Pepperdine University
Key Results
Can trace $1.7 million in fundraising ticket sales directly back to Fonteva
Boosted match rate of Salesforce® contacts to over 51%
70 different users created over 270 events in 2018 alone
The Challenge
Pepperdine University has been connecting the leaders of tomorrow with a truly superior education for over 80 years. In every field, Pepperdine alumni are changing the world for the better.
But with an annual schedule of alumni and fundraising events chock-full with complex registration processes, ticket packages and options, and hosted by various different campus organizations, Pepperdine needed an events platform that was robust enough to handle deep customization and personalization, yet simple enough to use that anyone – from interns to 90-year-old faculty members – could confidently spin-up events.
With critical fundraising activities depending on the success of these events, Pepperdine University sought the input of 140 key stakeholders, vetted 14 different events platforms, and finally turned to Fonteva.
The Solution
Fonteva began by working very closely with Pepperdine, embedding with its team to take the time to understand its unique registration requirements, specific fundraising goals, and its need for widespread user adoption. Then Pepperdine took off with Fonteva Events, extending its Salesforce® platform.
Fonteva Events gave Pepperdine the robust, customizable, easy-to-use events functionality it demanded. The world’s leading Salesforce®-native events software tool, the Fonteva solution brings together the powerful functionality and massive customizability of Salesforce® with the unique and industry-specific communication, registration, e-commerce, and reporting dashboards organizations like Pepperdine University need to make their events successful.
“We knew we needed something that was Salesforce®-native, because that’s what we already use for everything else,” says Mauricio Acevedo, Director of Digital Marketing at Pepperdine University.
“Fonteva’s platform allows us to tie attendee registration to our existing Salesforce® contacts based on last name and email. We now have a match rate of over 51 percent; that figure was well below 20 percent before Fonteva.”
From basic events like alumni gatherings and networking mixers, to complex ones like multi-day, multi-session conferences, Pepperdine got an events platform that is flexible enough to handle it all, yet simple enough that anyone can feel comfortable spinning up events.
“We’ve had 70 different users create over 270 events this year alone using the Fonteva Platform,” says Kathleen Gallanes, Event Marketing Specialist at Pepperdine University. “We can trace $1.7 million in fundraising ticket sales directly back to Fonteva.”
And since it’s native to Salesforce®, Fonteva Events provides Pepperdine with out-of-the-box Lightning dashboards and reports, as well as automatically triggered email nurture campaigns for event registrations, reminders, thank-yous, and more. Plus, Pepperdine is able to customize and control the look, feel, and flow of its event registration pages, allowing the university to maintain consistent branding across all of its touch points and easily embed attractive and valuable CSS elements like maps, directions, and more
How Pepperdine Leverages Fonteva Events and Salesforce®
At the Fonteva Users Network Conference (FUNcon), Director of Digital Marketing at Pepperdine University, Mauricio Acevedo, explains how Pepperdine selected Fonteva Events and Pepperdine’s Fonteva Admin, Katie Gallanes, provides a brief overview of how the university uses it.
The Bottom Line
Pepperdine has enjoyed so much success with Fonteva Events that it plans to expand its usage enterprise-wide, including using Fonteva Events to support its recruiting and admission related events and making it the default events management tool for student organizations on campus.
“We rely heavily on our events for fundraising, for engagement, and for alumni activities,” Acevedo says. “We’ve had a great partnership with Fonteva every step of the way to make that successful.” Helping make events work harder for one of the nation’s leading universities? That’s powerful extra credit, made possible by Fonteva.