Background

Chartered in 1895, Northern Illinois University is a comprehensive teaching and research institution with more than 23,000 students. Based in DeKalb, NIU also offers degree programs at four other sites in the region. The university is composed of seven degree-granting colleges that together offer 51 undergraduate and 70 graduate degree programs, including ten Ph.D. programs.

With an annual operating budget of more than $272 million, the university relies on income from a variety of funding sources, including state appropriations, tuition and the NIU Foundation, which is responsible for securing and managing private gifts made in support of NIU’s mission. The NIU Foundation enables NIU’s colleges, departments, and other support units to offer scholarships, improve academic programs, support faculty development, and enrich campus life for students.

NIU’s Data Dilemma

With more than 200,000 individual records in their alumni and constituency database, the development staff at NIU faced an uphill battle to identify their best potential donors. “With such a large database, it is extremely difficult for us to mine from our own records who our best prospects are for various initiatives and funding levels,” said Director of Prospect Development Elizabeth Crabtree.

Northern Illinois University had used several prospect screening services in the past and was prepared to go that route again. But Crabtree believed that simply having basic wealth data appended to donor records was inadequate — she wanted information that told them whom to target for particular types of gifts.

In a previous corporate position, Crabtree was an expert on A. C. Nielsen & Company’s demographic and marketing data. She knew about the validity and usefulness of predictive modeling and realized it could be a very powerful tool for identifying and segmenting prospective donors. “Modeling is a science based on mathematical factors that has been used extensively in the business world for decades. The goal is to find a product that is built on reliable and proven formulas, tested for error control, and uses a properly weighted combination of internal and external data factors,” she explained.

The Blackbaud Analytics Solution

After a year of reviewing and critically analyzing various screening products, the NIU Foundation
opted to purchase modeling services from Blackbaud Analytics. “In my analysis, Blackbaud Analytics is truly a unique product, incomparable in scope to typical hard data information services,” she said.

Blackbaud Analytics ran a customized predictive-modeling screening on the NIU Foundation’s entire database of individual records. The results included a variety of demographic and prospect scores, such as Annual Giving Propensity, Major Giving Propensity, Planned Giving Propensity, as well as specific dollar ranges for Target Annual Gift and Estimated Net Assets. “I wanted to find out who the most likely new future major donors were, and so far, Blackbaud Analytics modeling has been right on the mark. It has helped us identify the most promising prospects with whom to concentrate our efforts and resources and is truly like finding that elusive millionaire-next-door,” Crabtree said.

“I am amazed by the number of people brought out from the dark corners and catacombs of our database who are now significant prospects,” she said. “We knew absolutely nothing about these people before the Blackbaud Analytics modeling.”

Crabtree wasn’t the only one excited about results from the modeling. Because Blackbaud Analytics delivers information in an understandable, ready-to-go format, NIU development staff members were able to take immediate action on their newfound knowledge. “Our development officers are really
charged up about the results of our Blackbaud Analytics modeling. From day one of receiving our results, they were out the door to make contact with some of the new prospects that surfaced,” said Crabtree.

“Blackbaud Analytics has come through for us with a great service at a reasonable price,” she said. “It’s only a matter of time before the modeling pays for itself many times over. It is by far the best thing this institution has ever purchased for prospect screening, and I look forward to continuing a proactive relationship with Blackbaud.”