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Dartmouth CollegeTreasurers Association
2015 Annual MeetingSaturday, September 19, 2015
Agenda (9:00am – 10:30am)1. Introductions
2. Overview of the Past Year (Conor)
3. Alumni Council Update (Joe Mannes ’80)
4. The Website (Conor)
5. Best Practices For Dues Collection Discussion & Questions (Kyle)
6. Class Dues in the “Ecosystem” of Class Activity (Conor)
7. Recognition of Service (Kyle)
8. Presentation of Treasurers of the Year (Kyle and Conor)
1. Introductions
Jennifer Casey ’66a Director, Class Activities
Ann Harvey Class Dues Administrator
Conor Frantzen ‘08 President, Treasurer’s Association
Kyle Huebner ‘92 Vice-President, Treasurer’s Association
Joe Mannes ‘80 Treasurer Representative to Alumni Council (2015-2018)
2. Overview of the Past Year
Dues participation trends QuickBase fee increase Ledyard fee increases
Dues participation last 5 FYsFY11 FY12 FY13 FY14 FY15
Highest DuesParticipation
67% avg(‘54, ‘59, ‘62)
65% avg(‘54, ‘59, ‘62)
66% avg(‘54, ‘59, ‘62)
66% avg(‘54, ‘59, ‘62)
65% avg(‘54, ‘59, ‘62)
Lowest Dues Participation
7.7% (average of
lowest 3 classes)
5.7% avg 5.9% avg 3.8% avg 3.0% avg
Average Dues Participation
36.1% 35.3% 35.0% 33.2% 33.5%
Total Funds Raised(includes Projects)
$1.11M $1.14M $1.14M $1.06M $1.13M
Youngest 10 Classes Average
Dues Participation12.9% 11.5% 11.7% 8.5% 10.1%
QuickBase fee increase
Dartmouth will be charging ~$190 to each class for FY16 for QuickBase
College had a significant price increase from Intuit for QB for FY15
A task force considered alternatives but ended up staying with QB
Costs are being passed through to the classes Classes historically paid this type of fee (~$95/yr)
but the College did not charge it in FY15 while we researched other options
Ledyard fee increases
Ledyard Bank increased the cost to process a payment (either check or credit card) from $1.50 to $2.00 per payment (Ledyard Plans) for FY16
They had not increased fees in 10 years In addition, Ledyard Bank implemented new pricing on
processing credit card payments via Ledyard Plan for FY16
Payment processing fees/costs are fairly complicated and were detailed in an email from Jennifer
Because of fixed costs, processing a low number of CC payments can be expensive
We recommend each treasurer evaluate the costs as a percentage of the revenue received from this payment method and make the appropriate decision
3. Alumni Council Report
Joe Mannes ‘80
Alumni Council To sustain a fully informed, representative,
and engaged exchange of information and sentiment between alumni and their College, and to enhance and inspire alumni involvement that furthers the mission of the College.
Treasurers rep (many constituents) Three year term Gather/send communications with alumni Sit on various committees Meet 2x per year
“Drinking from a fire hose.”
October 2014 Meeting Significant presentations
Phil Hanlon kick-off, vision and priorities Jamie Coughlin, DEN Theresa Ellis, Interim Dean, Tucker Fdn. Trustee Presentation Joh Kull, digital learning, “flipped classroom”
60th Anniversary of the Alumni Awards Moosilauke Forum launch (alumni survey) Personal experience: Service Committee
May 2015 Meeting
Main themes – Academics and Student Life
Significant presentations Phil Hanlon vision and priorities Dean of admissions Maria Laskaris ’81
Admissions/Alumni partnership Inge-Lise Ameer, Interim Dean of the College Panel of deans on future of professional
education formation of school of graduate and
advanced studies (GRAD) Trustee report
Next Meeting – October 22
Remarks by President Hanlon Board Chair remarks, Bill Helman Case Study: Hood Museum
How a capital project advances Endowment/Finances panel Professional development program
with students Alumni awards
Close
I will be sending the treasurers communications before and after each meeting.
Have an issue? Email me! joe@mannes.com
4. The Website
http://treasurers.dartmouth.org/ It’s the go-to place for answers, tutorials,
and information regarding dues, taxes, annual reports, etc.
Newly updated is the cookbook for taking PayPal payments and downloading them in batch into QuickBase
If you see something amiss or want something added, please email us!
5. Best Practices
Collected via the CAR A printed book of best practices sorted by
officer role is included in your registration packet
Will be available on the website Feel free to copy what other classes are
doing!
