Case Study: Duke University achieves $3.85B fundraising and scaled alumni engagement with Cvent

Cvent and Duke University Increasing Engagement and Efficiency

Duke University, a highly selective private research university in Durham, NC (ranked eighth in the U.S. with an $8.5 billion endowment), relied on fragmented, manual event processes across its Development Office and Alumni Association. Event creation, reminders, registrations and reporting were handled in silos—by email, fax and spreadsheets—making staffing, communication and tracking tedious and unpredictable.

In 2016 Duke centralized event management with Cvent, unifying marketing/registration, onsite solutions, contact management, system integrations and e-commerce. The platform let the Development Office run 140+ events a year (including 25 large fundraisers) with a six-person staff, enabled the Alumni Association to host 700+ regional events with a 12-person team, and supported raising $3.85 billion from 315,000+ donors for the Duke Forward Campaign—delivering greater scale, efficiency and data-driven engagement.

Duke University

Mark Wienants

Operations Coordinator