University of Aberdeen
Blackbaud Customer Success Partnership Empowers Advanced Fundraising Transformation
Higher Education Institutions
I know we wouldn’t have gotten to this point in such a relatively short period of time without our Blackbaud Customer Success manager.”
Born in 1495, Scotland’s third oldest university continues to offer a vibrant experience, with philanthropy supporting excellence across the institution. While setting the stage for a new comprehensive campaign, key members of the University of Aberdeen’s fundraising team created a data infrastructure that brings people, processes, and technology together. In collaboration with their Blackbaud Customer Success manager, they made ambitious changes, engineering a smart, sustainable, and scalable system for fundraising and alumni engagement efforts.
Colleagues advance fundraising transformation
with Blackbaud champion showing the way
The University of Aberdeen had a history of fundraising success, long
powered by Blackbaud technology, which included a comprehensive
£150 million campaign—one of the largest in the United Kingdom when
completed in 2012. Yet, a decade later, as Clare Livingston took on the role
of director of campaigns, she seized an opportunity that would transform
the team’s way of work and help them tap even more into the evolving
capabilities of Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT.
Livingston was returning to the University after working for five years as a
consultant, and she brought with her cutting-edge learnings for evidencebased fundraising best practices that she wanted to apply at the University.
As her team prepared for the University’s next comprehensive campaign,
she realized they first needed to reimagine their structure and processes,
starting with data and technology management.
She enlisted Frieda Strachan, the University’s expert database and systems
manager, in leading the initial changes needed to support the larger effort,
and their Blackbaud Customer Success manager collaborated with them
regularly throughout their journey. The Customer Success manager offered
valuable advice, motivation, and inspiration as they shifted to a more
strategic mindset while making data more accessible—and relevant—to
everyone engaged in nurturing philanthropic and strategic relationships for
the University.
“I wanted the whole team to feel confident in the data and to have the
confidence in themselves to look at it and interpret it,” Livingston said. “It
has been transformational for us, and I know we wouldn’t have gotten to
this point in such a relatively short period of time without our Blackbaud
Customer Success manager.”
“There’s no question that what we’re using now is right and recorded in a way that’s easy and accessible.”
The Journey to Campaign Readiness
Before the changes, the University’s development team had settled into
a warehousing mindset around storing constituent data that was more
process driven than strategic. They relied on Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT,
a powerful, purpose-built CRM for fundraising organizations, but they were
missing opportunities the software could provide to supercharge and
streamline donor cultivation and stewardship.
Livingston and Strachan considered the big picture, envisioning a “dream
report” of University constituent and fundraising data available through
Raiser’s Edge NXT that would effectively inform decisions for the next
comprehensive campaign and other efforts. With that dream report in
mind, and with the support of their Blackbaud Customer Success manager,
they reconsidered the ways their team recorded constituent data,
including how they attributed gifts to income streams: “We all came to the
conclusion that this is a piece that we have to get right up front,”
Livingston said.
Their conversations and work over the course of nine months led to a data
mapping overhaul in the existing database, a fundamental shift in reporting
responsibilities, and a democratization of data. Historically, the University’s
financial team oversaw fundraising reports but didn’t share their reports
with fundraisers in a consistent or timely way. “I don’t think I had ever seen
any of the financial reports,” Strachan said.
It didn’t have to be that way, their Blackbaud Customer Success manager
explained. By tapping into Raiser’s Edge NXT capabilities and tools that
were already available to them—such as robust, out-of-the-box dashboards
that visually inform strategic decisions and improve transparency—the
development team could become autonomous with their interactive
reporting and share the numbers with all the University’s Raiser’s Edge NXT
users in a variety of ways, including real-time, weekly and monthly reports.
“You get lost in just the day-to-day and the busyness of everything going on. Having that consistent touchpoint and that person who is championing you to do well and be the best that you can be is so helpful.”
Reporting that Saves Time and Tells a Story
Longtime colleagues who are well-respected at their institution and in their
field, Livingston and Strachan embraced the opportunity for innovation and
welcomed improvements that influenced their team as well as others at the
University. “Having a data-informed approach empowers everything we do
from providing meaningful engagement activity to successful fundraising
programs and impactful marketing and communications. It’s fundamental to
the donor journey,” Livingston said.
With this new day of data storytelling, Livingston said she can provide highlevel decision-makers with clear, detailed reports on campaigns and appeals
that weren’t possible in the past. “The senior management team and Board
of Trustees are much more informed about our income and activity. They’ve
got more trust and confidence in the data that we’re giving them, and we can
produce that data really quickly,” she said.
Strachan likewise described the results as “life changing.” She added, “There’s
no question that what we’re using now is right and recorded in a way that’s
easy and accessible.”
That assurance and adaptability translates directly into time savings. Queries
that used to consume hours now take a few quick clicks. In the past, it
might take Strachan up to six weeks to collect and doublecheck detailed
information on gift revenue, fundraising, and donors for an annual CASE-Ross
report, the reference for philanthropic performance used by many UK higher
ed institutions. Now, she can generate a comparable report in less than a day.
Livingston and Strachan established a sturdy foundation for progress
amid staff turnover and re-organization. Staying agile, they tapped into
Blackbaud’s expertise and took greater advantage of the software’s
capabilities to amplify their effectiveness. Their Blackbaud Customer Success
manager kept them focused and on track through it all as the collaborators
created a system to accelerate the University’s impact.
“You get lost in just the day-to-day and the busyness of everything going on,”
Livingston said. “Having that consistent touchpoint and that person who is
championing you to do well and be the best that you can be is so helpful.”
“Having a data-informed approach empowers everything we do from providing meaningful engagement activity to successful fundraising programs and impactful marketing and communications.”
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