Ep. 243: Cutler Andrews | When an 8% Donor Base Funds a University: Unlocking Hidden Alumni Engagement Opportunities

Customer Confidential: Untold Stories of Earned Growth

Episode 243: At Emory University, 99% of donations come from just 8% of donors. It’s a small alumni minority funding almost the majority of the university. This raises a big question: How do you cultivate loyalty among everyone else?

In this episode, Emory’s Chief Experience Officer, Cutler Andrews, describes how they’re dismantling silos—by merging alumni relations, donor relations, and events—to offer a cohesive experience. They’re seeing success. Within five years, Emory’s engagement nearly doubled from 28,000 to 54,000 participating alumni.

Learn how Emory’s four engagement metrics (philanthropy, attendance, communications, and volunteering) feed a carefully designed funnel, turning casual alumni into potential major donors. We also explore how tracking personal preferences and tailoring interactions drives lasting impact.

It’s about balancing short-term fundraising with authentic relationships. How do you nurture entrepreneurs—those overlooked until “cash out”—and future big givers, without neglecting current donors? Learn how thoughtful engagement fosters trust, broadens participation, and reduces reliance on a few generous supporters.

Guest: Cutler Andrews, Chief Experience Officer & Senior Associate Vice President, Emory University

Host: Rob Markey, Partner, Bain & Company

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Want to get in touch? Send a note to host Rob Markey: https://www.robmarkey.com/contact-rob

Time-stamped List of Topics Covered:

- [00:02:19 - 00:03:00] Merging engagement, communications, and marketing: Cutler describes the creation of a unified team to orchestrate all donor-facing activities under one umbrella.

- [00:03:39 - 00:04:26] Overcoming siloed teams: How sending separate letters, emails, and event invites—without coordination—diminishes the overall constituent experience.

- [00:07:51 - 00:09:00] Engagement vs. fundraising: Cutler explains why alumni relations are often viewed as more feel-good, whereas fundraising may often be seen as purely transactional.

- [00:14:36 - 00:16:00] Emory’s four engagement buckets: How Emory measures engagement via philanthropy, attendance, communications, and volunteering—and why each bucket matters.

- [00:27:00 - 00:29:00] The risk of relying on a tiny donor base: Cutler points out that roughly 99% of their funding comes from around 8% of donors, underscoring the need to reach that remaining 92%.

Time-stamped Notable Quotes:

[00:00:27] “Ninety-nine percent of our money comes from seven or eight percent of our donors. That’s scary, because if that keeps getting smaller, it’s a ton of risk.”

[00:01:03] “We have all of these KPIs and goals, and the only question people ask is, ‘How much money [have you] raised?’ That’s part of the story, but that is the output of a greater story.”

[00:06:22] “Yes, large gifts help, but alumni engagement has to serve that mission, too. It can't just be, ‘Make our alumni community feel good and give them programs.’ We have to ask the questions, ‘To what end? To what value?’”

[00:27:10] “All of a sudden there’s an exit and there’s an influx of cash, and then everybody’s jumping on. It’s like, ‘You haven’t talked to this person at all—why do you think they’ll want to engage now?’ It shouldn’t always be because, ‘I know in ten years, they might make a gift.’”

[00:33:10] “We've seen engagement go from 28,000 alumni to 54,000 alumni in five years because of that intentionality, that creativity, and thinking through that if somebody does a great event over here, but if we can't market it over here, it's not going to do any good.”