The Future of Alumni Engagement with John Rush

How are universities rethinking fundraising and alumni engagement in today’s rapidly evolving landscape?

In this episode of UnchartED State, hosts Susan Seal and Maddie Ludt welcome John Rush, Vice President for Development and Alumni and CEO of the MSU Foundation at Mississippi State University. With over three decades of experience at MSU, John offers a behind-the-scenes look at how institutions are adapting to shifting donor expectations, emerging technologies, and new engagement models.

The conversation explores:

• The evolving role of university foundations and hybrid advancement models
• How Gen Z is reshaping philanthropy through cause-driven giving
• The growing influence of NIL and athletics on donor priorities
• The role of AI in fundraising and alumni engagement
• The vision and impact of the Crossroads District development

John also shares why storytelling, student impact, and authentic relationships remain at the heart of successful fundraising, and why sometimes the most powerful tool is still a handwritten note.

Whether you work in higher education, nonprofit leadership, or advancement, this episode offers valuable insights into building meaningful connections that drive long-term impact. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Sometimes you do have donors that are very passionate about, hey, we need to be doing more in AI or we need to be doing more in civil discourse. The reality with those is it takes a very special donor because that is not something you can do. Sadly, with a million dollars or two million dollars, it takes a very significant commitment. So then when you get down to the window of who has this passion and who truly has the capacity to carry it, that's really rare. When it happens, it can be magical.

SPEAKER_02 0:36

Welcome to Uncharted State, a podcast about remapping higher education. Where today we'll be discussing the changes in development and alumni relations at universities, and of course, looking through that lens from uh Mississippi State uh University. I'm Susan Seal. I'm the Dean of the College of Professional and Continuing Studies and uh one of the hosts and Maddie Lut, who is the Assistant Director of Outreach and Engagement, uh, is the other host. How are you this morning? Great. Happy to be here. Yeah, good, good. Uh our guest today is John Rush. So we're happy to have you with us as well. Uh John is Vice President for Development and Alumni at Mississippi State and president and CEO of the MSU Foundation and MSU alumnus himself. Uh John leads the university's philanthropic and alumni engagement efforts, overseeing a foundation whose total assets have surpassed $1 billion. Uh under your leadership, MSU has achieved back-to-back years of raising over a quarter billion dollars in gift commitments, a landmark achievement for the institution. Uh which begs the question how much of that is earmarked for podcast studio upgrades? Almost all. Almost all. Excellent, excellent. So uh welcome uh to our humble studio, and we're looking forward to our discussion today.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Thanks, Susan. Appreciate you having me.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

So, for people who may not be familiar with your role, what is uh the role of vice president of development and alumni at Mississippi State? And how does that work with the president and CEO of the foundation? And is that kind of what other universities like? Is that how it's organized most everywhere or are they kind of different?

SPEAKER_00 2:23

So it says that's a great question. And the answer is it it varies wildly. Um at some institutions, um, the foundation and the president CEO of the foundation are completely independent of the university. Uh they raise on behalf of the university, but they don't necessarily report to the president or chancellor of that institution. Other institutions will have a model that is a more, that's an independent model that's more dependent, um, where that person reports directly to the president of the university, and they may not even have a separate foundation that all the funds are then managed internally. We are more of a hybrid operation, which is what most of the SEC schools, for example, would be, where you have a vice president that oversees an advancement division. Uh, those can include alumni associations, sometimes they don't. They can include career services. Uh we have some nuances here at Mississippi State that are definitely different than other institutions. But in that model, you still while the the vice president reports to the university president, you still have an independent foundation board of directors, uh, a board that selects its own members and it is um independent. It has an affiliation agreement with how it operates with the university. And so I am then elected to serve as the president and CEO of the foundation by the board of directors of the foundation.

SPEAKER_02 3:50

Okay. And that structure is it is fairly new? Did or how long is we've had this exact structure?

SPEAKER_00 3:59

The CEO role is new. The independence of the foundation is how we were set up in 62. So the CEO role um really came into being in around 2000 when Dennis Prescott came. Um but the independence of the foundation from the university has been in place in 62.

SPEAKER_02 4:19

So with the the the changes that is taking place in higher ed, and it's all over the place.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

Right.

