From the Nominator

On April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse took place, blocking the face of the sun from the Earth. This event was described by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson as a "bucket list item for all humans," and wouldn't occur on this exact path again until 2144. The University of Toronto's campus was only 7km outside the path of totality, and the path covered over 50,000 Arts & Science alumni in Canada. As A&S is home to the University of Toronto's distinguished Dunlap Institute of Astronomy & Astrophysics, we were uniquely positioned to provide subject matter expertise on the solar eclipse, and leverage this natural event to engage alumni and friends. A&S Advancement developed and executed a fully-integrated plan across its alumni relations, development, and communications units—and in partnership with advancement and divisional partners across the university—to amplify this opportunity and use it to steward our top donors, engage our top prospects, and globally raise the profile of our expertise in this area. We did this by combining a number of elements: a virtual livestream event open to all alumni and friends that covered the time of the eclipse across Canada; a Leadership Annual Giving campaign; a bespoke "viewing kit" mailed to our top A&S prospects and donors; and viewing kits distributed to the university's top Leadership Annual Giving donors. We achieved the meaningful engagement of our audiences, as proven through record-breaking registration, newly-engaged LAG donors, and positive, direct touchpoints with top prospects.

From the Judges

Wonderful use of resources and capitalizing on a once in a lifetime event. Engagement and new donor return on investment was worth all their effort. Can serve as a great model to other universities on how to seize unique opportunities for new and exciting engagement efforts and creating out of the box campaigns.