With Ellucian Advance, advancement efforts can be aligned to institutional goals by:

• Deepening and extending how staff engage with constituents and steward donors
• Improving institutional accountability by providing better insight into how programs are performing and aligning with fundraising goals
• Creating more efficient operations by streamlining processes and delivering the right tools and information to staff

In Use

Ellucian Advance represents the culmination of over 30 years of development in support of sophisticated fundraising institutions. Ellucian Advance provides:

• A contemporary, web-based architecture for anytime, anywhere access using an internet connection and web browser or mobile device
• A configurable graphical user interface to improve the usability and help increase productivity of casual and power users
• A robust, stable, and scalable solution designed to facilitate complex, diverse fundraising operations, and institutional specific strategies

Ellucian Advance delivers tools that are designed to be easy for the casual user to use and understand, in part because they rely on familiar web standards, and in part because they represent information that has been tailored to the specific needs and expectations of the user. Advance's browser-based user interface presents and configures pages based on the users' attributes, permissions, affiliations with various groups across the organization, and their individual preferences. The result is that highly personalized views can be created so that, for example, the information displayed to a major gift officer is very different than what is presented to an annual giving director.

The Ellucian Advance data model is designed to support complex constituent profiles, enabling users to capture, maintain, and inter-relate information about their prospects, friends, donors, and other constituents. The prospect management functionality within Ellucian Advance provides fundraising teams with comprehensive, appropriate, and realistic prospecting plans to help identify future donors, create fundraiser portfolios, and manage prospect relationships.

Technology Employed

Ellucian Advance is open, scalable, and highly configurable so that institutions can meet growing demands for service and support. It can be deployed on-premise or it can be hosted and managed by Ellucian's Application Management Services team.

Ease of Use, Configuration, and Deployment

Ellucian Advance is highly scalable and configurable based upon the structure of an institution's fundraising programs. The web-based user interface supports multiple browser environments and mobile devices. Ellucian's professional services staff provides consultative leadership throughout implementation.

Recap

This product is geared specifically toward higher education with a lot of options to fit an organization's specific goals and needs. It allows for relationship building with a variety of constituents, from students and parents to alumni and donors. The result is that the data collected can be integrated and used to meet each constituent at the appropriate place in their relationship with the organization. Recognizing and cultivating those relationships allows for opportunities to develop a stronger, more committed base of supporters.

Pricing is based on several factors including an institution's size, the amount and type of services needed, and whether third- party licenses are involved.

Advantages/disadvantages

Ellucian Advance is used at many institutions. The broad base gives users access to a large, motivated, and engaged group of professionals who are willing to share innovative ideas and best practices.

The comprehensive functionality of Ellucian Advance might not be ideal for smaller institutions.

My Opinion

The product is quite comprehensive and offers a lot of variety to the end user. The fact that it is web-based makes it a more portable solution than some that are hosted on-site. The ability to access the information from mobile devices at this point in time indicates that the 30-year-old company does look forward to keep pace with technology and keep their products relevant.