Anthology: Why iFOLIO Is the Smarter Alternative

Anthology: Why iFOLIO is the Comprehensive Alternative

Anthology's Chapter 11 Filing: What Happened and What It Means

In September 2025, Anthology Inc., the edtech giant behind Blackboard and a suite of advancement solutions including Encompass and Raise, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company reported between $1-10 billion in both assets and liabilities, struggling under approximately $1.625 billion in debt while revenue declined from $530 million to $450 million over two years.

The restructuring plan divests Anthology's Enterprise Operations, Lifecycle Engagement (including advancement products Encompass and Raise), and Student Success businesses. Encoura has stepped up as the stalking horse bidder for the Lifecycle Engagement and Student Success units, with the transition expected to close by Q1 2026. During this period, product roadmaps for engagement tools are frozen, innovation has stalled, and support remains fractured as ownership changes hands.

For higher ed teams relying on Anthology, this creates immediate uncertainty: Will features be maintained? Will integrations continue working? How long will the transition take? In an environment where donor engagement and fundraising momentum are critical, these questions demand answers.

What iFOLIO Replaces: A Modern Digital Platform for Any Use Case

Whether you need digital content for advancement, student services, athletics, or institutional communications, iFOLIO can be a solution for you. iFOLIO is a great digital platform because it's friendly, flexible, and modern. The All-in-One platform backs each module with patented Analytics and Contact360, helping teams act faster and connect smarter.

While Anthology's modules have struggled to keep pace, iFOLIO excels at delivering personalized, interactive digital experiences across a wide range of institutional needs.

iFOLIO is a strong alternative because of low implementation overhead, quick time to value, and flexibility to integrate with existing systems—making it easier than ever to transition away from Anthology's uncertain roadmap.

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Use Cases and Modules

All Modules Include Patented Engagement Analytics and Contact360

Website & Landing Pages: Build beautiful, responsive websites and landing pages with design infused templates, SEO, and nav bars.
Mass Communications - Personalized: Send personalized email, text messages, and PURL campaigns at scale with individual tracking.
Development: Create compelling proposals and PURL campaigns that drive donor engagement.
Events: Manage event communications, invitations, and follow-up with visual impact.
Donor Relations: Deliver endowment reports PURLs, impact reports, personalized reports, thank-you, and acknowledgements that donors immerse and engage with.
Digital Magazines: Publish interactive digital magazines with rich media and engagement tracking.
Student Portfolios & Admissions: Support career development with student digital portfolios from professional templates. iFOLIO's Digital Portfolios deliver tips, examples, and templates to build personalized professional content.
Athlete Portfolios: Enable sponsor development with compelling athlete portfolio sites.
Contact360: know your customer based on their engagement and actions across communications in a portal that enables lookups based on most recent activity and by donor search. Game changing data helps development, donor relations, and communications teams act faster and connect smarter.
Analytics: Real time intelligence lets you see results from communications, not just at the campaign level, but individually. Much more than a open report, these patented analytics so over 20 measures of individual engagement and action in the communications.

What Sets iFOLIO Apart

1. Purpose-Built for Higher Education: Designed specifically for engagement, advancement, and career outcomes to maximize results for colleges and universities. Our leadership team worked in higher education development and understands donor cycles and institutional decision making —and gets complex customers live in under 30 days.

2. Collaboration & Modern Design: Teams collaborate seamlessly to create, edit, and send personalized digital content. Built mobile-first with a friendly interface, professional templates, and enterprise design support to maximize collaboration. Designers are welcome, but no design expertise is required.

3. Deep Personalization and PURLs (Personalized URLs): Go beyond email field and subject line personalization. Customize entire landing pages, reports, and event pages with different content, images, and blocks tailored to each recipient.

4. Platform Agility: Unlike legacy platforms with slower release cycles, iFOLIO ships features faster, customizes solutions per institution, and adapts to niche requests.

5. Patented Analytics (3 Patents): iFOLIO Analytics automates outreach and reporting with comprehensive top-down analytics—from high-level metrics to granular heatmaps showing exactly how recipients engage. Manager dashboards and leaderboards track team performance and content effectiveness.

6. Contact360: Move from broad outreach to precision engagement. Identify the most responsive prospects, surface behavioral insights, and centralize scattered data in one place so teams can take the right actions at the right time. Flexible to stand alone or layer onto existing CRMs.

7. Proven Track Record: Powers universities and colleges of all sizes—helping drive $4 billion in funds raised over 8 years while reaching and engaging more donors than ever before.

Built for Flexibility and Integration

One critical lesson from Anthology's struggles: overextended enterprise platforms that try to manage every aspect of advancement operations often stretch themselves too thin. iFOLIO's approach is different—we can layer seamlessly on top of your existing tech stack or serve as your complete marketing and engagement solution, depending on your needs. Keep your Salesforce CRM, your event management platform, your giving forms—iFOLIO integrates to deliver the visual storytelling and engagement insights those systems lack, while feeding actionable data back in. Or let iFOLIO be your enterprise digital marketing platform from the ground up. The choice is yours.

