Boston University's 2020 Pint Glass Campaign aimed to seamlessly incorporate digital, philanthropic, and programmatic elements to drive alumni engagement across all social channels, and increase the number of alumni donors to the university. Both objectives were not only met but exceeded, with more than 1.5K engagements from alumni and friends through social media comments, likes, shares, and direct messages, and 981 donations totaling $25,360.20.
The campaign’s success can be attributed to a four-phased strategic design that established the idea of a community, created a sense of buy-in and ownership of the final product, connected philanthropy to social engagement, and encouraged alumni to participate in a variety of different ways on a host of different platforms. Through collaborative efforts across the offices of Strategic Alumni Engagement and Annual Giving, this campaign saw the single largest number of poll participants in the history of the BU Alumni Instagram account, and converted more donors through paid and organic social content than any other campaign in Annual Giving history, outside of BU's annual Giving Day.
From the Judges
A superb campaign that was “all in” on social, from the concept and design phase all the way through the fundraising element. They had a thoughtful social strategy, targeting alumni who had engaged previously with their social content, and tied it to their alumni weekend. They also had very effective use of budget.
