From the Nominator

"Recognizing that LGBTQ students often face personal, academic, and financial challenges, the University of Miami Alumni Association established the LGBTQ ’Canes affinity group to support inclusivity on campus. Our purpose is to find alumni and allies who are passionate about helping these students thrive and are willing to provide financial support for needed services.   

In 2022, we recognized an opportunity to cultivate a pipeline of major gift prospects by leveraging the LGBTQ affinity group and their engagement events. Our objectives were to increase awareness of student needs, boost alumni engagement and giving, and build a pipeline of potential donors, with at least one major gift donor, who could help LGBTQ students facing adversity.   

By aligning this significant student need through the LGBTQ Student Center with the passions of our alumni and friends, we exposed alumni to high-profile events that facilitated networking with our students and ultimately led to strong donor support. From events like Pride Day, Pride football and basketball games, to our Lavender Celebration for graduates, the results far exceeded our expectations.   

Through a variety of programming and engagement opportunities showcasing our LGBTQ Student Center’s services, we secured two major gifts totaling $1.25 million from alumni who had not recently been engaged with UM, secured two matching gifts totaling $10,000 for Giving Day, and improved to 112 LGBTQ-supporting donors for Giving Day. This was a remarkable increase from our prior year, where we only raised $100,000, secured $5,000 in matching gifts, and only had 41 donors for Giving Day."

From the Judges

During a time where the LGBTQ+ community is under attack in many public arenas, we were glad to see this submission and how it provided a wholistic approach to engaging these constituents over the course of a full year. From virtual to in person engagements, we were glad to see a variety of engagement opportunities for the community and impressed with the data of how they were able to make an impact—particularly in surfacing a major gift!