Welcome to "Advancement Amplified: AI for IA," a 5-part Pulse Check hosted by Dan Giroux, a higher education marketing and communications leader focused on elevating the strategic impact of Advancement. Advancement is at a pivotal moment. As institutions navigate shifting donor expectations, alumni engagement challenges, financial pressures, and the demand for greater efficiency, AI is emerging as a transformative force. In today's Part 2, Dan chats with Kim Infanti, Executive Director of Alumni Engagement and Annual Giving at Syracuse University, to explore how AI is reshaping advancement marketing and communications.
From leveraging AI for donor segmentation to streamlining internal workflows and even enhancing alumni engagement through platforms like Protopia, Kim shares real-world examples of how her team is embracing AI. Whether you're just beginning to explore AI or looking for new ways to integrate it into your advancement strategy, this episode is packed with actionable insights.
Key Takeaways
- AI is revolutionizing advancement work – AI tools like Claude, ChatGPT, and Microsoft Copilot are helping Syracuse’s advancement team automate tasks, generate creative content, and analyze alumni engagement data more effectively.
- Protopia is redefining alumni networking – Syracuse is implementing Protopia, an AI-driven platform that connects students and alumni for career advice, while also enhancing alumni data accuracy.
- AI can streamline content creation – From social media posts to segmented fundraising emails, AI is making it easier to craft compelling, personalized messaging.
- Data privacy and security are key – Syracuse is piloting Copilot for sensitive university data, ensuring compliance with institutional guidelines while using AI to optimize operations.
- AI adoption requires experimentation – Syracuse’s advancement team is still refining AI best practices, but those who actively experiment with AI tools are seeing significant productivity gains.
- AI can enhance personal efficiency, too – Beyond work, Kim shares how she uses AI for personal tasks like meal planning and trip itineraries, showcasing AI’s versatility in everyday life.
How AI Became a Game-Changer for Syracuse University’s Advancement TeamWhen Did AI Enter the Picture for Advancement?
While AI has been on the radar for years, Syracuse University’s advancement team fully embraced it after an AI at Work session on October 1, 2024. Led by Syracuse’s ITS team and Chief Digital Officer Jeff Rubin, the session encouraged staff to explore AI tools as part of their daily workflows. Since then, AI has become a go-to resource for Kim and her team, helping them generate content, analyze data, and enhance engagement strategies.
One major takeaway from that session? The advice to “go to AI before you Google.” This mindset shift has led Kim to replace many of her traditional search habits with AI-powered insights, significantly boosting efficiency.
How Is AI Being Used Across Syracuse’s Advancement Team?
AI adoption varies across the Advancement and External Affairs division, with some team members diving in more actively than others. Kim and her colleague Kara have been at the forefront, even presenting at a November conference on AI applications in advancement. Their real-world use cases are convincing more colleagues to integrate AI into their workflows, especially after seeing how it simplifies tasks like email drafting, event promotion, and donor segmentation.
To encourage broader adoption, Syracuse is hosting additional AI at Work sessions and sharing AI-generated work examples within the team. The goal? To normalize AI as a powerful tool for efficiency rather than a replacement for human expertise.
What Are the Key AI Tools Syracuse Uses?
Kim and her team primarily use three AI tools, each with distinct advantages:
- Microsoft Copilot – Used for Syracuse-specific and sensitive data, Copilot helps with tasks like searching emails, analyzing donor data, and summarizing large datasets.
- Claude (Kim’s personal favorite) – Ideal for natural-sounding content creation, brainstorming, and workflow automation. Kim describes Claude as the AI tool that “knows her best” and helps refine messaging for Syracuse’s engagement initiatives.
- ChatGPT – Used for creative content generation, including image creation (with some humorous missteps, like adding fictional lakes to Syracuse’s campus).
How Is AI Being Applied to Alumni Engagement?
A major AI-driven initiative at Syracuse is the implementation of Protopia, an AI-powered platform designed to facilitate alumni and student networking. Instead of requiring users to sign up for a mentorship program, Protopia enables alumni to ask or answer questions in a frictionless, email-based format.
Here’s how it works:
- A student or alum submits a question (e.g., “What’s the marketing job market like in Boise, Idaho?”).
- AI scans Syracuse’s database to find relevant alumni who might be able to help.
- Those alumni receive an email and can choose to respond, decline, or update their contact information.
Beyond fostering meaningful connections, Protopia is also a powerful data-cleaning tool. Early adopters at other universities have reported that nearly 40% of alumni updated their contact information when engaging with the platform—something that’s critical for effective outreach.
Is AI Being Used for Donor Data Analysis?
While Syracuse is still exploring AI’s full potential in data analysis, they recognize its value in identifying trends. Ideally, AI tools like Copilot could analyze historical giving patterns and event attendance to uncover correlations—such as whether alumni who attend Syracuse events are more likely to donate.
For now, Kim remains cautious about inputting donor data into AI systems, prioritizing security. However, AI is already playing a major role in streamlining outreach, segmentation, and content personalization.
How Is AI Improving Internal Workflows?
AI is dramatically reducing the time required for advancement marketing tasks. Some specific use cases include:
- Personalized fundraising emails – AI drafts segmented versions of key messages in seconds.
- Social media strategy – AI assists in brainstorming creative content, including alliterative event slogans and engagement campaigns.
- Scripting video content – When faced with a tight deadline for a Giving Day promotional video, Kim used AI to generate a script in minutes—something that typically would have taken days of back-and-forth revisions.
- Analyzing meeting notes and forecasting numbers – AI helps extract key insights from documents, eliminating the need for manual number crunching.
How Much More Productive Has AI Made the Team?
Kim estimates that AI has increased her personal productivity by at least 50%, particularly in content creation and administrative tasks. From brainstorming fundraising campaign ideas to drafting recommendation letters, AI allows her to focus on high-impact work while automating tedious processes.
The Future of AI in Advancement: What’s Next?
AI isn’t just a passing trend—it’s fundamentally reshaping how advancement teams operate. Moving forward, Syracuse plans to:
- Continue refining AI best practices and adoption strategies.
- Explore AI’s potential for donor data analysis and predictive modeling.
- Encourage university-wide adoption of AI-driven tools like Protopia.
- Educate staff on AI prompting techniques to maximize effectiveness.
Please include the link to Syracuse’s Generative AI website that Kim referenced in the show, as a great tool for advancement professionals at other institutions to check out and use:
https://its.syr.edu/artificialintelligence
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