Brandeis Advancement CRM

The Brandeis Advancement Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system serves as a single platform to manage University engagement with constituents (alumni, donors, event attendees, corporations, foundations, friends, etc.). The core fundraising CRM tool, ascend, provides the foundation for an innovative, comprehensive Advancement solution that supports the management of bio/demo data, gift processing, prospect management, communication, stewardship activities, alumni relations, and reporting. In addition to ascend, the other tools that are part of the Brandeis Advancement CRM include MCAE (Marketing Cloud Account Engagement, previously known as Pardot), Linvio, Conga, and Tableau CRM. To learn more about these tools and their functionality, please visit the CRM Essentials page.

The Brandeis Advancement CRM helps Brandeis stakeholders across campus coordinate and record activities with a constituent, ensuring a clear strategy and meaningful engagement at all levels.

There are several benefits and exciting features of the CRM. Our system is a modern and long-term solution that is intuitive and enables efficiencies across campus. It is hosted on one cloud-based platform, ensuring data is accurate and up-to-date across the suite of tools. The system uses single sign-on (SSO), meaning users will be able to access all the integrated tools with one login on a secure platform. The system is accessible from mobile devices, allowing you to review and update information on the go. Finally, as the suite of tools integrates seamlessly, you will be able to access, edit, and manage constituent data in one platform.

Millennium is no longer the system of record for constituent data and donor-related activities; ascend and Salesforce tools have been adopted by IA staff. All communication and event activities moved to MCAE and Linvio in April 2024 due to the sunsetting of iModules and other tools.

If you have questions or concerns, please contact crm-help@brandeis.edu.

Yes! Please contact crm-help@brandeis.edu with any enhancement requests. Requests will be evaluated and prioritized by the CRM Steering Committee.

Beginning on June 21, all contact reports, proposals, gift agreements, and other donor-related documents and files should be added to the appropriate record in ascend; they should not be added to Box. The implementation team is in the process of evaluating and determining how to manage the files currently housed in Box and eCDR. In the interim, while you may need to refer to both systems, all new documents should only be added to the Brandeis Advancement CRM.

During the implementation phase of the project, IA, ITS, and our implementation partners went through an extensive data mapping exercise to determine where Millennium information would be stored in the Brandeis Advancement CRM. Data mapping activities and related decisions have continued post-go-live. To learn more about the data conversion process, please review the September 2022 Update on the CRM Conversion email from Hannah Peters.

We rely on all users of the system to be stewards of Brandeis’ constituent data. Our constituents’ information is constantly changing as they start new jobs, get married, relocate, etc., which requires all those with new knowledge to provide pertinent updates through the appropriate processes and channels (e.g., a Bio Demo Change Request).

The Records Management team within Institutional Advancement reviews and updates all change request submissions. This team is responsible for the data integrity of the Brandeis Advancement CRM, which is of the utmost importance to university leadership, all users of the system, and our constituents.

All training materials are available on Moodle Communities. 

Please note: Training documents are living documents that will continue to be updated based on feedback and enhancement requests.

Householding is a new term for us, but we are very excited about its potential to streamline some of our work! A household is a record that provides a holistic view of a constituent or couple (households are specific to spousal relationships and do not include children). Each constituent, regardless of their marital status, will have an associated household record. If a constituent is married and we have a record for their spouse, the household record will serve as a singular place for prospect management of the couple (rather than having to track on two records). Information from the constituent record will be “pushed” to the household record and vice versa, so you can access the same pertinent information on all records.

While the same information can be viewed on both the constituent and household record, certain data points will need to be managed on either the constituent or household record. We have developed a “cheat sheet” indicating where information will need to be managed as we transition to the use of households.

Chatter is a collaborative tool within ascend. Chatter allows users to partner on and resolve questions related to tasks, requests and other cases. Chatter will help limit the reliance on email trails for clarification of data points. All communication via Chatter will be recorded within the system and visible to all users. Chatter should not be used for making bio-demo, new constituent, or other record related updates. All users will be responsible for ensuring that change requests are logged appropriately.

