Facing challenges in analyzing open-text alumni survey feedback, Washburn & McGoldrick adopted Alchemer Pulse. This transformed their feedback process, reducing data analysis time by more than 50% and providing deeper, more actionable insights with unmatched consistency and security.
Washburn & McGoldrick is a strategic consulting firm specializing in philanthropic support for higher education, museums, and healthcare organizations. They help colleges, universities, and independent schools successfully build lasting relationships and secure funding for philanthropic programs.
The firm focuses on strategic planning, coaching, and training for large-scale fundraising initiatives, guiding institutions ranging from small colleges to major universities that raise from less than $5 million to more than $500 million annually. Their expertise includes defining problems and opportunities, developing written plans and critical paths, establishing metrics and milestones, and delivering bottom-line results. With a track record of success for more than 250 educational clients worldwide, Washburn & McGoldrick is a trusted partner in advancing institutional goals.
Their feedback and survey strategy help them achieve these outcomes. This strategy includes crafting questions, collecting and analyzing extensive feedback, and using the results to inform and benchmark performance.
By partnering with Washburn & McGoldrick to understand alumni sentiment and feedback, many universities and colleges have successfully refined their communication and engagement strategies. As a result, they’ve seen a significant increase in the percentage of alumni willing to donate.
More than two years ago, the team at Washburn & McGoldrick began to realize they weren’t getting the full picture from their traditional feedback methods. Their open-text survey comments, which often contained rich, passionate insights from alumni, were essentially going unread. There were thousands of unread comments, potentially holding valuable perspectives and emotional connections that quantitative questions might miss.
Initially, their approach to analyzing these comments was manual and labor-intensive. Team members would painstakingly read through the text, attempting to create themes and categorize sentiments in Excel documents. However, this method quickly revealed significant limitations. Each person interpreting the comments introduced their own subjective lens, meaning the same set of feedback could be tagged and themed differently depending on who was reading it. This human bias compromised the integrity and consistency of their analysis, making the insights less reliable.
Seeking a more efficient solution, they turned to technological tools like ChatGPT to automate the feedback analysis. ChatGPT sped up the process and reduced the manual time spent reading and analyzing open text comments by a third. While this seemed promising initially, they discovered another set of challenges. The AI’s thematic categorizations were wildly inconsistent – not just between different projects and clients, but even within the same project when run on different days. The lack of reliable, reproducible results meant that while the technology showed potential, it was still far from being a dependable research method. Additionally, security and data privacy were a concern with using ChatGPT.
Already using Alchemer for their survey needs, Washburn & McGoldrick implemented Alchemer Pulse, a game-changing data analysis solution that provided the clarity they needed to address pain points and more. Alchemer Pulse leverages AI and large language models (LLMs) to instantly analyze open text feedback, revealing themes, sentiment, and insights in real-time.
One of the most significant improvements is Pulse’s ability to quickly analyze survey data with consistency and depth. Unlike their previous approaches, Pulse handles the complexity of multi-layered comments, capturing nuanced sentiments that traditional methods might miss. Plus, it does so with unprecedented accuracy, ensuring consistent answers every time.
Moreover, Pulse enabled Washburn & McGoldrick to quickly flag and prioritize issues, from minor concerns to significant challenges, providing their clients with proactive suggestions and actions to take.
Unlike other AI tools, Alchemer gave Washburn & McGoldrick confidence that client data was secure and protected by robust privacy measures. This assurance allowed them to focus on finding insights without worrying about data security.
Washburn & McGoldrick can now fully tap into the richness of open text feedback, offering deep, reliable insights into the ‘how’ and ‘why’ behind survey responses.
Pulse solved critical challenges that other tools couldn’t:
“With Pulse, we can now truly understand the ‘how’ and ‘why’ behind survey responses, not just the ‘what’.”
— Dan Lowman, Senior Data Analytics Consultant at Washburn & McGoldrick
By leveraging Alchemer Pulse, Washburn & McGoldrick significantly improved efficiency and reduced analysis time by more than 50%. This has not only accelerated data processing but also results in significant cost savings across client projects. Additionally, the streamlined workflow, including seamless data exports to Excel, further optimizes the analysis process, making it easier for teams to access and analyze critical information quickly and effectively.
Improved confidence in data interpretation enables Washburn & McGoldrick to make more informed decisions, driving greater success for clients. Instead of surveying alumni once a year, Pulse’s speed and seamlessness integration enable them to conduct more targeted and frequent market research surveys. They’ve now identified opportunities for new service offerings, like creating alumni panels, and open doors to increased revenue streams. This efficiency positions them to outpace larger competitors and expand into broader markets.
With Pulse, Washburn & McGoldrick has established consistent themes for benchmarking, enabling universities to track and assess key focus areas over time. For example, comments are automatically categorized into topics such as Student Life & Experience, Financial & Budget, or Leadership & Administration, among others. These themes provide a clear framework for measuring performance and progress, ensuring that institutions align their efforts with specific goals.
Additionally, the ability to explore correlations between different sentiment areas also provides valuable insights, helping universities better understand alumni and donor engagement across various teams and departments—whether it’s fundraising, alumni relations, or student engagement. This allows teams to make informed decisions and tailor strategies to the unique needs and preferences of their alumni, strengthening relationship-building efforts.
Washburn & McGoldrick has been a trusted resource for their clients for more than 30 years. Alchemer has transformed how they collect and analyze data, providing deeper, more accurate, and actionable insights for their higher education clients.
“I’ve worked extensively with Qualtrics and SurveyMonkey in the past, but there’s a reason we’re with Alchemer now—it’s incredibly easy to use, does everything we need and more, and is completely dependable. I’ve never had to contact support because the help docs are clear, and the platform is intuitive. It just works”
— Dan Lowman, Senior Data Analytics Consultant at Washburn & McGoldrick
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