Wisconsin Alumni Giving

In August 2019, The University of Wisconsin partnered with Grafted to offer its current and former student-athletes a modern mobile app focused on providing peer-to-peer digital experiences that would foster actual career opportunities. The iOS and Android app was named Forward360.

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"You can’t just pump more content at these kids—you’ve got to connect them to people who can help. Even with a team of 10, we can’t do it all on our own. The needs of our student-athletes are increasingly diverse, and we have to work smarter to properly serve each one,” says Assistant Athletic Director for Organizational Effectiveness, Bridget Woodruff.

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With consistent awareness and curation efforts led by Executive Director of W Club & Strategic Partnerships, Nick Pasquarello, and Director of Career & Leadership, Brittany (McGowen) Root , the community has consistently grown since its launch in 2019. Today there are over 1,800 people in the community consisting of 650 current and 1,025 former student-athletes. These former student-athletes ("Letterwinners") have accounted for over 1,500 videos created that have generated over 29,000 unique plays within the community. The Letterwinners also account for over 1,100 unique in-app conversations. These engagement numbers are an order of magnitude higher than any previous time-span in the past.

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In the Spring of 2021, the University of Wisconsin athletics department launched a giving campaign offered to its former student-athletes. The results were incredible! 

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Disclosure: What we're about to share is correlative data. There are several factors such (e.g. timing of last giving campaign, covid, etc.) that play into the results.

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The giving campaign generated 379 first-time Letterwinner donors. Of these 379 first-time Letterwinner donors, 104 (27.44%) had already downloaded the Forward360 app and onboarded into the community! Said another way, 27% of first-time Letterwinner financial donors had already given their time and talent by participating in the Forward360 app.

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More and more institutions are acting on the fact that empowering career mobility is the number one way they can add value to alumni and in turn build a pipeline of engaged supporters.