SPEAKER_02 4:24

Um is your role different than it was a few years ago, just the day-to-day things that you do, or is it kind of the same thing, building relationships?

SPEAKER_00 4:34

So the the bread and butter of the job is is still the same. You know, you're managing an advancement staff and you have an alumni association and a foundation that people often from the outside will view are very different. Reality is they're very similar. Um, one is on the micro level and one's on the macro level, right? And so we're all trying to build relationships with external audiences, typically alums, but that includes employers and foundations and anyone that has a vested interest in the institution. You try to get them engaged uh and you try to get them to contribute some way. That may be their time, that may be their talent, and it may be their treasure. The alumni association does it with the masses, the foundation does it highly specialize with individuals. And so that role has not changed. What has changed is some of the other opportunities. Um, and that's where we've had an opportunity to do the crossroads district uh and provide some alternative opportunities to support the university in different ways other than just monetary.

SPEAKER_02 5:37

And Maddie and I were talking earlier about that uh you're not exactly new to MSU.

SPEAKER_01 5:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:42

No.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

I've heard bits and pieces from uh admissions and recruiting trainings uh over my time here at MSU. You know, an important part of engaging with our stakeholders is telling the MSU story. So tell us your MSU story, maybe an abbreviated version.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

Yeah, so and there are no abbreviated versions with me. Uh you'll ask a question in regret that you asked it because I'll talk so long. But so I grew up in South Mississippi, and my brother's 10 years older, and he wanted to be an electrical engineer. And so this is where he chose to go to school. And so you kind of idolize your older brother. And so I came up for MSU baseball games and other events and just fell in love with friendliness of the campus. And I was freshman here in 90, graduated in 94, and I was that kid that just did stuff. Um I was a roadrunner, orientation leader, and wasn't sure where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do, and was given an opportunity to be an admissions counselor. And so it was kind of a fun opportunity to first job out of college, see what you want to do. I did not know that would turn into a 32-year career so far in counting at the university. So I did that for three years. I was a college-based fundraiser for seven. I internally managed all the campus fundraising for two years. And in April, I will have completed 19 years in this role.

SPEAKER_02 7:06

That was pretty concise. Okay. Yeah. I thought maybe we're gonna go for like the long format documentary.

SPEAKER_00 7:11

I can tell you about my grandmother's influence if we need to go there. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 7:15

Next time, part two. Part two.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

Fair enough.

SPEAKER_02 7:17

Uh, in a lot of the podcasts, we've we've kind of been all over the place. We've talked about how students have changed, their sense of belonging has changed. We've talked, of course, about AI and how marketing has changed, governance has changed. Um how has what you do changed in terms of donors? Are are donors funding the things that they've always funded? Scholarships, buildings, endowed chairs, uh that and we still need, obviously, we still need those things. But are are donors pushing us to to do some of those innovative things? And we'll talk a little bit about the crossroads, which you talked about, mentioned. Um, but some of the stuff that we're doing in our college, you know, the micro-credentials, the um uh virtual reality.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

Right. Are are are donors pushing or are they kind of staying in where they have been in the So you're actually kind of seeing that push on both sides. Um, and what I mean by that is there's still the fundamental operations that have to be done, right? I would love to get to a point where no student has need and we've raised all the scholarship money we need to raise, right? We'll get to a point where all of our salaries are competitive and we don't have to do endowed faculty positions anymore. That's not gonna happen anytime soon. And so you have to continue with those type conversations, but fundraisers are trained to listen to what donors are interested in. And if they can match a need at the institution with a donor's passion, you're first of all gonna have a happier donor, right? They're not giving reluctantly, they're they're giving to something they're excited about, and it's easier to show them success because they're already of an optimistic mindset. And so if you can make them happy about their gift, then there's the next gift, and there's the next gift, and there's the next gift. And so you want them to give where they're happy, right? But we're also trying to listen to where the biggest gift opportunity is. And sometimes we don't have ideas at the institution that maybe are inspiring enough. Sometimes you have donors that um have much greater capacity than a chair or an endowed college or an endowed department. And so you're trying to figure out what is this cool, different idea that we could put in front of them that aligns with their interest. Sometimes you do have donors that are very passionate about, hey, we need to be doing more in AI or we need to be doing more in civil discourse, which is a big topic right now, right? The reality with those is it takes a very special donor because that is not something you can do, sadly, with a million dollars or two million dollars. It takes a very significant commitment. So then when you get down to the window of who has this passion and who truly has the capacity to carry it, um that's really rare. Uh when it happens, it can be magical, particularly if the university embraces it, right? Because you never want to raise money for something that the university's not going to embrace and support. That's not in line with the university. It's not in line with the institution. And and people would are often surprised to know that we turn gifts down. Um we turn gifts down more than people realize because they don't align with the mission or the purpose of the university. Or they may, in fact, particularly if you're getting into to into AI or or some of the high-tech needs, it could actually wind up costing you more money than the gift. And that's a bad business decision. And if you can explain that, the donors, they understand that. They don't want to put you in a financial bind. They're they're trying to make a difference, they're trying to help, right? They don't want to put you in a bind.

