Making the Most of Annual Giving Days for your University’s Brand

A popular trend in higher education philanthropy and fundraising in the last decade is the rise of digital fundraising, especially annual giving days. Some university marketing teams are an integral part of these campaigns, while others play a complementary role as the advancement office takes the lead.

Let’s dig into some strategies to best leverage annual giving days for the benefit of the university’s strategic plans and overall brand reputation.

Elevate Your Efforts with Collaboration

Annual giving days were started as a way for universities to not only boost their fundraising efforts, but also to combat the use of fundraising platforms like GoFundMe by overzealous student groups or faculty and staff for their individual areas. While those “rogue” efforts usually have good intentions, donating to any campaign associated with a college or university that doesn’t follow proper IRS regulations can cause major issues for the organization.

Universities can manage their giving days in several different ways, either campaigning for a smaller number of funds or working with different departments and colleges to choose a large variety of giving goals. To optimize the campaign outcomes, the initiative should leverage the skills and knowledge of several groups across campus. Accounting staff should keep an eye on those IRS regulations while managing the finances of the campaign; advancement staff should ensure the campaigns dovetail with their overall fundraising efforts for the university and help identify ideal donor groups to target; and specific student or faculty/staff groups can provide insight on the needs and benefits to their areas, also championing the cause to their peers.

The university marketing team’s role is critical to pulling these details together to produce a more cohesive campaign that elevates the university’s overall brand.

Experience Immediate ROI

By focusing on gifts to unrestricted or general funds, a major benefit to hosting a university giving day is the sudden influx of spendable dollars. This allows money to be utilized faster and with less scrutiny than donations to restricted funds given as part of a more specific endowment or other designated purpose. It’s important for everyone who is producing marketing materials for the campaign—even those championing it informally by word of mouth—to understand the difference in order to create a clear message to prospective donors and returning donors, whether in curated marketing pieces or by word of mouth.

For example, Florida State University was able to utilize its annual giving day to quickly raise more than $150,000 to supplement another urgent campaign that gave around 400 students a once-in-a-lifetime experience. By dedicating some giving day funds to this effort, it allowed its marching band to be the only collegiate band to perform in the 75th Anniversary D-Day Normandy Parade in France. This also in turn brough the university positive international recognition, raising overall brand awareness.

Target Affinity Groups for Meaningful Engagement

Whether an alumnus was a member of the marching band or the physics club, giving days provide donors an opportunity to feel more connected with the university, even with small monetary gifts (a great starting point to engage young alums). “Affinity groups” is a buzzword in university fundraising and philanthropy circles and should be approached as strategically segmented target audiences.

Most university fundraising begins around graduation to support the graduating class gift to the university, or soon after, for graduates to give back to their college. Pfeiffer University encourages alumni to identify with their cohort year after year with the Freddie Cup. The school awards the cup at the university’s homecoming events each fall to the graduating class with the highest donor participation. They’ve strategically aligned affinity groups for the benefit of the university and have created year-round conversations around their giving day with involvement in homecoming events.

Universities can expand their segmentation strategies with the help of customer relationship/retention management tools. Since CRMs have the capacity to store information about activities a graduate was involved in as a student, appeals can be specific to alumni interests. Add-on digital tools like Campus Sonar and EverTrue provide important data about constituents and their motivations to better strategize campaign goals and marketing techniques.

Again, there’s a positive marketing by-product of these strategies. By showing audiences you are listening to them and understand what they care about, you can positively impact the university’s reputation, foster improved trust and elevate your brand value.

Meet Strategic Needs While Broadening Support

Aligning a university’s strategic goals with marketing campaigns across multiple university functions can be challenging; however, annual giving days can help provide such an opportunity.

Previously, colleges and universities were ranked by U.S. News & World Reports on factors like alumni giving. With this factor eliminated in the new ranking system, fundraising teams have more flexibility to focus on the greatest needs to further their institution’s unique mission.

Take giving days as a high-profile opportunity to foster meaningful engagement with audiences beyond alumni—including parents, local community/friends of the university, faculty, and staff. These campaigns with a broad reach and tight, simple response window can attract the attention of potential partners who may not have previously known about interests they share with your institution.

By showing how their gift contributes to your university’s core, strategic goals (as well as those of departments and colleges involved), you not only provide a concise, meaningful answer to who the university is, you also provide an answer for why someone should contribute. Paired with a quick, easy giving process, you are making it an easy decision for new donors to align themselves with your university and a mission they believe in. It’s always a good day when you can bring new fans onboard with your brand.

Final Thoughts

Managing and marketing an annual giving day is not an overnight task and will come at some cost to the university, whether it’s staff time, financial resources, or both. However, the short- and long-term benefits to the university’s strategic plans, fiscal goals and brand reputation are worth the effort.

Ready to explore new branding opportunities in your next fundraising campaign? Let’s talk!