Austin Peay State University Enjoys
First-Time Successes with iModules
Background
Founded in 1927 as a two-year junior college and teacher-training institution, Austin Peay State University—
named after former Tennessee Governor Austin Peay—is located in Clarksville, Tennessee. Between 2000-2006,
APSU’s enrollment increased 30 percent, making it one of Tennessee’s fastest-growing universities. With more
than 10,000 students, the university’s strategic plan calls for it to grow to 13,000 students by the year 2020 and
to 15,000 students by the year 2025. The Austin Peay State University Alumni Relations team supports more
than 60,000 alumni.
Challenge
The team at Austin Peay State University had been managing its online advancement efforts with several
pieced-together applications. The mixture of separate products was taking its toll: the content being delivered
to constituents was not mobile-friendly, online giving was archaic and difficult for both donors and APSU staff
to operate, and incoming data was being collected from multiple, disparate sources. Additionally, APSU craved
one platform for its administrators to manage and one online experience for its users to navigate; the need
for extensive training on multiple systems was discouraging the APSU team from expanding or improving the
existing applications.
Solution
Working with the iModules Implementation team, the first phase of Austin Peay State University’s advancement
website with iModules was ready to launch in six weeks. Focused on giving, the website presents information
on why to give, ways to give, and how to give to the university. The new website provides several new
enhancements for the APSU team:
Prior to iModules, the team at APSU had to go through another internal department at the university to
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make any changes to the online giving portion of their website. Now, they appreciate that they can deploy
any and all site updates immediately, themselves.
The team cites the automated confirmation email (gift acknowledgement) from the iModules system as
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making a huge engagement impact on donors and increasing staff efficiency by reducing manual processes.
Better gift tracking and the ability for APSU staff to take gifts over the phone has improved the administrative
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and donor experiences.
The ability for donors to self-identify as an alumnus/a, student, faculty/staff, parent, or friend directly on the
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giving form has provided new data insight for the APSU advancement team.
A mobile-friendly website and giving form make online giving opportunities accessible to APSU’s audience at
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all times, on all devices.
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(Continued) Austin Peay State University Enjoys
First-Time Successes with iModules
Within the first six months of launching with iModules, the APSU advancement team oversaw
the university’s first-ever 90-hour giving event, #GovsGive. With the goal of raising $90,000 for
the various university’s Funds of Excellence, athletics, and student affairs in 90 hours, the event
occurred during a month-long celebration of APSU’s 90th anniversary.
To support this effort, the APSU team worked with iModules to build a few website pages specific to the
campaign (GovsGive.com).
A campaign landing page outlined the campaign’s objective and giving opportunities, displayed a countdown
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clock, and provided real-time updates on total dollars raised through the iModules Progress Indicator. The
APSU cites the Progress Indicator as being instrumental in supporting the campaign, since offline gifts could
easily be added to the display of incoming online gifts.
The campaign landing page included several donation buttons with suggested gift amounts, ranging from
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$10-$250 (gifts up to $250 were matched) as well as an “Other” option. Choosing one of the suggested
gift amounts pre-populated the Encompass online giving form with the chosen amount, making the giving
process faster and easier for donors.
A campaign FAQ page helped answer donors’ questions.
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A campaign “Champion Toolkit” page helped donors promote the campaign via social media through
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downloadable images, campaign hashtags, and content/post examples.
Results
Although the team at APSU did plenty of research and preparation for their first-ever 90-hour giving event, they
had no idea what to expect or if the goal would be met. The response to the campaign was overwhelming:
$148,301 raised (165% of goal)
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All eight university areas and departments met individual goals with matching gifts
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455 donors, including 136 new donors
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Record breaking day: Austin Peay State University received its largest number of online gifts in a single day;
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largest number of individual gifts in a single day; and largest number of donors in a single day.
Phase 2 of the university’s implementation with iModules will launch a new alumni website utilizing Encompass
content management, event registration, email marketing, alumni Directory, memberships, and forms
management.
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