Product Type: Choice Store

Saying Thank You With Choice: Grinnell College’s Gratitude Shop for Alumni Donors

Gratitude Shop

Challenge: Creating a Meaningful Donor Thank You Experience Grinnell College wanted a thoughtful way to thank alumni donors after they made an annual leadership gift. The goal was to express genuine gratitude while reinforcing pride, connection, and excitement about the college. A traditional one-size-fits-all gift felt limiting, as donor preferences vary and the college wanted […]

How Lawrence University Built a Multi-Touchpoint Admissions Strategy from Admit to Arrival

reduce summer melt

Challenge: Creating Consistent Engagement Across the Admissions Journey Lawrence University set out to solve a broader challenge than any single stage in the funnel: how to create consistent, meaningful engagement from first touch through enrollment. Like many institutions, they faced pressure at multiple points in the admissions journey. Sparking excitement with admitted students. Converting admits […]

Cornell University Reimagines Alumni Giving with a Choice Store Experience

give-to-get alumni engagement strategy

Challenge: Rethinking How Institutions Thank Their Donors Cornell University wanted to rethink the traditional “give-to-get” alumni engagement strategy for alumni donors. Instead of automatically sending a branded gift, they were looking for a more thoughtful, donor-first approach that offered greater flexibility for opting in. The goals were clear: Give donors the power to choose their […]

Marquette University Extends Admitted Student Engagement with a Post-Event Choice Store

extend admitted student engagement

Challenge: Maintaining Momentum After Events While Supporting Counselors on the Road As Marquette University focused on attracting admitted students from across the country, regional admitted student receptions became an important opportunity to build connection and excitement. However, once those events ended, the admissions team faced two ongoing challenges. First, counselors were traveling with significant amounts […]

Building Commitment and Reducing Melt: Drake University’s Bulldog Bonus Choice Store

reduce summer melt in higher education

In higher education admissions, the deposit stage marks a critical turning point. Excitement is high, but so is the risk of melt. At Drake University, the admissions team wanted not only to celebrate their new Bulldogs but also to find meaningful ways to strengthen commitment among deposited students. Inspired by a Magellan Promotions webinar featuring […]

Meaningful, Sustainable, and Student-Driven: GW’s Admitted Student Choice Store Experience

Sustainable admitted student welcome merch

Sustainable admitted student welcome merch George Washington University (GW) set out to build excitement and celebrate the major milestone of college acceptance by delivering a personalized and meaningful welcome to their admitted students. Their goal was to foster school spirit and create a lasting first impression before students set foot on campus, while remaining aligned […]

Variable Data Best Practices

  • At the quoting stage of your project, please let us know how many fields of variable data your piece will have as this can affect pricing.
  • Data should be provided to us as an Excel spreadsheet with only the applicable data included.
  • Verbiage for variable data fields on artwork file should match up exactly with data fields on spreadsheet.
  • Spacing on artwork must allow for longest data entries. We recommend that your designer tests this in advance to confirm that the fields in the design can fit your longest pieces of data.

Postage Permits

We are happy to mail using a client’s USPS non-profit number. Here are a few best practices for this to go smoothly. Let our team know up front on the project so we can make sure to get the information we need right away. 

While our mail house does prefer to use their permit number for the mailing, we can use the client’s permit, If using their permit number, ensure there is enough postage to cover the mailing.

The information we need to in order to use a client’s nonprofit number includes the following:

  • CRID (customer registration ID)
  • Non-Profit Authorization Number (with USPS, not their nonprofit number for the university)
  • Non-profit indicia
  • Return address that is on file with USPS for the non-profit authorization number
  • Permit number

Formatting the Mailing List

Our account team will advise on specific requirements for your project’s mailing list.  We generally recommend these best practices to format the mailing list:
  • Send your data in a spreadsheet, saving it in the comma-separated values (CSV) format
  • International addresses must be separated from domestic addresses
  • Domestic addresses should at least contain data fields for “first name”, “last name”, “address 1”, “address 2”, “city”, “state” and “ZIP code”