The Advance system is used to facilitate the fundraising activities of all seven schools and the central Development and Alumni Relations department. The system has more than 100 users and is used to track over 200,000 entities, including alumni, organizations, and other groups of current and potential donors.

The central gift processing group enters 13,000 gifts and pledges each year and uses the system to create receipts and acknowledgments. The system also is used to monitor the solicitation process for major donors through contact reports and tasks. The system is available 24 hours a day to anyone with an internet connection, a browser, and the proper credentials.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

A group of technical staff maintains the system and can provide access to the system, custom reports, specialized analysis, data loads, and other services. They can be contacted via email at DL-DEVIT or by phone:

• Roger Pederson (6-5118)
• Ramya Rajagopalan (6-0570)

UPDATES

Advance is a product of the Ellucian company, which specializes in higher education software and has been in use by the University since 1997. Ellucian upgrades the software annually (usually in the late fall) and we install the upgrades during the following August. Waiting until August provides a good balance between keeping current with the product and making sure other customers have already installed and tested the software.