Head-to-Head: iFOLIO vs. Anthology Advancement Products

Why Institutions Are Making the Move to iFOLIO

1. Visual Content Drives Results

Donors today expect digital experiences that match what they receive from consumer brands—personalized, visually compelling, and instantly accessible. iFOLIO's visual-first approach transforms donor communications from static documents into interactive stories. Georgia Tech used iFOLIO portfolios to close major gifts including a $10 million donation. University of South Carolina personalizes 492 data attributes across 20 schools in endowment reports, ensuring every donor sees content tailored to their specific funds and impact.

2. Deep Personalization & Digital Customization

Generic mass communications don't move the needle. iFOLIO enables true 1:1 personalization at scale—customizing digital content, email and text messages, subject lines, and PURL blocks for each individual constituent. Tailor impact reports to showcase specific programs a donor supports, personalize asks based on giving history, and create unique visual experiences that speak directly to each relationship. This level of customization transforms constituents from passive recipients into engaged partners.

3. Real-Time Engagement Intelligence

Know the moment a major donor opens your proposal. See exactly which sections they spend time on, what they skip, and when to follow up. iFOLIO's patented analytics give advancement teams actionable intelligence that transforms relationship management—no more guessing whether your message landed.

Learn about iFOLIO Analytics

4. Flexibility That Fits Your Institution

Anthology's struggle illustrates what happens when platforms become overextended—trying to do everything for everyone, they often deliver mediocre results across the board. iFOLIO's philosophy is different: we offer true flexibility. Integrate with your existing systems and enhance what you already use, feeding engagement data back where it's most valuable—your CRM. Or adopt iFOLIO as your comprehensive marketing and engagement platform. Whether you use Salesforce, Affinaquest, or another platform, iFOLIO adapts to your institution's unique needs.

5. Continuous Innovation and Partnership

iFOLIO is not a blank-slate platform—it's your innovation partner committed to constant R&D and client success. The collaborative support model includes design assistance, training, business reviews, peer insights from a Top 100 client community, and regular feature releases. Universities like Clemson, Notre Dame, NC State, and Northeastern trust iFOLIO to power $4 billion in fundraising across 23+ institutions, with 5,000+ active users.

iFOLIO Results

$4 Billion in Funds Raised

More Major Gifts

More Donors Closed

More Donors Engaged

Seamless Migration and Setup

Transitioning from Anthology to iFOLIO is designed to be fast and low-friction:

Onboarding in 30 days: iFOLIO implementation teams work with you to map accounts, configure templates, set up integrations, and train your team—typically live within one month.
Pre-built content libraries: Launch with live, on-brand templates and media libraries ready to use, so your team can start sending content immediately.
Training and support: Marketing learns to build content, development officers learn to send and measure, stewardship teams learn to work with designers—all supported by iFOLIO's UX/UI team, customer success managers, and account executives.
CRM integration: Whether you're keeping your existing CRM or transitioning to a new one, iFOLIO integrates via blind copy, API, or CSV export to ensure engagement data flows where you need it.

The Path Forward

Anthology's bankruptcy is a reminder that advancement teams need reliable solutions and support models they can depend on, not complex conglomerate platforms that create dependency and risk. iFOLIO offers exactly that: a specialized platform for All-in-One digital marketing, including visual communications, personalized storytelling, and engagement analytics.

With proven results—70% open rates, 6.5 minutes of engagement, $4 billion in fundraising powered—and a collaborative partnership approach, iFOLIO delivers what advancement teams need most: tools to connect, engage, and inspire generosity through compelling visual marketing backed by real-time intelligence.

Now is the time to explore iFOLIO, a platform built specifically for your success.

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Sources

Anthology's Chapter 11 Filing: Breaking Up to Refocus - ListEdTech (listedtech.com/blog/anthologys-chapter-11)
Anthology Chapter 11 Bankruptcy: EdTech Giant Restructures $1.6B Debt - Elevenflo (elevenflo.com/blog/anthology-chapter-11-bankruptcy)
Why Anthology Unraveled - Inside Higher Ed (insidehighered.com/news/tech-innovation/administrative-tech/2025/10/08/why-ed-tech-behemoth-unraveled)
Anthology Bankruptcy Reveals Cracks in Private Equity Higher Education Investment Strategy - PEStakeholder (pestakeholder.org/news/anthology-bankruptcy)
Anthology Bankruptcy: What Higher Ed Leaders Need to Know - Gravyty (gravyty.com/blog/anthology-bankruptcy-higher-ed-leaders-guide)

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