From the Nominator

The University of Delaware’s Office of Development and Alumni Relations defines itself as a major gift shop, indicating that the priority is moving donors through the pipeline and closer towards making a major gift. Our DAR Marketing and Annual Giving Team decided to embark on a strategy to help build the major gift pipeline using mass marketing to support our colleagues on the frontline who are only assigned a small fraction of donors with capacity. In spring 2024, the university initiated a new scholarship match, where any donor who created a named scholarship for general use would have their scholarship matched 1:1. Thus, a donor could create a named scholarship with a $10,000 commitment over four years instead of the typical $20,000, thanks to the match. Our goal was to use multi-channel direct marketing strategies to a targeted audience of highly rated individuals with capacity or inclination to upgrade their giving through a scholarship match commitment, thereby identifying donors who could eventually be part of the major gift pipeline. Our first audience of scholarship match prospects received two direct mail appeals and four follow-up email appeals from May through December. We resent the initial direct mail appeal to a new audience of targeted leads in November. A broader audience was targeted for the pre-solicitation social advertisement strategy from April to May. The initiative resulted in 24 newly created current-use named scholarships with pledge commitments totaling $385,000.

From the Judges

This marketing initiative from the University of Delaware is deserving of recognition for its highly effective strategy, strong results, and efficient use of resources. With a modest budget, it generated $385,000 in pledge commitments and created 24 new scholarships, demonstrating an impressive return on investment. We praise the campaign’s cohesive design, personalized messaging, and multi-channel coordination, which made a potentially complex giving opportunity feel accessible and compelling. Its simplicity, clarity, emotional appeal, and strategic targeting made it a standout in execution and impact that can be a model for other institutions.