to our Iowa payroll team, who overnighted checks to the call center for weekly distribution. There were very few cell phones, no Windows-based CAMPUSCALL® system at the time, and no Excel, Word, or PowerPoint products to prepare documents and write memos. For our first-ever comprehensive operating plan, we spent an entire day writing every calling segment on a large conference room dry erase board and hand-calculating the forecasted output of each statistical category, toggling results and challenging assumptions to find areas of opportunity where we could make a positive adjustment. While this all seems very primitive compared to the modern tools and computing technology available today, the manual process reinforced how we were going to achieve our performance objectives.

We have of course reaped the benefit of many technological advances since then, but at the core, the same operational philosophies that guided our efforts in those early days also apply today. The goal remains helping UGA to make the highest quality outreach calls to maximize the productivity potential of the database. This involves ensuring that we hire the best possible students, refine our training and coaching techniques to align with best practices, and create the type of fun, professional, goal-oriented atmosphere that encourages other students to seek the position.

Creating a culture of partnership and teamwork that fueled the university’s fundraising

While many factors have contributed to this 20-year success, perhaps the biggest driver is the remarkable professional respect and friendship the Ruffalo Noel Levitz and UGA groups have for each other. Our teams enjoy working together, which allows meetings and brainstorming sessions to be more transparent and productive. Therefore, perhaps it’s not a coincidence that both teams have also experienced remarkable stability and professional growth within and outside of their respective UGA-related assignments. Many members of our RNL leadership team worked with the UGA program.

Jason Fisher, CFRE
Vice President & Senior Consultant,
UGA Account Manager
Inaugural Program Center Manager
(1995-97)

Josh Robertson*
Vice President of Analytics
UGA Caller, Program Center Manager
(1999-2001)

Melissa Adair*
Director of Operations
UGA Student Caller

Kierstin Miller
Senior Manager
Program Center Manager
(2008-2010)

Jarietha Bennett
Client Services Manager
UGA Client Services Manager

Chad Friedlein
Sr. Vice President of Client Services
Program Center Manager
(1997-99)

Sean Shaikun*
Director of Market Research
UGA Caller, Program Center Manager
(2001-04)

Stephen Shull*
Director of Operations
UGA Student Trainer

Marc Smith*
Senior Manager
Student Caller

Nicole Lindberg
Program Center Manager
Program Center Manager
(2015-present)

*Indicates UGA Alum

As we gathered on September 30, 2015 to celebrate 20 years of partnership and friendship between our two organizations, I took a moment to reflect on the sheer amount of fundraising, business, and nonprofit talent gathered in the room. An impressive list of leaders from both sides have brought skills, knowledge, and experience to the table as part of a continuous effort to further improve the UGA fundraising program. There have been a number of former student callers, supervisors, and managers who have branched out into a variety of roles within the company, including fundraising management, marketing, data analytics, consulting, executive operations, project management, and more.   Likewise, UGA staff members (past and present) are highly-respected fundraising professionals in the industry whose expertise is often sought out by other institutions.

Since the beginning of our work together, the UGA development team has treated our call center management team as an extension of their staff, allowing our younger fundraising professionals to have access to a wealth of knowledge and feel more comfortable within their position.

University of Georgia attendees and special guests

Kelly Kerner
Vice President for Development & Alumni Relations

David Jones
Executive Director, Annual Giving & Constituent Development

Brandon Patten
Associate Director, Annual & Special Giving- Annual Giving Analytics and Benchmarking Liaison

Anna Gray
Development Officer, Annual & Special Giving – Special Giving: Parents & Families, Faculty/Staff/Retirees, School/College Phone, & Crowdfunding

Lyndsey Gilland
Daughter and “Call Center Cheerleader & Mascot”, Inaugural Year

Jay Stroman
Senior Associate Vice President for Development & Alumni Relations

Jill Bateman
Director, Annual & Special Giving

William Draper
Development Officer, Annual & Special Giving- Special Giving Campaigns: Recent Graduates, Matching Gifts, & Direct Mail

Tammy Gilland
Former Director of Annual Giving, Inaugural Year

Celebrating $40 million pledged in 20 years

As we approach nearly $40 million pledged after 20 years of phone campaigns, the collective team associated with the UGA program should take the opportunity to step back and reflect on the incredible success and accomplishments this partnership has brought to our respective organizations. The friendships and inter-organizational teamwork established during this period serve as shining examples of how these mutually beneficial partnerships can be essential, indeed invaluable, towards the building of a robust annual giving program and an overall strong development operation.

While this is our longest partnership, it is also typical of the collaboration, trust, analysis, and results we bring to every campus we work with. My colleagues and I live for these types of successes: helping campuses not just reach fundraising numbers, but assisting institutions in building lifelong relationships with their alumni. We are happy to discuss how we could help your campus achieve this kind of success as well. Feel free to email me and we can talk about what you would like to achieve and how you can start to build the kind of development enterprise the University of Georgia has in place.