USC implements new fundraising tool for alumni


Salesforce, a cloud technology company, announced last week that it is partnering with USC in order to increase fundraising among alumni.

Tracey Vranich, vice president for advancement services, is responsible for working with Salesforce in order to bring the new Advancement Connect app to USC by the fall of 2015.

The app will allow for a streamlined database of alumni and donors by organizing donor history, alumni participation, season ticket holder information and alumni careers into one database. This will enable USC to increase its ability to reach out to all USC constituents in order to receive more gifts. The university recently passed the halfway mark of its $6 billion fundraising campaign.

“We currently use Oracle’s PeopleSoft for our advancement database,” Vranich said. “That is where we have all our alumni records of giving histories, just like every university does.”

Salesforce was founded by USC alumnus Marc Benioff ’86, who spoke at the 2014 USC commencement ceremony in May.

USC is one of four schools that are the first to use Salesforce. The other three universities connected with Salesforce are Cornell University, Arizona State University and College for America at Southern New Hampshire University.

According to USC News, USC is ranked third among U.S. universities in the amount of fundraising done annually. During the initial phases of expanding Salesforce to other universities, Vranich posed this question to the company: “How do universities that are in the top 10 fundraising in higher education need to process gifts and what do they need to develop the best relationships with their constituents?”

Advancement Connect will allow for fundraising to occur on the mobile level “in a way USC has never seen before,” Vranich said.

The mobile capacities could allow for the ability to streamline fundraising and integrate with student crowdfunding and social media in order to have participants at student-run events text donations in order to encourage younger alumni and students to contribute to USC.

“We are thinking about incorporating this with the [senior gift] text to give because we have one of the highest participation of senior gifts at universities,” Vranich said. Alumni of the 2014 graduating class were given the option of texting their donations for the first time.

The Advancement Connect app will allow for students to be more involved in fundraising for USC.

“I think this will dramatically improve fundraising because the quicker and the more efficient the method, the more will be generated,” said Raquel Buscaino, a freshman majoring in physics and computer science. “People don’t have time to use traditional fundraising methods. The more we adapt for technology, the more we can generate.”

Advancement Connect will be officially unveiled in 2015.

“We are really excited to use technology to finish the second part of the $6 billion campaign,” Vantrich said.