For the annual Notre Dame Day fundraiser, the audience is Notre Dame students and alumni; the goal for the 1,000 plus participating campus organizations is to get the highest number of individual donations, no matter the dollar amount. Our approach was to make a fun video that would create buzz and that people would share, while still informing our audience of what our institute does. Taylor Swift was very buzzy at the time and so I decided to write a parody of her song “You Belong With Me.” Since we couldn’t get her to campus to sing it, I filmed cutouts of her dancing around campus and recruited one of our graduate students to sing in the style of Taylor. The video garnered 8,047 views across social media platforms. The result was our best ever Notre Dame Day campaign: our highest number of gifts (210) and our highest amount raised ($12,825.13). On our donor page, many people entered their names as Taylor Swift or Travis Kelce, or donated significant numbers related to them, such as 13 (Taylor’s lucky number) or 87 (Travis’s jersey number).
From the Judges
Achieved objectives. Featured student talent. Held attention. Very thoughtful strategy.
