Credit: Dordt University Office of Marketing and Communication

The alumni and annual giving teams at Dordt University in Sioux Center, Iowa, U.S., are proud of the institution’s alumni giving rate: 18.89% of alumni made gifts to the university in the 2022–2023 fiscal year.

“We ask Dordt alumni why they choose to give, and they repeatedly refer to faculty and staff who not only instructed them but mentored them along the way,” says Karen Van Schouwen, Director of Annual Giving.

Dordt University is a Christian university with just under 2,000 total student enrollment and a 14:1 student-to-faculty ratio. Focusing on those tight-knit ties helps Dordt’s small advancement team connect with alumni.

“We lean into identity, mission, and community as a faith-based institution,” says Van Schouwen. “It’s a place where faculty members invite students to their homes for dinner, and 20 years later, those faculty members are still here and alumni still remember them. In our communications, we tap into those attributes about Dordt to remind alumni why they loved being here as students.”

With those connections in mind, the Dordt advancement team developed a new campaign aimed at more recent cohorts of alumni. The Defender Forever campaign asks alumni to commit to a $100 donation, automatically recurring each year. In return, they receive a welcome box packed with unique merchandise that’s not available online or in the university’s bookstore, such as a Defender Forever branded hat and a key wristlet; a quarterly newsletter; and regular perks like free hot chocolate at a football game, transferable tickets to Dordt theatre productions, and Defender Crunch (Dordt’s exclusive snack mix) during Defender Days/Alumni Weekend. 

The campaign, which launched in 2020, already has more than 1,000 subscribers, exceeding the team’s expectations. 

“We focused on fostering connection to the university community, and that’s an appeal that always serves us well,” says Alicia Bowar, Director of Alumni and Parent Relations. “An annual program like this takes a lot of work, but we pull it off through teamwork,” she says. “There is such a temptation in higher education—in any industry, really—to work in silos. We’ve been very intentional not to do that. The development team and alumni team work closely and share information as well as labor. And that goes for all of the university. We are very comfortable calling on any division to step up in support of our shared mission.” 

John Baas, Vice President for Advancement, has been at the university for 20 years and says, “The alignment in terms of what we stand for, why we’re here, is incredible. Our students leave [Dordt] loving this place—all the experiences in the classroom, in the dorms, on the athletic pitch, in the music ensemble, in the faith community. We are set up for strong alumni engagement. All we have to do is not mess that up.”