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    4. January - February 2023
    Give like Gary campaign postcard from Ohio University

    Raising the Bar

    New approaches take fundraising campaigns and appeals to new levels
    By
    Meredith Barnett
    January 1, 2023
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    The game was students versus parents, and it was close. In Florida Institute of Technology's esports arena on the institution’s November 2021 giving day, the two teams battled through a live “Family Feud” game of campus trivia. On the line: a donation to the winning team’s Florida Tech cause of choice. 

    This was all part of the U.S. university’s 2021 strategy to gamify its giving day. With the tagline, “Make an impact. Make a gift. Come play on giving day,” the 24-hour, in-person and online event included games from Feud to a rock-paper-scissors tournament to the Alumni Rocket League (an esports mash-up of soccer and car racing). 

    Many institutions today host giving days, but Florida Tech’s approach put a fresh, interactive twist on the activity. The project won a bronze Circle of Excellence Award for flash campaigns—and it wasn’t the only 2022 awardee that put a new spin on the typical tactics in a development team’s toolkit. In COE judges’ comments about the 91 award recipients across fundraising categories, creativity came up most often as a descriptor (followed by terms like great, effective, and impact). 

    Florida Institute of Technology's gamified giving day

    NEW APPROACHES: Creativity drove award-winning projects like the Florida Institute of Technology’s gamified giving day

    Here’s a look at six essential practices advancement teams around the globe used to give fresh, impactful, award-winning twists to fundraising campaigns, events, and appeals. 

    1. Build a case that resonates. 

    St. George’s School planted seeds for support 

    The Main Drive Allée Project

    A tree-lined drive in Middletown, Rhode Island, has led visitors to St. George’s School since the 1900s. But by spring 2021, the trees along the boarding and day school’s main drive were struggling. Weather and disease had ravaged the Norway maple trees (a non-native species). The advancement team launched a campaign to raise $275,000 to plant 55 new trees. 

    The campaign went on to raise $495,000, which can now support other landscape and sustainability projects, and won a silver COE Award for Targeted Campaigns and Appeals. 

    The key was crafting the right story to engage alumni and supporters. 

    “[As] one of the most beautiful and iconic entrances to a school, our main drive has always evoked a feeling of awe,” wrote the St. George’s team in its COE application. They wondered: “What if allies and donors got upset about taking down the old trees?” 

    In response, the campaign’s email, digital, and print pieces focused on sustainability and emotion. For stories in the school’s magazine and online content, the St. George’s team interviewed the landscape architect spearheading the project to highlight how the new trees (native lindens and elms) would be heartier and healthier, preserving the campus alumni love. 

    “We created a compelling story that resonated with our audience. All alumni and families remember their first trip up the main drive to our school and seeing that sweeping vista of the [Atlantic] ocean,” wrote the team. “Alumni and current families jumped at the chance to be a part of an effort to preserve an iconic piece of St. George’s School.”

    2. Address a specific need. 

    Inside the University of Bristol’s move to support Black students, researchers, and faculty 

    In 2020, the University of Bristol’s development team saw an opportunity to support diversity and inclusion for Black students. 

    Black Bristol Scholarships

    At the 27,000-student U.K. institution, the development team partnered with the university’s antiracism steering group and student inclusion team to launch the Black Bristol Scholarships in 2021. The goal was to raise £1 million over four years to fund a total of 136 scholars. 

    Promoted in a leaflet mailed with the university’s magazine and a digital campaign with emails, blog posts, and social media testimonials, the campaign raised more than £700,000 in only three months. Zeroing in on Black students’ specific experiences was central. COE judges called it ambitious and bold, awarding the program a bronze award for Targeted Campaigns and Appeals. 

    “We chose to focus on understanding the barriers to success experienced particularly by Black students, rather than attempting to create a single ‘one size fits all’ initiative to support Black, Asian, and minority ethnic students, as has been popular at other institutions,” explained the Bristol team in its COE award application. The program included tailored supports for undergraduates, postgraduates, teachers, and researchers. This ensured a meaningful opportunity for students and what they called “a robust, evidence-based case for donor support.” 

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    3. Amp up anticipation—and avenues for participation. 

    The Natural History Museum’s Spell Songs virtual fundraiser combined art, music, VIP access, and more 

    The Natural History Museum’s Spell Songs concert wove together art and music, fundraising and engagement, digital technology and live performance. 

    Located in South Kensington, London, the museum houses millions of specimens from dinosaur skeletons to gold crystals. In 2020, the museum planned an in-person concert with musical ensemble Spell Songs to raise funds for the Urban Nature Project to transform the museum’s five-acre outdoor space into a biodiversity hub. 

    The COVID-19 pandemic forced the museum’s team to pivot instead to an online fundraiser in April 2021. The event was part concert, part live art show, part auction. During a performance from the nature-inspired Spell Songs musical ensemble, illustrator Jackie Morris created live illustrations that viewers could bid on (along with other artworks and goods). 

    The concert itself was free, but the museum gave audiences multiple ways to give online before the event—including a special VIP preview day. On the February date that the in-person concert would have happened, the museum team hosted a sneak peek with Spell Songs musicians joining from their homes. 

    “Postponing the original concert meant … we [had to keep] momentum and our audiences engaged,” wrote the museum team in its COE materials. The preview “built anticipation and excitement for the show.” 

