It Was Never the Software

Institutions kept treating engagement as something they could purchase instead of something they had to cultivate.

Somewhere in the budget history of nearly every advancement shop is a dead platform. It launched with an all-alumni email blast and a spike of registrations. Six months later the most recent post was from staff. A year later nobody could remember the login.

The field has repeated this cycle for over a decade. New vendor, new features, new launch, same si…