Blog
July 11, 2025
Elevating Your Advancement Shop with Managed Services
Advancement shops are no longer confined to dated legacy fundraising and alumni relations platforms. Thanks to modern technology solutions like Salesforce, organizations are broadening their horizons and leveraging powerful and complex tools to support their missions.
What are Managed Services?
Managed Services are typically defined as the outsourcing of responsibilities for maintaining (and forecasting the need for) various solutions and processes to improve operations while reducing expenses.
At Attain Partners, we provide a team with over 300 certifications in Salesforce and related platforms. We manage your IT platforms while providing you with consultants who take the time to understand your business challenges and opportunities. By becoming your trusted advisor, we handle everything from routine maintenance to enhancements and data management.
The Power of Domain Expertise
While domain expertise remains a cornerstone of success, many Advancement organizations and nonprofits are now recognizing the immense benefits of the Managed Services model offered by professional services organizations. This model allows them to leverage specialized skills and technologies without the need for expensive in-house resources.
With new applications entering the marketplace every day—think Data Cloud and Agentforce, for example—it can be difficult to keep your team trained. Our team members are constantly updating their knowledge bases. We are bringing new technology and use cases to our clients at a tempo that in-house teams just don’t have the time to do.
The Benefits of Managed Services
At Attain Partners, our Managed Services clients get the benefit of team expertise. In addition to platform certifications, our team understands your institution because we’ve worked in higher education. Our team brings Advancement experience to every engagement. Our clients also have the flexibility of having an entire team available to them to address any opportunities or challenges as they arise. Whether you need a developer, a marketing cloud specialist, or a platform consultant, all our engagements provide access to the specific resources required when they are needed.
Depending on the needs of the client, we offer flexible plans to fit any situation. From full staff augmentation to quarterly and bulk hours usage, your needs drive the plan that works for your organization.
Ways Advancement Shops Can Use Managed Services
Managed Services engagements encompass a wide range of tasks for Advancement teams. We have worked with organizations in the following areas:
Campaign Management and Execution
Advancement teams rely on Salesforce to manage complex fundraising campaigns—from annual giving drives to multi-year capital efforts. Our Managed Services team can configure and automate these campaigns, ensuring accurate segmentation, personalized outreach, and seamless integration with marketing platforms like Marketing Cloud or Account Engagement. Whether it’s setting up dynamic email journeys or running A/B tests to refine messaging, Managed Services help institutions execute campaigns that resonate with donors and yield measurable results.
Donor Analytics and Reporting
Fundraising success hinges on understanding donor behavior and campaign performance. Our Managed Services teams build and maintain custom reports and dashboards tailored to Advancement KPIs, such as donor retention, giving trends, and pipeline activity.
For institutions leveraging CRMA (formerly Tableau CRM), Managed Services can enable predictive analytics to identify high-value prospects and improve decision-making. These insights support more strategic fundraising and empower Advancement leaders to adjust tactics in real time.
Data Integration and System Syncing
Advancement operations often involve data flowing across multiple platforms—finance systems, event management tools, online giving portals, and more. We can ensure that these systems stay in sync with Salesforce, automating gift processing and minimizing manual data entry. They also support data enrichment and hygiene by integrating services like NCOA updates and wealth screening, helping teams maintain accurate, actionable donor profiles.
Constituent Engagement and Journey Mapping
Engaging alumni and donors requires more than one-off appeals—it demands personalized, sustained communication. Managed Services teams help Advancement offices design and implement automated engagement journeys using tools like Journey Builder, ensuring timely follow-up, stewardship, and re-engagement. They also support mobile optimization and real-time engagement tracking, which are crucial for reaching donors where they are—whether online, on campus, or on their phones.
Attain Partners: Your Trusted Ally
Attain Partners stands out as a leader in providing strategic guidance and technology solutions to Advancement organizations and nonprofits. With a deep understanding of the unique challenges faced by these sectors, Attain Partners offers a comprehensive suite of services designed to drive success. Our Shared and Managed Services expertise enables us to deliver flexible solutions tailored to any strategy, timeline, and budget.
Resources Offered by Attain Partners
Salesforce Innovation
Attain Partners helps organizations harness the full potential of Salesforce, from implementation to optimization.
Advanced Analytics and Data Science
Leveraging data to drive insights and decision-making.
Compliance and Risk Management
Ensuring that organizations meet regulatory requirements and mitigate risks.
Strategic Planning and Transformation
Helping organizations align their processes and technology with their strategic goals.
Attain Partners – Managed Services for Advancement Shops
By partnering with Attain Partners, Advancement shops can navigate the complexities of modern technology and focus on what they do best: building meaningful relationships and driving their missions forward.
Collaborating remotely with your team, we’ll work with you to understand your IT gaps and objectives in order to create a cost-effective, tailored service strategy. Contact our team today to discuss which solution is right for your mission.
About the Authors
Chris Campbell has been in Advancement for nearly two decades. He started with the Oklahoma State University Foundation in December 2004 and served in several capacities during his tenure including helping secure private funds for the football stadium’s $300 million Next Level Campaign, overseeing the Prospect Development Team during OSU’s comprehensive campaign, Branding Success which exceeded its $1 billion campaign goal eighteen months ahead of schedule, serving as the Senior Associate Vice President for the Information Strategy Business Unit, and leading the successful implementation of a Salesforce-based advancement CRM solution. Prior to Attain Partners, Chris served as Digital Consulting Director with Huron Consulting Group, where he partnered with clients in the Higher Ed Advancement space through transformational technology leadership. Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude in 2002 from the Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University, majoring in Management Information Systems with a minor in Marketing.
Kevin Patterson is a Salesforce Customer Success Manager with over 20 years of nonprofit experience and a decade of consulting expertise in Salesforce SaaS CRM solutions. He has a proven track record in customer success and change management, leading enterprise clients through digital and business transformation projects. His educational background includes an MBA from Indiana Wesleyan University and a BA in Opera Production from Indiana University. Kevin holds multiple certifications, including Organizational Change Management from Cornell University and Salesforce certifications as an Administrator, Business Analyst, and Sales Representative.