SPEAKER_02 11:13

So a lot of people that are that are listening to to the podcast are in higher ed, maybe in you know, roles like some of our whatever. How do they or we talk to the foundation, you, your team, to to share that vision, get people excited about the things that that we need. You know how how do we help get that magic?

SPEAKER_00 11:40

So um conversations are great ways to do it. Um we typically at any institution are going to have fundraisers uh embedded across the university. Now we are also very strategic about where return is and how we try to balance that. But we've got fundraisers across the campus, and so have a conversation with them. Make deans aware, like yourself, take it to Dean's Council, get it to the vice president's level, let us have those conversations. Um, because what you'll find is we're actually going in and asking people, hey, I've got someone that's interested in this. Do we have anything here at the university that matches? And that's the challenge void that it may be in your head, and my fundraiser may be looking for it, but I don't know. But what they don't know exactly.

SPEAKER_02 12:28

Yeah. It's kind of the same thing I tell people all the time. Make sure that you express what it is that you want to be and do professionally. Because a lot of times, you know, you're looking, you're restructuring or you're looking to grow certain areas. And if this person's sitting there going, Man, I'd love to do that, and you don't know, you're kind of stuck. So matching the the ideas. Um, you mentioned the crossroads district. Yes. Uh so uh MSU Foundation's a driving force behind that. Uh a 15-acre, is that right? Uh 15-acre mixed use development that includes uh boutique hotel, restaurants, uh the new home of the Grant Presidential Library, which we uh have had for quite some time, and uh an innovation hub. How does a project like one, how did that come about? Uh I I mean, that's gonna be transformational. I'm so excited about that. Uh, I think it's gonna be transformational for Mississippi State, for Startville, uh, but how does that come about and how does that fit in with who we are, our mission, and all that stuff?

SPEAKER_00 13:33

Right. So it's it's the thing I'm most excited about. Uh my wife will tell you it's also the thing that's almost killed me a half dozen times through the process, right? The genesis of this really goes back 10 plus years. Um we have often had individuals approach the university and say, hey, on this sliver of land that abuts the university, would y'all be interested in buying that? And we don't have endless pockets of money to buy everything that that touches our border, because that's a never-ending process, right? But we also had property on the edges of campus that we weren't fully utilizing. And so David Shaw, um, who's now our president uh executive vice president provost, uh, and Les Potts, who's now our CFO for the university, and I went to Dr. Keenum, our president, and expressed this challenge and said, we need a strategy. We need some real rational basis for what we buy or don't buy. Sasaki, which is a campus master planning group based out of Boston, had just completed a master plan for the university, but it didn't include adjacent lands. So we went and spent two days with those guys in Boston and talked about all the different parcels of land next to campus. And as they looked at maps and talked to us, they quickly realized that Highway 12 is a dividing line between the university and the campus. And other college communities, you have this great game day opportunity where there's a flow. We have a four-lane highway that blocks that flow. It's also a challenge from a reputational standpoint of the university. Many people will come to a sporting event as a visitor and leave and they never see Starkville. And we've got a great downtown, we've got a great cotton district area that no one ever sees. And so it's how do you bridge that? How do you draw people into that? And so they identified this parcel of land that is now the Crossroads district. Um, we began to look at it, and every little piece of apartment that was in there was under a different LLC. There was a hotel that was there that was kind of going down in quality and getting tired. And it just seemed very ambitious. And it was a little frightening that we knew if we tried to start buying pieces, the hole was going to get more expensive. And we caught a break during COVID. Uh, one of the apartment complexes went up for sale. A friend of mine who's a realtor in town called and said, Hey, Rush, this is available. Would y'all have any interest? I said, Well, we do. But I noticed all these different LLCs. I don't think we'll ever get it. And he said, Well, one family owns all those LLCs but two houses, and you go to church with the family that owns the other two.

