St. Lawrence College; Ontario, Canada 

Gold—Alumni Relations Initiatives (Less Than 10 Staff)  

When St. Lawrence College reached the 100,000 total alumni milestone during the pandemic and was unable to host an in-person gathering of alumni, staff celebrated the achievement by inviting graduates to submit selfies to be printed in the college’s magazine. With only two weeks to market and gather photos, the team managed to fill both the cover and a two-page spread and went on to use the photos across marketing materials. 

What the judges said: “We really liked the creativity and innovativeness of this project. It is easily replicable by other institutions, even digitally. It demonstrated a very efficient use of staff time and the impact a small team could have for the institution.” 

The Miami Valley School; Dayton, Ohio, U.S. 

Silver—Annual/Regular Giving Campaigns (Less Than 10 Staff) 

This annual fund campaign engaged faculty and staff with special treats, including a homemade crepe station. Parent giving nearly doubled, and the campaign was promoted across social media, email, and in person. 

What the judges said: “We liked the data-driven approach that guided the messaging in this campaign, as well as the variety of videos and integrated solicitations. This team used their storytelling effectively to communicate the impact of giving.”

The Rivers School; Weston, Massachusetts, U.S. 

Gold—Multi-Year Campaigns (Less Than 10 Staff)  

The most ambitious fundraising initiative in The Rivers School history rallied the community to give an unprecedented $67 million—enabling the school to bring to life transformational projects and programs that will benefit their students far into the future. 

What the judges said: “For a small team, this campaign was extraordinarily thorough and well thought out for their donor base. Very well planned and organized with clear objectives that hit the mark!” 

Alexander Dawson School at Rainbow Mountain; Summerlin, Nevada, U.S. 

Bronze—Marketing Initiatives (Less Than 10 Staff) 

For this student retention tool, staff filled boxes with themed photographs, artifacts, literature, and information about what to expect in the next grade level. The Journey Boxes were shared with students as they were moving up, engaging, exciting, and encouraging them to stay with the school. 

What the judges said: “Our panel was all smiles when reading about the Journey Boxes initiative. This project is a wonderful example of a low-budget project that can help you build community while also addressing some problem areas within the admissions journey. It could easily be replicated at other K-12 institutions.”

The Colorado Springs School; U.S. 

Bronze—Marketing Initiatives (Less Than 10 Staff)

This marketing campaign, instead of driving prospective families to the school’s homepage, created a new “discover” landing page. This allowed the school to track the total number of impressions across its radio, print, digital, social, and in-person marketing, and to work toward pinpointing what source offered the largest return on investment for reaching its target demographic. 

What the judges said: “The ‘Discover’ advertising campaign is a great example of a school making important iterative changes on their existing marketing plans. Few schools can say that their initiative helped to double their applications year-over-year, and we love to see evidence of interdisciplinary cross-collaboration between different school departments!”