RESOURCES & RESEARCH
A decade of inquiry into a single question: why do some alumni give — and others don't? FOUNDATIONAL WORK
The Dissertation
Factors and Characteristics of Alumni Role Identity: Implications for Practice in Higher Education Fundraising and Alumni Relations Jay Le Roux Dillon, Ed.D. — University of San Francisco, 2017
The foundational study establishing alumni role identity as a predictor of giving behavior — and demonstrating that behavioral and demographic variables alone are insufficient predictors of alumni philanthropy.
Peer-Reviewed Research Philanthropy & Education — forthcoming, Fall 2026
The first peer-reviewed journal publication of the Alumni Identity framework and findings. Details to be announced.
Institutional Case Studies
The Alumni Identity Assessment has been conducted at 11 institutions, producing Alumni Identity Scores™, IDeal Donor Score™ modeling, and data-driven recommendations for engagement and fundraising strategy:
University of San Francisco -2017
Chatham University - 2018
Marian University - 2018
St. Olaf College - 2019
Carleton College - 2020
Midland University - 2020
Kean University - 2021
Oregon Health & Science University (longitudinal, two assessments) - 2022 and 2025
University of California, Berkeley - 2023
Concordia University St. Paul - 2024
Interlochen Center for the Arts (alumni and parent populations) - 2025
Interested in an assessment for your institution?
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Selected Practitioner Writing
Are You Missing Advancement's Most Important Metric? — EverTrue, 2018
Raising Alumni Identity Raises Dollars — EverTrue, 2018
Alumni Engagement: What We've Gotten Wrong and How to Fix It — Salesforce.org, 2018
Busting 3 Massive Myths in Higher Education Fundraising — ebook, Salesforce.org, 2018
Donor Demographics are the Enemy of Equity — Alumni Identity Blog, 2019
Alumni Aren't Lost and They Don't Need Greeters — Alumni Identity Blog, 2019
Selected Podcasts & Webinars
What is Alumni Identity? — Live from CASE/DRIVE, EverTrue, 2018
Where is the North Star Metric to Guide Alumni Fundraising? — Alumni Identity Podcast, 2019
Alumni Identity Basics — Alumni Identity Podcast, 2020
Digital-Forward Alumni Engagement — Aluminati Webinar, 2021
Alumni Are People Too — AASP Podcast, 2023
Alumni Identity and Journey-Based Engagement — Alumless Podcast, 2026
THE BOOK(coming soon)
A practitioner book introducing the Alumni Identity framework — what it is, what the research shows, and what it means for how colleges and universities approach engagement and philanthropy.
Available Winter 2026.
Browse the full archive of articles, podcasts, webinars, and resources below.
Raising Alumni Identity Raises Dollars - Series Finale
The well-worn ruts in the advancement road are comfortable and difficult to leave behind.
Do you agree?
Enjoy the finale of my 6-part series on #AlumniIdentity with a look ahead to 21st-century alumni fundraising + take a chance at testing your own identity. Can it be used to predict your giving?
Data-driven Prospect Discovery Needs to Include Graduate Feelings of Connection
“Wealth screening is amazing at filling our donor pipeline!” – said no fundraiser ever.
When it comes to prospect discovery and pipeline development, no two strategies are as tried and tired as wealth screening and RFM models. Here’s a case study on how alumni identity - as both tactic and tool - blows everything out of the water when it comes to predicting giving.
Meaningful Volunteer Experiences Are Best, But Far Too Few
Volunteers care more about your institution than anyone else. And you have more volunteers out there than you think.
Research into alumni giving has revealed the secret sauce - it matters not how institutions view volunteering, but how alumni volunteers think of themselves and their alumni identity.
Digital Engagement ≥ Event Engagement? Yes.
When it comes to new ideas, higher education is on the bleeding edge in the classroom and noticeably behind in advancement. Need proof?
The Story Behind Giving Has Little to Do With 1s and 0s
Some say that predicting donor likelihood is the most important application of data science in higher education advancement.
I think it’s only the beginning.
Are You Missing Advancement’s Most Important Metric?
As any mathematician will tell you, counting something simply confirms its existence—nothing more, nothing less. Why is it, then, that when it comes to engagement, advancement is so obsessed with counting things?
Alumni Role Identity: A New Way Into the Alumni/Donor Psyche
Every graduate leaves their alma mater with a distinct impression of their time in school. Some will remember it fondly, others in a more negative light. At face value, there is probably little colleges and universities can do to change that impression post-graduation. But that hasn’t stopped institutions from trying and failing.
Higher Education Fundraising and the Culture of Sameness: Busting 3 Massive Myths
Alumni giving is crashing and the culture of sameness in advancement is partially to blame. Why? Because colleges and universities simply don’t know their alumni very well, and in the networked age – where the battle for attention is primary to everything else – higher education is woefully behind in being able to demonstrate post-graduation value to alumni.
Alumni Engagement: What We’ve Gotten Wrong And How To Fix It
At some level, every fundraiser knows that alumni engagement is an important driver of alumni giving. At the same time, the advancement profession seems perpetually perplexed by how to measure engagement and apply those measures to increase philanthropy. Why is that?