Case Study: California Alumni Association achieves $1.3M in online donations and boosts member engagement with Convio

California Alumni Association - Customer Case Study

The California Alumni Association (CAA) at UC Berkeley, founded in 1872 and representing more than 95,000 alumni, needed modern online tools to support its outreach, events and fundraising. Staff were hampered by a limited email tool, unbranded and inflexible online forms, siloed data with no integrated reporting across communications, donations and membership, and no centralized system to manage constituent records and histories.

CAA implemented Convio’s integrated suite for email marketing, constituent management, fundraising and advocacy, using it to send multiple newsletters (Cal Connection ~130,000 subscribers; Bear Treks ~38,000), run concurrent campaigns and manage registration and donation forms while generating customizable reports for 130,000+ constituents. Between 2003–2006 they sent nearly 5.9 million emails (27% open, 6% click-through), raised about $1.3 million in dues and donations, managed 135+ events with over 31,000 registrations, and delivered nearly 140,000 advocacy letters (including 125,000 legislator emails in three days) that helped prompt the withdrawal of a proposed amendment.

California Alumni Association

Christy Hopeman

Director, Web & Information Technology