Give Them What They Want
CURRENTS Article The University of Connecticut is devising new communications strategies, including experimenting with email segmentation, to make its philanthropic messaging relevant.

AdvanceWork: Manic Monday
CURRENTS Article E-mail marketers aren’t sending their messages on the days recipients are most likely to read them, according to a recent eROI study. “How’s Monday for You?” reports that marketers send more than 2.3 million e-mails on Thursdays, but only 24.2 percent of those messages are read. By comparison, 34.6 percent of the more than 1 million messages sent on Mondays are read.

Winners at Heart
CURRENTS Article Profiles of 12 winners of CASE’s 2004 Circle of Excellence awards. The winning alumni relations programs offered creative ways to generate revenue, use technology, or support a campus cause. In the development categories, campuses showed how to use flash e-mail annual giving solicitations and speech-writing students to attract donors. Communications winners relied on humor, creativity, and unconventional publications. And top advancement services shops highlighted the importance of identifying top campus prospects, working as a team, and maintaining accurate data.

AdvanceWork: Why So Formal?
CURRENTS Article Stanford University recently tested four different salutations on an e-mail to alumni inviting them to participate in an online survey. Surprisingly, young alumni responded better to a formal salutation than to an informal or generic one.

Many Happy Returns
CURRENTS Article In the two years after launching a free monthly e-mail alumni newsletter, the Stanford Alumni Association conducted three surveys of recipients. The results provided information on reader preferences for length, format, and content. Data also suggested that the newsletter promotes positive feelings and a sense of connection with the institution. An additional study of giving records found higher donor participation among newsletter recipients.