Chatter Example: A gift officer has closed a gift and requested the new pledge be entered on a constituent record. As the gift processor enters the details, a question related to the split in designation arises. Rather than sending an email for clarification, the gift processor and gift officer can message using Chatter to quickly resolve the issue and automatically have the clarifying exchange recorded for historical context.

Yes! Basic details about a constituent — including, but not limited to name, institutional suffix, contact information, employment information, spouse, and any service indicators (such as “Do Not Contact”) — will be available immediately on the constituent overview screen.

Yes! The new system will be hosted on the cloud, allowing you to access it from anywhere, anytime. In addition, ascend has mobile functionality, so you will be able to access constituent data and system functions from your phone.

To request an update to address, phone, email, employment, or degree information, or to add a relationship or request a name change, please submit a Bio Demo Change Request located on the Constituent Details tab. For information on how to get there, go to the Training Materials tab. 

To add a service indicator to a constituent record, please submit a Bio Demo change request (on the Constituent Details tab) as you would for updating biographic or contact information. Please provide any details related to the request (e.g., the type of indicator and justification) in the “Requester Notes/Comments” field at the top of the page.

If we know a constituent works or has worked for Brandeis, the relationship would be captured as an Affiliation on the Constituent Details tab.

Contact report functionality allows you to add multiple internal and external constituents to a contact report record. If you are adding a contact report on behalf of a volunteer, the volunteer should be added as an external constituent with the appropriate constituent role (e.g., volunteer or solicitor).

Please note that when adding additional internal stakeholders to a contact report, the field is limited to Brandeis Advancement CRM users.

Linvio is an event management tool that supports event creation and constituent registration and tracking. Like ascend, Linvio is hosted on the Salesforce platform, so information is dynamic and shared between systems in real-time.

The Brandeis Advancement CRM is a suite of tools comprised of ascend, MCAE, Linvio, Conga, and CRM Analytics. To learn more about these tools and their functionality, please visit the CRM Essentials page.

There are currently many disparate systems being used across campus to track and engage with our alumni, donors, organizations, and friends. The Brandeis Advancement CRM will enable schools, centers, units, and departments to use one centralized system to effectively manage events and programs. This system will also support collaboration across campus on fundraising, donor management, and alumni engagement efforts, leading to operational efficiencies and transparency across Brandeis.

We are currently conducting pilots to learn more about the data being tracked, the functions needed, the security protocols required, and the related training needs. The pilot phase will continue throughout winter 2023, at which time we will begin additional discovery to learn more about how constituent data is currently maintained and used by departments/units on campus.

To support the rollout effort, we have established a Rollout Steering Committee with representation from the Provost Office, Finance and Administration, IA, and ITS.

It is important to note that “rolling out” the Brandeis Advancement CRM does not imply that everyone on campus will have access to this suite of tools. During the discovery phase, we will learn who requires access and for what purpose, as well as the process and protocols that should be followed. 

As the system is rolled out across campus, we will work with you to understand the level of access needed based on your role and anticipated use of the system.

We have trainers and power users who will be instrumental in providing support to all new users of the system. A support schedule and logistics will be communicated in conjunction with training activities.

As we continue the Brandeis Advancement CRM rollout effort across campus, we are inherently expanding and sharing responsibility for Brandeis’ constituent data. Concurrently, we need to make sure that we have the proper protocols in place to assure the quality of the data as the system evolves, and the appropriate staffing levels to handle the anticipated increased volume of change requests. 

Our constituents’ information is constantly changing as they start new jobs, get married, relocate, etc., which requires all those with new knowledge to provide pertinent updates through the appropriate processes and channels (e.g., a Bio Demo Change Request). 

The Records Management team within Institutional Advancement reviews and updates all change request submissions. This team is responsible for the data integrity of the Brandeis Advancement CRM, which is of the utmost importance to university leadership, all users of the system, and our constituents.

The rollout will require collaborative partnerships so that we can maintain this balance of controlled access and validated data. We will rely on all users of the system to be stewards of Brandeis’ constituent data.