SPEAKER_02 16:27

Oh, yeah. I said, The southern way, right? You go to church with how it works in the southern way.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

I said, Get me a price. Uh so we got a price and we negotiated on all the little LLCs but the two, and we were able to purchase those in 20, December of 20. Uh, in the spring of 21, we purchased the other two, uh, and then we turned our focus towards the hotel that was there. And in part of that process, we had outgrown the building, Hunter Henry Center, where our alumni and foundation operations are. It was a very uniquely designed building, which was going to create some renovation challenges. And so we began looking at the mill, which is a conference center next door to campus that the university had leased.

SPEAKER_02 17:05

It became a historic building.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

Historic building. Um twice the size of where we were. And it um it became a real opportunity. But we knew that the developer of that owned the hotel that we were very concerned about that was going down in the heart of the Crossroads district. Uh, they also owned two other hotels. And so I was able to go back to our board and say, you know, we made a strategic investment to protect the front door by buying these apartment complexes. Here's a little different strategic opportunity. And this one's going to provide a return. We already have an allocation in our investment portfolio to real assets uh and to real estate. Let's take a portion of that allocation and invest it here. And so we set a set up a for-profit company that we then invested in that purchased those hotels that really made this area start to work.

SPEAKER_02 18:06

Um and and we have a great town and gown relationship, which is has got to be helpful with that, with the mayor of Startville and the president of Mississippi State just working.

SPEAKER_00 18:19

Absolutely. Absolutely. The Board of Aldermen have been very helpful to us in this process. The Greater Startful partnership under the leadership of Mike Taggart, completely invaluable. Um, but the mayor has been supportive, Board of Alderman, and we could not have done it without them.

SPEAKER_02 18:35

So switching gears a little bit, uh Gen Z.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:42

They're now entering that donor pipeline, starting to to trickle in, and their characteristics are a little bit different. Uh not as trusting of institutions and the loyalty in general. I mean, anytime we're talking about generations, right? You can always find, well, so and so's not like that, but from a general standpoint, um, they support causes quite often as opposed to even where they went to school. Um they're one of the most connected generations, but they're also lonely. So the the relational thing is a is a different piece. Um how are you building a a philanthropic culture with that those new Gen Z donors that are coming in?

SPEAKER_00 19:35

First of all, it's not easy. Um and they're more connected than ever, as you said, but they're also disconnected. And it's it's how do you get in front of them? Susan, you and I are of the age that when we graduated, when we got a place to live, we got a landline telephone. With a landline telephone, I can find your address. And so these graduates will never ever have a landline telephone. Many of them have don't even understand what a land why why why you would have one, right? And how you're able to get anywhere. Exactly. And then you don't you are you don't know who's there already by looking at it? So getting their cell phones as students is step number one. If you cannot capture their cell phone number, you'll never catch them because they're not they're not checking email, they're changing emails frequently. That does not work. Um for us, we don't have the ability to drive to their social media, so we have to find a way to get them to come to our social media channels. Um, but it all starts with a cause and it starts with their cell phone number. And so we will do projects for students um where they will give to maybe if they're aerospace engineers, we'll ask them to give to the Space Cowboys. Uh, we'll ask them to help fund raise for this. And so it helps educate them on what it's due, what what's going on. And we ask our deans, anytime you make travel available for a student or you make a scholarship available for a student, or anything that you do, help educate them that this was due to a philanthropic gift. Because when I was a student, I assumed wrongly that my parents' tuition and state funding funded the institution. Yeah, absolutely. And so they still believe that. And so you have to do this educational process, but to your point, you have to find causes that they're passionate about, right? My parents gave you their alma mater because that's what you did.