Best Practice – Dues Amount
Strategically evaluate amount of dues request with Class Officers Is the goal to maximize participation % or
amount of dues ($) raised? Evaluate decision on funding class projects
from existing dues request vs asking for additional funding for specific class projects
Evaluate model that allows classmates to choose level to give (e.g. $25, $50 or $75)
Consider lowering dues amount if your treasury/budget can support it
Best Practice - Communication
Have a comprehensive Class communications strategy for keeping your class engaged Maintain contact with all classmates and
widows through the year not just when soliciting dues and DCF contributions
Communications covering mailing solicitations, electronic solicitations, print and electronic newsletters, solicitation of classmate news, social media, etc
Best Practice – Paper Asks
Send out physical written dues solicitation letters through the college Evaluate sending out all 3 physical dues
mailing solicitations Classes should calculate the breakeven
of the dues collected from a physical mailing vs the cost of the mailing
Best Practice – Email Asks
Send out dedicated electronic dues solicitations - be strategic terms of frequency and timing
Electronic are “free” so can yield strong cost-effective incremental dues but be mindful of over-soliciting
Time electronic dues solicitations to follow the receipt of the physical dues solicitation (can encourage PayPal as alternative to Ledyard check)
Don’t limit electronic dues solicitations to just LYBUNTS
Focus on June timing with fiscal year-end messaging – consider 2-email solicitations in June
Best Practice – Other ways to ask
Evaluate other targeted methods of dues solicitations
Evaluate soliciting via telephone - success can vary and seems more correlated to length class has been out
Many of the classes who’ve been out for longer period achieve amazing dues collections using telephone solicitations
Soliciting via social media Solicit dues via targeted e-mails
In June, check dues payments from Class Officers / Executive Team / DCF Agents – send individual e-mails to encouraging them to pay their dues by fiscal year-end
In June, send list of dues non-payers and ask fellow executive officers to reach out to people they are still in communication with to encourage dues payments
Best Practice – Messaging
Highlight class achievements – recognition by the College, awards, improvements in trends
Highlight how dues are being spent to the benefit of the Class (e.g. Class Projects, Class Engagement, Newsletters, Endowments, Communications, etc)
Include options for how dues can be paid (encourage PayPal for electronic payments)
Include page on Class website where classmates can check if they have already paid dues for the current fiscal year
Try to vary messaging from solicitation to solicitation – keep it fresh and engaging – experiment and see what works
Best Practice – Saying thanks
Acknowledge / recognize dues payers Send out thank you e-mails to classmates
who pay dues each year Special recognition for classmates who paid
dues and contributed to optional class projects
*Must acknowledge in writing any gift over $250, sample letter available on the website
Best Practice – Prepaid Dues
Evaluate pre-payment of dues as an option Idea to consider – collect 5 years of dues at
a discount at reunion Offer pre-payment of multi-year non-
reunion year dues QuickBase does make tracking pre-paid
dues more challenging
Best Practice – Coordinate with DCF and local clubs
Try co-promotion with DCF where classmates get a tangible “gift” or or eligible for a raffle if they both pay class dues and donate to DCF Winter Carnival pictures Dartmouth throw blankets
Try reaching out to local geographic Dartmouth Alumni organizations to see if they will co-sponsor promotion for dues payers in their geographic area
Best Practice – Dues as a class engagement tool
Class Projects Class Endowment Projects
Class of 1957 requested dues was $57 but achieved $112 average dues including requests for additional dues for funding endowment Great Issues Fund project
Print Newsletters One class mails out newsletter to arrive before the first dues
mailing solicitation so classmates get the newsletter and then get the solicitation so there is a more clear benefit of paying the dues
Cost Effective Class Engagement Run a class NCAA basketball pool with small “prizes” for the top
finishers Caring Committee – gifts for classmates going through tough times
– illness, death in the family, etc. Honoring Deceased Classmates
Memorial funds, memorial trees, donations to projects in their name, etc
6. Dues as an “ecosystem”
Discussions over the last few years: What drives dues participation? What can you do as a treasurer to
increase participation? Overall a negative trend in dues
participation the last 15 years Remember our slide from last year…
FY01 FY02 FY03 FY04 FY05 FY06 FY07 FY08 FY09 FY10 FY11 FY12 FY13 FY14 FY150%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
36%35%
33%31%
26%24% 23%
19%17%
16%
13%11% 12%
8%10%
48%50% 50% 50%
48%46%
42%
40% 40%38%
36% 35% 35%33% 34%
Average dues participation rate over the last 15 fiscal years
Average of all classes 1942 - 2014Average of the 10 youngest classes each year
Fiscal Year
Parti
cipa
tion
Rate
Dues as an ecosystem
Theory: alumni, especially younger ones, struggle with the “value add” between what the dues cost and what they receive in return
If a class isn’t engaging its alumni (through newsletters, mini-reunions, class projects, social media, communication, paper mailings), then why would an alum pay class dues?