    Some 50,000 participants globally logged on to watch the show, which raised more than £105,000—double the museum’s goal. It won a silver COE Award for Online Fundraisers. More than three-quarters of the donors were new to the museum, setting the stage for future engagement. 

    ART, MUSIC, DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT, AND MORE: In April 2021, London's Natural History Museum hosted a unique online performance with the musical ensemble Spell Songs. Here, the group performs the song "Willow." 

    Credit: The Lost Words - Spell Songs
    4. Act quickly. 

    The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine moved fast to meet an essential need 

    The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine captured donors’ energy at just the right time with its Bump It Forward campaign. 

    Founded in 1898, LSTM is a small teaching institution in the U.K. with 600 students from 68 countries. By January 2021, the COVID-19 vaccine was rolling out in the U.K., but LSTM staff in Africa—like those at the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme—were dealing with a second wave of the virus. 

    Bump It Forward

    LSTM’s fundraising team launched Bump It Forward (named after the pandemic “elbow bump” greeting), a campaign to marshal emergency support. It called on donors to give the same amount that their vaccine had cost (c£25/$33) to protect health workers in African countries until the vaccine reached them. LSTM launched the campaign using the JustGiving platform in 72 hours. 

    Working with a team of just four staff, LSTM raised £285,989 in 12 months from nearly 5,000 donors in the U.K. and globally. Staff focused “on speed: to gain ‘first-mover advantage’ and to get funds and personal protective equipment to colleagues as quickly as possible. Therefore, decisions had to be taken quickly and with an acceptance of uncertainty,” the team shared in COE Awards materials. 

    5. Highlight a (relatable) hero. 

    The story behind Ohio University’s everyman annual fund appeal 

    When Ohio University staff discovered that its longest-running annual donor had given 59 years in a row, they knew there had to be a story there. 

    Enter Gary Clark, a 1960 graduate of the U.S. institution. He began giving as soon as he graduated. 

    “Hey, you’re not wealthy and you’re not going to be wealthy,” he told himself at the time. “But everybody needs to give back.” 

    From staff members’ first meeting with Clark, “it was clear he had the personality, attitude, and most importantly, a genuinely inspiring message to become the face of an annual giving campaign. Luckily, he was fully on board,” wrote OHIO’s team in its COE entry. 

    OHIO built a semester-long, multi-channel “Give Like Gary” campaign to inspire giving and share Clark’s story. The team highlighted Clark on its giving day and in a feature story in the institution’s magazine. Ultimately, Give Like Gary boosted cash gifts by nearly 11% and led to a 13% increase in donors, winning a Grand Gold COE Award for Annual/Regular Giving Campaigns (More Than 25 Staff). 

    COE judges noted how the campaign offered someone to whom alumni could relate. 

    “Give Like Gary was truly an exceptional campaign that can be replicated at other institutions. We all have a ‘Gary’ in some form or fashion, and this entry models how we can harness and magnify the generosity that our ‘Gary’ represents,” judges wrote. 

    MEET GARY: Gary Clark made his first gift to Ohio University, U.S., in 1962. This is his story.

    Credit: Ohio University
    6. Bake in interactivity and teamwork. 

    Friendly competition paid off at the University at Albany 

    Teamwork turned the University at Albany’s March Matchness campaign into what staff called a “game-changer.” 

    The New York, U.S., university is a Division I athletics school—so leveraging sports during college basketball’s “March Madness” season made sense. A mini campaign, which ran from March 17 to 31, 2021, aimed to raise funds with targeted challenges and matching gifts. UAlbany built in competitive, engaging elements—like displaying online leaderboards (with social media interaction) for each of its major athletics teams. 

    March Madness ad at the University of Albany

    APPEALS WITH IMPACT: Clear, creative messaging helped drive 2022 campaigns at the University at Albany

     

    For its gamified giving day, Florida Tech also used an online leaderboard to show real-time dollars and donors for each participating college, athletic team, featured program, and student organization. In addition to offering interactive online games like chess, it streamed an Alumni Rocket League tournament with live commentary from its varsity esports team—ultimately raising $778,800 in funds. 

    At UAlbany, the March Matchness goal was $100,000, but the university raised more than $550,000—a 539% increase in dollars and 316% increase in donors during March 2020. 

    The Matchness project, which won a bronze COE Award for Annual/Regular Giving Campaigns (More Than 25 Staff), took collaboration. Athletics and coaching staff were involved; the university’s annual giving and major gifts teams worked together to identify matching gifts that would engage the 17 segments of alumni and supporters UAlbany targeted in the campaign. This, wrote staff, “turned an annual giving event into a university-wide event.”

    About the author(s)

    Meredith Barnett

    Meredith Barnett is the Managing Editor at CASE.

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    Europe US/Canada Higher Education 4 Year Private 4 Year Public Fundraising Fundraising Methods Online fundraising & giving Currents Magazine Feature

    Article appears in:

    Currents January - February 2023 Cover
    • January 1, 2023

    January - February 2023

    Engaging donors, alumni, and campus communities: that’s what the 2022 Circle of Excellence Awards winners did exceptionally well. In this issue of Currents, explore award-winning projects that connected with audiences in novel, compelling, meaningful ways.

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