In 2022, Augustana College announced Augustana Possible, a promise to meet full financial need for high-achieving students. The initiative, and the philanthropy that fuels it, has reshaped how the college talks with donors about access, affordability, and joy in giving.

Augustana is a private college of the liberal arts and sciences in Rock Island, Illinois, U.S., founded in 1860 by Swedish Lutheran immigrants. Affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Augustana employs more than 300 faculty members, enrolls 2,500 students of all backgrounds, and offers more than 100 majors and related areas of study. A 12-1 student-faculty ratio and strong culture of mentorship allow students to foster close working relationships with their instructors.

Old Main building at Augustana College

Credit: Wikipedia Commons

The college is deeply committed to ensuring our students grow in mind, body, and spirit. Augustana Possible makes sure this commitment continues to be in reach for our students regardless of their financial circumstances. For fall of 2024, 156 students received Augustana Possible grants. Many are the first in their families to attend college.

Philanthropy has made Augustana Possible, possible. Several years ago, alumnus Murry Gerber (class of 1975) came forward with a bold idea. Murry proposed a $40 million challenge to Augustana’s donors. He would match any new endowed scholarship in support of Augustana Possible, but in a unique way—by directing his gifts to endowed scholarships created by other donors. His hope was to inspire others to step up, knowing the new endowments they would create would instantly be doubled. He also set an ambitious goal: to meet the challenge by 2030—a significant stretch for Augustana.  

His motivation to provide this support came from his own personal journey to Augustana as a first-generation student. As an incoming first-year student and carrying only a backpack, Murry rode his bicycle 180 miles from Chicago to the Rock Island campus to avoid the expense of a train ticket. He arrived on campus with drive, potential, and financial need. Majoring in geology and working at the U.S. Steel company in the summers between his years at Augustana, Murry went on to develop a successful career in the energy industry. Today, he believes others like him deserve the same shot at an Augustana education. This belief led to The Gerber Grand Challenge in Philanthropy and Augustana Possible.

When Murry approached our College Advancement team—20 professionals across development, alumni engagement, and advancement services, we knew it was ambitious. While Augustana has had strong success in philanthropic support, we had concerns about whether this goal was going to be able to be accomplished, given our short timeline.

Murry Gerber

Credit: Augustana College

However, The Gerber Grand Challenge in Philanthropy quickly became a test case for how we communicate about philanthropy at Augustana. Talking to both our loyal and new donors about the challenge has taught us some valuable lessons about what motivates their support, and what they ask from us in return. 

These are lessons that all of us in advancement can use as we develop our philanthropic messaging.

Always focus on the problem to be solved.

When we first marketed Murry’s challenge, we focused too much on the size of the gift and what it would do for Augustana’s endowment. We quickly realized this was not the best approach. While our alumni and donors certainly appreciate the importance of endowment, some may not be clear on how it works.

Instead, we started focusing on the problem of affordability for families and how we needed to keep an Augustana education within reach, no matter one’s financial circumstance. Instead of envisioning donors giving to Augustana, we pictured them giving through Augustana to support students. It became about the student and giving that student access to Augustana.

Our primary means to communicate this challenge has been through targeted emails to alumni based on their class year, regardless of their donor history. Those emails directed recipients to a web page with a very simple graphic that shows how the process works. And these short, to-the-point emails have had incredible results! For instance, after one email blast, we created six new endowed scholarships within a few weeks—many from donors who had never made a major gift to the college previously.

Our donors are motivated to ensure that financial need should not stand in the way of an Augustana education. And they trust us to use their philanthropy wisely.

Keep the messaging positive and simple.

Due to the nature of Augustana Possible, it is important that our endowments in support of this program be as flexible as possible. For instance, we cannot ensure that there would be enough Augustana Possible students within a specific major, or from a specific geographic area, and any strict requirements like that could mean that some endowments go unutilized. Therefore, one of the requirements of the Gerber Challenge is that scholarships cannot have the criteria that we often see required by donors.

This raised a fair question within our advancement team: How would donors respond if they couldn’t designate their support to a specific major or area? 

We focused instead on the clear and positive message to donors about the importance of this flexibility. Though donors may indicate a preference for a particular major, etc., we tell them we can’t promise this preference will be met. It turns out that this resonated very well with donors. Their desire to restrict scholarships in a particular way isn’t as important as we thought it might be. What they want is to make a difference in the lives of our students.

EXPLAINING THE CHALLENGE: This chart illustrates how the Gerber Grand Challenge in Philanthropy works.

Credit: Augustana College

Give the donors a joyful experience.

This is all about stewarding the gift, in the end. Doing the usual scholarship reports with an endowment financial report is only the beginning. We now map out a stewardship schedule that includes student profiles generated by the recipients themselves, video thank yous that students can create using their phones, and printed updates about the success of Augustana Possible. Murry Gerber himself has personally written hundreds of thank-you notes to each donor who has taken advantage of this match!

We haven’t yet solved the perennial challenge of getting every student to respond to our stewardship requests, including writing thank-you notes. So, we look for new ways to demonstrate to donors that we are keeping our promise to provide access to an Augustana College education no matter the financial need of the student. For instance, instead of attempting to get thank yous from each student who receives each scholarship, we send a general “impact report” with a thank-you quote from a student who speaks on behalf of all Augustana Possible students. We have not had any pushback from donors using this approach, and our stewardship team has saved a lot of time that had been used in the past to get students to provide thank yous.

After just a couple of years, our approaches have worked and the Gerber Challenge is proving to be a success. We have already secured nearly $30 million in matching support. A total of 124 new endowed scholarships have been created, many from first-time donors. Murry himself is thrilled with the results.

Most importantly, more than 500 students have come to Augustana through this program, the majority of whom are first-generation college students. We have decided to use the Gerber Challenge as the centerpiece of our next campaign, Built for Bold, through which the college is seeking to secure $200 million by 2030.

Ultimately, our work on the Gerber Challenge has reminded us that donors give to solve problems, not just to fund institutions. And when they see their impact clearly, the joy is mutual. That’s the real work of advancement.

Scholarship Spotlights

Augustana Possible grants, supported by the Gerber Grand Challenge, help students access education, regardless of their financial circumstances. Here's what three students shared about their scholarship experiences.

“The Augustana Possible funding was important in my final college decision. I chose Augustana for the great academics and the ability to play sports. I wanted to go to a smaller school that still provided me with opportunities to be involved in many things while preparing for my career.” – Diego Vazquez (Class of 2027)

"This scholarship will help me with my education and will help me move forward. I grew up here in the U.S. but I'm originally from Egypt. I am hoping I can become a lawyer in the future and this scholarship will definitely motivate me to keep going. Education is super important to me, as I am the first lady in my family to ever attend college. I don't want to take this opportunity for granted, and so I will work super hard to get to a place I'll be proud of."  – Israa Aljanabi (Class of 2028)

"By helping to fund my higher education, I'm able to pursue my dream career and meet so many amazing people here at Augustana! Currently, I'm a sophomore double majoring in pre-medicine and neuroscience and am involved in many different clubs on campus, like the Ethiopian Student Association! I'm also currently doing research with a faculty member looking into Alzheimer's disease. I'm really grateful for your donation to my scholarship, since without it I probably wouldn't be able to do any of this!" – Rahel Samuel (Class of 2028)

STUDENT TESTIMONIALS: Diego Vazquez, Israa Aljanabi, and Rahel Samuel (left to right) are each Augustana scholarship recipients.

Credit: Augustana College