This Spring, I was tasked with executing a large-scale, one-day campaign, or a Day of Giving. For those unfamiliar, Days of Giving are becoming increasingly popular at universities and colleges across the nation. Started by Columbia University, these campaigns are usually 12-24 hours in length and focus on reaching a donor and donation goal.
Our Day of Giving campaign was branded as 108 for Montclair State: to honor our 108-year history. We focused our fundraising efforts the Emergency Scholarship Fund, a scholarship created to help rising or current seniors finish their studies, and our new On-Campus Food Pantry (although donors were welcome to choose a designation of their choice).
While Montclair State is no Columbia, I was excited (and a little overwhelmed) by the opportunity to execute this campaign at my beloved University. It was not easy. It was not resourced or planned all that well. Despite the odds, we had a wildly successful day. For my fellow higher ed-ers, here is how it went!
Audience
- Alumni
- Students
- Senior Class Gift
- Parents
- Faculty/Staff
- Alumni Campus Employees (alumni who now work on campus)*
Hashtags
- We kept the branding consistent and went with #108forMontclairState. Once that hashtag was old news (see below), we started using #12kInADay. Search those hashtags, or see a compilation of our outreach here.
Strategy
- Social media! Campaigns like this are really a grassroots, ambassador driven campaign!
- Emails – leading up to, all day, and even afterwards, announcing the results…
- Pick up the phone! Our amazing Red Hawk Callers (call center employees / student development officers) were in the call center ALL day (9:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m., in shifts of course). Tip: Feed them often.
- In-person soliciation: We collected gifts at our president’s spring speech for faculty/staff, as well as at an on-campus event the day of the campaign. The personal touch makes all the difference!
Goals
- Knowing the culture of philanthropy among our constituents, we set a goal of acquiring 108 donors to honor our rich 108-year history as an institution.
- Internally, we set a fundraising goal of $12,000 in 12 hours.
Outcomes
- Ha! We laughed in the face of our goal as we hit 108 donors just before noon on April 21. At final tally, we received gifts from 350 donors.
- While we did not hit $12,000 on April 21, just shy of 1:00 p.m. the following day, we did make it to this goal! At final count, we raised over $12,470!
For our first-ever day, we are thrilled with these results. Here are some of the highlights and keys to our success:
- Campus Partnerships: I created a committee of on-campus partners representing each school and college, Student Development and Campus Life, and Athletics.
- Promotion: Because of the above partnerships, we were heavily promoted all over campus. I was even on-air the that morning on WMSC 90.3 talking about the day (side note, I’m now obsessed with being on the radio!) We also promoted the day at our president’s annual address to all faculty and staff, had chalking all over campus, utilized social media, and sent many, many an email.
- The Date: While the strategy for choosing our date was basically “We have to do this soon, let’s pick a date on the calendar that isn’t already taken with an event!”, we lucked out because a large-scale campus event that takes place every year, World’s Fair Day, was the same day as our campaign. Basically, all student organizations gather in the Student Center quad with food, tables, music, etc. Naturally, we had a table and took fun pictures for social media that you can see here. World’s Fair Day is part of our annual “Spring Week”, so it seemed like a natural fit.
- Volunteers: We called upon our recent alumni and student committees to help spread the word on social media, through email, and however else they could! Our giving form came equipped with a really cool feature called Givalaunche, a social media/crowdfunding tool that shares donations on social media after you give.
All in all, it was an exhausting but really exciting day for me. While it is sometimes overwhelming, I’ve been lucky enough to broaden my experience in Annual Giving and Development and step outside of my comfort zone in Alumni Relations.
*Did you know? Montclair State University is the number one employer of its alumni!