SPEAKER_02 21:38

Yeah. The loyalty to the institution.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

The loyalty to the institution. That is not necessarily there anymore.

SPEAKER_02 21:45

But that opens up opportunities too, because now if you have a cause that people care about you can pull from other universities' alumni.

SPEAKER_00 21:56

Correct. Correct. And that is and for us. And where we're located, that is one of the things that we really play up that this institution has a real opportunity to improve the quality of life in Mississippi. Um and so many of our alums have left and built their career outside of the state and they have more of a loyalty back to the home state that they grew up in. And so we really paint this as an opportunity to change the perception and change opportunities for Mississippi. And reality is we still have a very high population of first generation students coming to school here. Um and so there's still the narrative of this is the place to get a kid an education and give them an opportunity and chance at a better life. And that continues to resonate. And for many of our alums that have moved out of state and see the politics and the things in different states, they really appreciate that we're still focused on the bare bones, you know, not the bare bones, but the the core function of what higher education was intended to do.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

John, you answered my question um about about that. I was curious about the opportunities that students have to build that philanthropic identity um while they're here and how that connects. But I mean you you covered that.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

It's it's a challenge and something that we focus on. Uh we're not doing enough, to be very honest. There's there's more that we need to do because helping college graduates understand just do $20, just do $50, just do $100. We we want you in the habit of giving. We're not as much focused on where the gift goes as we want to get you in the habit of giving. Because the data shows if we can get you to give for 30 years consecutively, you'll probably put us in your estate plans. And that can be really significant for the institution.

SPEAKER_02 23:56

It becomes who you are. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:58

Correct. The the relationship has run that long that you are part of the family, right? As we're making plans for the family, Mississippi State is part of the family.

SPEAKER_01 24:08

So we talked about like how some of those engagement channels have changed, like cell phones, texting. That's, you know, very much in line with what I see on the student engagement side as far as recruiting goes. Um, but how have this generation's expectations for engagement changed?

SPEAKER_00 24:27

They want to see results and they want to see them quickly. Um, and that's why we have to really focus on small projects, right? Where we're trying to raise $3,000 for the SpaceX car or we're trying to raise $3,000 for the livestock judging team, they can see the success. Um, if we were going to them and saying, hey, we're going to try to raise $20 million for a new rec center, that's more challenging.

SPEAKER_01 24:54

Yeah. So they've grown up with like GoFundMe, and that they want it to work like GoFundMe.

SPEAKER_00 24:58

They want it to work just like GoFundMe. Yeah. And if you can do, and we do this through through accelerator channels where you can see the thermometer where the gifts are coming in and doing kind of the old united way approach, yeah, that really resonates with the people. They want to see that there's already been they see the tangible goal and they see you hit and and achieve the goal because they're smart, right? And if the goal is $20 million or $50 million, that they feel like their $100 doesn't make a difference.

SPEAKER_02 25:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:26

So you have to show that your hundred dollars truly does make a difference.

SPEAKER_02 25:31

So much of uh conversation right now around donors is with the NIL. I mean, every everybody's talking about NIL. You go to restaurants in Startville, you can give to NIL. And we we have seen how athletics does impact the rest of the university. Uh the foundation, the it's separate, but you know, when we were number one in the nation with our football team, it impacted enrollments. Our enrollments went up that next year. When our women were in the national championship game two years in a row, we saw how that had a positive impact on the university as a whole. So it's important, but how do we balance the money and donors wanting to fund the exciting thing? You know, everybody loves sports, and we're in, like I said, we're in the South. Everybody loves sports, and we have great, you know, uh sports tradition. How do you balance that with the other things that we know we need that we've been talking about?

SPEAKER_00 26:37

Right. So it really goes back to listening to the donor and putting opportunities in front of them that you believe align with their their interests. And we will give them opportunities across the board. I mean, rarely do we go in with this is the only thing we want to talk about. Right. And so give them the full menu and let them we'd love to bundle it and do the whole menu, right?

SPEAKER_02 27:00

Yes, right.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

But NIL has kind of become this lightning rod of late. The reality is you have some alums that are absolutely turned off by it.

SPEAKER_02 27:11

Oh, absolutely. I've seen that.

