Fuzzy Content

College and university marketing is often about stories. This is especially true when managing the development or giving Web site for institutions. These sites don’t fulfill the need without stories or opportunities for your audiences to connect (or reconnect). Some must-haves on these Web sites, in my opinion, are:

• Drive to action. Making a gift is always the most significant action. Other actions are to register for events, volunteer, and RSS subscriptions or newsletters.
• Stories. Even though facilities campaigns make great stories, nothing beats personal testaments. Use scholarship winners, faculty projects, and even staff reflections as ways to personalize the experience. Make this effort long-term by creating a blog.
• Ongoing news. Keep your contributors up to date on campaigns and awards. And publish these in easy to subscribe formats. The more often your Foundation is in front of people with good news, the stronger the relationship.
• Events. Get people to come see you. An away football game, groundbreaking, and open houses are great ways to get your constituents to mingle. Chapter events should not be too private…share local events on the national Web site as well.
• Giving information. This seems basic, but make it as simple as possible. Giving programs, gift calculators, and tax procedures all make the process straightforward. And don’t forget ongoing progress.

A few sites that I think are doing great work include:

• Oregon State University Foundation.  Their tools for giving section make this site simple for the first-time giver. Also, their tax information and professional advisor information make giving an investment.
• Oklahoma State University Foundation. “Gifts in Action” and the scholarship blog keep friends engaged and coming back to the site. The contests drive participation. And the stories act as prime real estate on the home page.
• Supporting Notre Dame. Stories take center stage (even from the .edu home page). Their “Inspirations” campaign shows the impact of gifts through students, alumni, faculty, and staff. They have a pretty clean photo gallery. And I don’t say this very often, but their page design certainly caught my attention.

Some honorary mentions for me are Ohio State’s O-H-I-O feature, UNLV’s Invent the Future videos, and South Dakota State’s YouTube participation.