What Publishing Concepts does

Publishing Concepts (PCI) is a Dallas-based, family-owned private company founded in 1921 that operates a directory publishing and storytelling business for educational institutions, member organizations, military groups, and independent schools. Its core offerings are the Directory Project, which collects self-reported constituent data and produces printed and digital directories, and the Oral History Project (OHP), launched in 2019, which captures, transcribes, and archives thousands of alumni and member stories via phone-based interviews for marketing, fundraising, and recruiting use. The company also offers a Reunion Oral History Project variant and operates the OHP Podcast, and has launched a related fundraising platform called StoryCause in partnership with PCI.

The technical platform centers on a call-center-based interview and data-verification infrastructure with a stated capacity of up to 10,000 stories per day, backed by a cloud-based "Digital Vault" for audio and transcript storage and a constituent database management system. Self-reported data collection is positioned as the "gold standard" for database accuracy, with 97% accuracy reported for institutional partners like Iowa State.

PCI's revenue model is structurally indirect: partners receive Directory and OHP services at no upfront cost, while PCI retains proceeds from printed and digital publications sold to alumni and members, with multi-year contracts and dedicated account/project managers per partner. Distribution operates on a hybrid model combining enterprise direct sales to 300+ colleges/universities and 200+ member organizations with inside-sales phone outreach to individual alumni and members. The company maintains SOC 2 and PCI DSS Level 1 compliance, reflecting the payment card and constituent data sensitivity of its operations.

Name

Publishing Concepts

Legal name

Publishing Concepts, LLC

Website

https://publishingconcepts.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1921

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Publishing Concepts is a Dallas-based, family-owned firm founded in 1921 that collects self-reported alumni and member data and captures oral histories for colleges, universities, member organizations, military groups, and independent schools at no upfront cost.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Dallas

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. Directory Project Publications: PCI produces printed and digital directories that are sold to alumni and members. PCI retains retail proceeds from publication orders. Some partner organizations are eligible to retain a royalty for every directory order placed.
2. Oral History Project Publications: Similar to directory projects, OHP produces storybooks (both printed and digital) that alumni/members can purchase. PCI fills orders and retains proceeds while the program is at no cost to the partner organization.
3. Directory Project (No Cost to Partners): The directory program is described as 'no cost' to partner organizations. Revenue is generated through alumni/members purchasing the publications. PCI produces the publications, fills orders, and retains retail proceeds.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Publishing Concepts (PCI) provides data collection, story capture, and directory/storybook publishing services for colleges, universities, member organizations, military organizations, and independent schools. Through its Directory Project, PCI gathers self-reported constituent information by phone and produces printed and digital directories. Through the Oral History Project (OHP), PCI records, transcribes, edits, and archives constituent stories and produces printed and digital storybooks. Programs are delivered at no cost to the partner organization, with revenue earned from retail sales of publications to alumni and members.

Product overview

Publishing Concepts offers a suite of alumni and member engagement programs centered around data collection and storytelling. The core products include the Directory Project for self-reported data collection and directory publishing, the Oral History Project (OHP) for large-scale story capture and archival, and the Reunion Oral History Project as a specialized offering for reunion events. The company also produces the OHP Podcast to share collected stories. These products work together to help colleges, universities, and member organizations engage constituents, strengthen connections, drive fundraising, and preserve organizational histories and legacies.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• StoryCause: A fundraising platform that empowers non-profit partners to engage donors at-scale by connecting them to donor stories, intent, passion and potential.
• Oral History Project (OHP)

Products and services

• Directory Project A data collection and verification program that gathers self-reported constituent information via phone interviews and produces custom-designed printed and digital directories for colleges, universities, and member organizations at no cost to the partner.
• Oral History Project (OHP) A program that collects, records, transcribes, edits, categorizes, and archives thousands of constituent stories via phone interviews, producing printed and digital storybooks with audio and written versions for use in partner marketing, fundraising, and recruiting.
• Reunion Oral History Project A specialized version of the Oral History Project designed for reunion events, enabling colleges and universities to capture alumni stories and experiences during reunion celebrations while promoting reunion attendance.
• OHP Podcast A podcast series that shares favorite stories collected from the Oral History Project program, featuring real alumni and member stories collected by PCI callers.

Quantifiable outcome

• 2,806,747 stories collected to date
• +7 more outcomes

Named customers20 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• StoryCausecoreGTM or Marketing PartnerStoryCause is PCI's partner for donor engagement services. PCI launched StoryCause to empower non-profit partners with resources to engage donors at-scale. By capturing donors' stories, StoryCause connects organizations to donor intent, passion and potential. This partnership extends PCI's service offerings into the fundraising space.

Scale indicators13 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Blackbaud: Dominant provider of CRM, fundraising, and financial management software for nonprofits and higher education institutions. Comparable to PCI because its solutions target the same alumni-association, advancement, and member-organization buyers, but Blackbaud sells SaaS subscriptions rather than no-cost data-collection and publication services.
• Salesforce.org (Education Cloud / Nonprofit Cloud): CRM and engagement cloud tailored for educational institutions and nonprofits through the Salesforce.org program. Targets the same alumni-relations and member-engagement buyers as PCI, but as a broad enterprise platform rather than a managed directory and oral-history service.
• Anthology: Higher education technology provider formed from the merger of Blackboard, Campus Management, and others, offering SIS, CRM, and student-success software. Serves the same college and university customers as PCI, but with a much broader product portfolio and no directory/storytelling offering.

Direct peers

• Harte Hanks: Data-driven marketing and contact-center services firm that runs large-scale phone-based data collection, list hygiene, and customer engagement programs for B2C brands. Highly comparable to PCI because it shares the call-center-centric, phone-first GTM motion for gathering first-party data from end consumers.
• Higher Logic: Member and alumni engagement platform serving associations and member-based organizations with community, marketing automation, and engagement tools. Direct overlap with PCI's member-organization segment, although Higher Logic sells self-serve SaaS rather than running story-collection and directory projects on partners' behalf.
• Wild Apricot: Cloud-based membership management software for small-to-mid associations, fraternities, and member organizations. Competes with PCI in the member-organization vertical for engagement and directory workflows, but at a different price point and delivery model (self-serve SaaS vs. fully managed OHP).
• Sterling Check (formerly Sterling Talent Solutions): Background screening and identity-services company that operates large-scale phone-based data collection and verification workforces for enterprise clients. Shares PCI's operational DNA (phone-heavy, multi-shift call center delivering high-volume data services), though Sterling focuses on HR/credentialing rather than alumni engagement.

Emerging players

• iWave: Fundraising intelligence and donor prospect research platform used by higher education and nonprofit advancement teams. Comparable to PCI's StoryCause offering and alumni fundraising support, but iWave is software/data-first with no phone-based story collection.
• DonorSearch: Prospect research and wealth-screening provider for higher-education advancement and nonprofit fundraising teams. Adjacent to PCI's fundraising outcome (more than $70M raised for partners) and competes for the same alumni-development budget.

Regional players

• Haines & Company: Independent publisher of criss-cross and reverse-lookup directories as well as specialized reference publications. Comparable as a legacy print/directory publisher with a similar B2B-to-consumer sales pattern, although Haines focuses on consumer address data rather than alumni/member storytelling.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/NotTheBigCo

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Publishing Concepts