SPEAKER_00 27:13

You have some alums that are like, yes, this is the opportunity where we can excel and I can direct my gift to an impact area and I can see that result literally on the field in front of me. And so people are excited about it. Uh you have others that go, boy, if we don't do it, what what's the outcome? So we've got to do it. And so all those mixtures are there. Um, but if they're still connected to the institution, then they still remember that the education got them the opportunity to build the wealth that they have. They're still very loyal to the academic side of the institution. And our best donors fund all the things. They fund all the things. They're not just laser channeled in one area. And quite honestly, that is the healthiest donor because they have so many points of contact with the institution that there's always something positive, there's always something exciting going on that keeps them engaged. And so we really hate to see a donor get rifled into one small niche of the campus.

SPEAKER_02 28:18

Is it making your job and your team job more difficult?

SPEAKER_00 28:22

It is um causing us to have much different conversations. Um it it can be a negative, as I said, but it can also be exciting for some people. And there are people who, quite honestly, weren't giving to athletics that are now giving because of NIL, right? Because our old athletic model was really based on priority seating. Well, if you live in Denver or you live in Seattle and with the SEC network now, you're not coming back to campus for games. So you didn't need seating priority. But here's a way you can still help the athletic program, and it's a tangible need that they have, and still enjoy the product from the comfort of your home. The catch 22 to that is having every game on television is alumni engagement. I need small fan, I need young families bringing their kids back to campus, staying connected. That helps with student recruiting. And so if you're not coming back for ball games, it's easy to get disconnected. That to me is the bigger challenge in SEC sports from an alumni engagement standpoint than in I.L. actually is.

SPEAKER_02 29:44

Yeah. Well, and getting people on campus is uh it's a great atmosphere. And we were we were talking to uh Thomas Broadis, our chief marketing officer, uh, previously, and just about that whole family connection and and and and we try to duplicate that and for the adult learners and online and and it's more difficult, but uh but but it transcends even here. That's right. But we can do that. And so yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:14

The magic happens when the alums come back to campus, right? The one of the most magical experiences is getting a donor in front of their scholarship student and letting that young person not just say thank you for your support, but tell them a little bit about their background and kind of what their dreams are, and then watch the relationship begin to evolve because they see themselves in that person and they begin offering this kind of fatherly or grandfather or grandmotherly type advice. And it's I had a uh I had a person in this building business years ago, Frank Shannon, tell me, he said, I've never once in decades of doing this put a scholarship donor and a student together and have the donor look at me and go, that was a waste of an investment. It's always positive.

SPEAKER_02 31:05

I worked at the I was at the with the vet school for a while and uh had the uh legislative luncheon, you know, in Jackson. And what they would do is bring faculty and faculty would talk about all the stuff that they're working on. And we were talking about it one day, like, why don't we have students do that? 100%. And it was a game changer because a lot of it, the the what the legislature understood that our vet school did was very different than when they saw students standing in front of them saying, as I'm getting my doctorate in veterinary medicine, I'm also getting a PhD and I'm doing research on schizophrenia. I mean, they were like, Oh, I I thought we just did dogs and cats and horses and cows. They had no idea, and they were seeing some brilliant students talk about their projects and what they were doing and their plans.

SPEAKER_00 32:00

And at the end of the day, the investment is about the students.

SPEAKER_02 32:03

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 32:04

That's the life you're trying to impact. And so show that impact.

SPEAKER_02 32:08

Right. We can't have uh a podcast or any conversation about the changes taking place in uh higher ed without talking about AI. Yeah. So uh how is that affecting uh what you do, uh what your team does, how they're using AI or incorporating that into uh just the role itself?

SPEAKER_00 32:27

So across the industry, it is a it is all over the map. We are finding more advantages here in doing prospect research. There's so much more predictive modeling and and data gathering that we can do with AI than we've ever done before. We're still struggling with how to make that connectivity with the alum. Um some schools are going to virtual development officers. Um I struggle a little bit with that. Um my friend Jack McCarty says if you're gonna do that, make sure that virtual development officer looks like your mascot. So you know on the front end ethically that you're not dealing with a human.

SPEAKER_02 33:15

Um we have John Rush, the hologram?

