When times get tough, grown children often turn to their parents for help--for some extra cash, even somewhere to stay. For colleges and universities, that role is filled by alumni donors. In 2011, with education budgets slashed across the country, giving accounted for 6.5 percent of college expenditures, according to the Council for Aid to Education. This money pays for everything from new buildings to scholarships and guest lecturers, and impacts almost every corner of campus. It's ironic, then, that the folks in the advancement group--responsible for fundraising, alumni relations, prospect research, and advancement services--often find themselves on the outside looking in when it comes to the data needed to do their jobs. Just as universities are discovering the power of data to increase efficiencies in every facet of their operations, schools' fundraising departments must also have access to timely data to do their jobs: (1) identifying prospective donors; (2) predicting how much money they might give; (3) customizing the message; and (4) calculating the best time to make a pitch. And the value of the data goes far beyond simple numbers such as net worth. Even seemingly irrelevant data have value, because--taken together--they can help schools determine how engaged an alumnus is with his alma mater, and help fundraisers strike an appropriate chord. When it comes to dialing for donors, a data strategy can be divided into three components: (1) collection; (2) analysis; and (3) implementation. While no silver bullet exists to address all three together, colleges and universities are achieving impressive results from alumni data mining by pursuing a number of solutions. (Contains 1 online resource.)