Is there a connection between class activity/engagement and dues?
Are class dues part of the ecosystem of class activity? In other words, is dues participation higher among the more “active” classes?
Using the CAR data
We have a trove of data (self-reported through the CAR) and some student interns so we downloaded and analyzed the CAR reports from the last 3 fiscal years
The data is self-reported so not 100% accurate or complete: some classes do not finish the CAR and QB is only as good as the reporting
But there’s still a lot of good information about what classes are doing in terms of engagement with their alumni
Let’s look at some correlations…
What’s that again?
Correlation is a statistical technique that can show whether and how strongly pairs of variables are related. For example, height and weight are related; taller people tend to be heavier than shorter people
The coefficient ranges from -1.0 to 1.0 The closer the correlation coefficient to 1, the
stronger the relationship A negative correlation coefficient indicates
that as one variable increases, the other decreases, and vice-versa. Remember that correlation does not mean causation
Some data analysis
Looked at data from 3 recent CARs and divided the classes into groups based on average dues participation
Dues ParticipationFY14 FY13 FY12 Avg
Top 20% 57% 57% 57% 57%Second 20% 42% 44% 44% 43%Middle 20% 33% 35% 34% 34%Fourth 20% 21% 26% 24% 24%Bottom 20% 7% 11% 10% 10%
Compared dues participation to other “metrics” in the CAR
Dues ParticipationFY14 FY13 FY12 Avg
Top 20% 57% 57% 57% 57%Second 20% 42% 44% 44% 43%Middle 20% 33% 35% 34% 34%Fourth 20% 21% 26% 24% 24%Bottom 20% 7% 11% 10% 10%
NewslettersFY14 FY13 FY12 Avg
Top 20% 4.8 5.8 5.1 5.2Second 20% 3.2 4.0 5.2 4.1Middle 20% 3.1 2.8 2.9 2.9Fourth 20% 2.4 2.8 2.7 2.6Bottom 20% 2.0 1.7 2.2 1.9
Correlation of each column .96 .96 .91 .97
For example, the correlation between # of newsletters produced and dues:
Some coefficients from FY12-FY14Metric Correlation to dues
participation %
Class year * -1 .99
# of paper dues solicitations .98
# of class projects .97
# of newsletters .97
Dues asking amount .97
DCF participation % .93
Project money awarded .85
COW attendance (# of officers) .83
# of mini reunions .43
DCF money raised .37
# of class meetings .06
Average mini reunion attendance -.46
FY15 dues participation and CAR scores (minus reunion bonuses)
Class Percentile
Dues Avg Particip. % CAR score
10% 61% 88.6
20% 54% 82.2
30% 45% 78.4
40% 39% 76.4
50% 36% 75.6
60% 34% 64.7
70% 27% 52.7
80% 20% 61.9
90% 14% 53.6
100% 4% 52.4
This resulted in a correlation of .93!
It appears that the most active classes are also the most successful at collecting dues (or vice versa)!
Is everything connected?
Dues participation
Newsletters
Mini reunions
Class projects
Attendance at COW
Healthy website Addressability
DAM columns
Social media
Paper solicitations
DCF participation
Some macro dataFY13 FY14 FY15
Avg Dues participation 35.0% 33.2% 33.5%
Total # of dues paper mailings 140 137 142
Paper newsletters by AR 138 126 134
Total # of class projects 165 157 185
Avg DCF Participation 44.5% 42.8% 42.9%
So there seems to be a pretty strong correlation between class activity and dues participation
The ecosystem approach It takes a village – this strategy requires
teamwork from your executive committee Seeing this data last year, our class (2008)
tried to elevate all levels of its engagement We added 2 projects, sent out 3 dues mailings, did e-
mail solicitations, an e-newsletter, did a DCF and dues raffle, improved our website and had a strong DCF push on top of our normal efforts like DAM notes
Results? FY14: 85 deposits and $2,000 raised FY15: 182 deposits and $6,924 raised including $1,785
for 2 worthy projects benefitting Dartmouth students
Final thoughts Every alumni class is different and you may
have low dues but high activity elsewhere But for those classes with low dues and low
activity, it might be worth the time and effort to increase all areas of alumni engagement next fiscal year (baby steps are just fine)
7. Treasurer Recognition
35 Years of Service! Ralph Sautter ’55
25 Years of Service Ivar Jozus ’61
8. Treasurers of the Year
Thank you!
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