SPEAKER_00 33:18

Well, I would strongly advise against that. Yeah, you don't want to scare people off. But a lot of schools are using this in ways to make the fundraiser more proficient. And this is where we're trying to go. The automatic reminders, the being able to get the contact reports back into the system quickly, knowing when we need to push just subtly, um, and when it's time to ask for the renewal, those sorts of things. Um we haven't used it. Some schools are beginning to use it to write proposals, they're using it to write gift agreements. Uh some schools are using that as follow-ups to uh visits as in a note. I am very much in that regard opposite because I believe very strongly that our fundraisers still need to understand the core fundamentals that go into the gift agreements. We also do handwritten notes. It's just it's just old school. It's what my mama taught me to do. But people don't get handwritten notes anymore. And so when you send a handwritten note back to a donor uh that you after a visit, they remember that.

SPEAKER_01 34:30

I was at a recruiting event yesterday and I had someone stop by my table. I didn't write the note, but profusely thanked me repeatedly for the handwritten notes that her it was an administrator at the school I was visiting. Her daughter is a prospective student, thanked me for the handwritten notes that her daughter had been receiving and said that they were the only piece of mail from universities that she had kept.

SPEAKER_00 34:56

You'll open it.

SPEAKER_01 34:57

So yeah, they make a huge difference.

SPEAKER_02 35:01

So as we kind of uh wrap up, what what most excites you about uh your role in higher ed and what's going on with Mississippi State and uh with alumni with the foundation?

SPEAKER_00 35:17

So I I love what we're doing at Crossroads. I love the fact that we are changing the interface between our campus and our community. I love the fact that we are creating a venue that will bring our alumni back to campus. We talked about sports. It is a key to alumni engagement, but you don't do football but seven weekends out of the year. Um you've got to have other reasons for alums to come back. And so if you can create a community and create activities for them to come, maybe bring their families, have girls' trips, weekends, gatherings, that just strengthens the engagement level. And we've not done that. And so that opportunity is the most exciting part to me.

SPEAKER_02 36:03

Yeah. Well, and like I said, you know, we do a lot with with online learners, and one of the things that we try to do is connect them back. I mean, we say this is your campus. That's right. And and when we have our graduation reception, quite often it's the first time the students have been on campus, but it's still theirs. And so uh, you know, some of those opportunities, getting them to come back later after they because a a lot of those folks, they want to get through, they want to get that degree, they're trying to move up in their career quickly. Right. Uh, but then later, you know, this is this was my school. Right. Uh and being able to come back.

SPEAKER_00 36:44

So and I think it's for us to to continue to tell the story that we're making a difference. You know, the opinion of higher ed nationally is not at an all-time high. Yeah, that's true. I will say. Um, but when we can show here's a life that we changed, here's an opportunity that was created. Um that resonates and that gives people confidence in their alma mater and what's going on. And so they want to be a part of that.

SPEAKER_02 37:13

There was a conference I went to, it's years ago, and we had a table there, the, you know, the old exhibit table with all the and it it was less for recruiting and more for the alums that were going to be there so they could see, oh yeah, and they would bring people by. This is where I went to school. This is, you know, uh, so it was to build that pride. Yeah, it was a little bit for recruiting, but more of it was to build that connection.

SPEAKER_00 37:42

And thank you for doing it because it's the face-to-face interaction, right? So much of our information is available online. That's our biggest challenge in alumni engagement right now. Like, particularly think about alumni chapters, right? Everyone would come to the alumni chapter meeting to know what was going on. There would be representatives from the university. All that information is at their fingertips now. So we have to find different ways to engage and bring a program to the chapters that's unique, that's worth, you know, making it.

SPEAKER_02 38:17

Well, y'all are doing some exciting things, and uh like I said, I'm I can't wait. And it's neat to drive by every day and see the transformation in the Crossroads District. Yeah, we're excited.

SPEAKER_00 38:29

Hotel Madeline is gonna change the face of Starkville. Super excited about it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:33

Well, thank you for being here today and sharing all that. I think this is really helpful. Thanks. Thank you for joining us on Uncharted State. We hope today's conversation sparks some new ideas about the future of higher education. Hit follow so you never miss an episode. Never know what uncharted territory we'll explore next.