Inspiring Deeper Engagement Through Student Voices

Tara Gorvine
Deputy Director, Stewardship
Yale University

Though the past year has been difficult in so many ways, like many teams we have had silver linings and successes, and work that began years ago is now paying off. These are accomplishments born out of hard work and patience, finding the right technology, trying new things, and learning from our peers in ADRP. Our progress has been iterative and often slow, but arriving at this point is a heady feeling.

When I first started in my role six years ago, our student survey was housed on a platform that only the Advancement Systems team could access. We were limited in what changes we could request because of the structure of the data and the platform. All students received the same survey, which meant they had to answer the same questions year after year. Unsurprisingly, their responses were less than inspired.

We were also at this time drafting short bios from scratch of every student matched with a scholarship—over 1,000 students a year. When we didn’t have enough information from the survey, writers had to scour the internet or email students. All of this was incredibly time consuming and left us with no time to do more creative stewardship.

Inspired by what I learned from colleagues at my first ADRP New York conference, I began to plan for a time when we could move our scholarship reports to a Q&A format. It would be far more efficient than what we were doing, and it would put the student voices front and center. In order to do that, however, we needed better information from them. Happily, the sunset of one of our systems meant that we were able to move the student survey into a new, flexible tool that we had control over. This changed everything.

We created four surveys, one for each class year, with questions tailored to where students were in their Yale experience. The difference this made cannot be overstated. The first year we implemented it, we were amazed by the thoughtful, engaged answers our questions elicited. We were also able to collect photos on a large scale for the very first time.

Another step that had outsized effects was including a question in each survey asking students what they would like to say to donors who helped fund their education. Because it was part of the survey and not an extra step we were asking of them, students responded to this question at far higher rates than what we saw for personalized thank-you notes requested later in the year.

It was time to move to Q&A student profiles. In the 2019–2020 academic year, we piloted the Q&A format for everyone but principal and major gifts prospects. They would continue getting bios written by our writers, albeit in our snazzy new template.  We also included the message of thanks, which elevated the profiles further. The response to the Q&A format was so positive, in 2020–2021 we were able to implement it for all our reports. 

Donors and gift officers were delighted, and the new efficiencies this process created enabled us to accomplish our reporting even though we were short staffed this year. The time savings means we can do more creative stewardship and take a more proactive and collaborative approach to our work.

Letting students tell their own story has led to powerful profiles, and as I edited reports this year, I was moved over and over by them. It was wonderful to share them with donors, but I couldn’t help wishing we could share their stories with more people. Thus, in our surveys for 2021–2022, I added a new question. It explains that the most powerful way to show the impact of financial aid and a Yale education is through students’ own voices. It then asks permission to share student responses in the form of quotes in any medium for educational, promotional, advertising, or other purposes that support the mission of the university. They can respond with yes; yes, but only anonymously; or no.

The majority of students (an average of 83% across classes to date) have replied with either yes or yes, anonymously. Just like that, we have hundreds of student quotes to share in proposals, discussions with prospects, and on our giving website.

Following on this, I asked students who gave moving replies to a particular survey question to record their message in a video. Six students happily recorded their messages on the first request. Over the summer, we will edit the recorded messages together with some of the written replies for a video we can send to donors and repurpose for other messaging.

Students are now telling their own stories, and our improved communications educate them on their role in showing the impact of giving. This is a long way from where we were six years ago, and we’re excited to be providing content that our colleagues find valuable while also delivering more dynamic and engaging stewardship.