Dillard University has experienced several years of strong giving results for GivingTuesday. This is a day of philanthropic giving that started in 2012 as a way to bring attention to supporting nonprofit organizations similar to what Black Friday has meant to the retail industry. In fact, GivingTuesday is held on the Tuesday following Black Friday. Since its inception, millions of people have provided billions of dollars to many charitable causes, with most of the contributions made online.
In 2016, our Director of Development, Kimberly Woodard, proposed Dillard’s participation in GivingTuesday. Initially, I was reluctant because I was not a fan of crowd funding, an online giving strategy and a major tenant of this initiative. Kimberly convinced me that there were safe platforms that were specific to nonprofit organizations. I agreed and we were on our way.
We didn’t know what to expect the first year. We set a goal of $30,000 and raised $64,526. In 2017, our President, Dr. Walter Kimbrough, challenged us to reach $100,000. We raised $195,687. We were then challenged to raise $300,000 in 2018 and achieved $305,102. For 2019, President Kimbrough got very ambitious and set the goal at $500,000. We raised $558,807. These numbers are significant for a small university of 1,250 students and fewer than 9,500 alumni who can be reached. Increasing the results eight-fold over four years takes a lot of coordination, energy and commitment. There are three strategies that led to our success.
Manage Day of Giving Like a Campaign
Any type of campaign requires planning. You have to know how much you wish to raise, from whom you wish to raise it and how you will engage those prospects. Giving days require the same type of strategy. We begin our GivingTuesday planning in the summer. Our primary constituencies are Trustees, alumni, faculty and staff. In August, we begin to communicate with them about the upcoming giving day, which is just after Thanksgiving. In September and October, we solicit the larger contributions ($10,000 and higher). In November, we announce the goal and do a large marketing campaign to all of our constituencies. As we draw closer to Thanksgiving Day, we try to get as many large contribution confirmations as we can and prepare them to make those gifts on GivingTuesday. As with a typical campaign, we experience the 80/20 rule. Most of the funds we raise are provided by a few people and we get many other smaller contributions. For GivingTuesday 2019, we received contributions from 517 generous donors. This campaign strategy requires coordination from everyone on our team, including the gift officers, Marketing and Communication team, database folks, and the President.
Matching Gifts
I will start by saying matching gifts work! People respond very favorably when you can make their dollar work twice as hard. We were fortunate to have a donor provide a matching challenge for our last two days of giving. The first time, he generously agreed to match gifts up to $150,000. In 2019, he matched up to $250,000. These matching opportunities were the catalysts for the precipitous increases year over year. My advice to anyone thinking about participating in a day of giving or looking to increase results is to find at least one matching donor in the planning process. We were fortunate to have a large match, but this can be just as effective with several smaller ones. Telling potential donors their $100 contribution can have the effect of $150 or $200 is a great way to create momentum.
Marketing and Promotion
Dillard University’s day of giving, like most, is rooted in online giving; however, we receive a number of contributions via the postal service. Some give on our crowd funding platform, Network for Good (there are other good ones as well), some give directly on our website, and others call us to make a gift over the phone. This means we have to be able to communicate with people with different communication styles and preferences. Our biggest communication tool is social media. We primarily use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn to promote our day of giving. We use lots of images and videos that feature students. It is important for donors to see their dollars at work. We send several emails and text messages to people and we do some robo-calls. We also conduct a phone bank using students as the callers. The goal is to reach as many people as possible. Students are the best ambassadors for the university and people love to hear from them.
Dillard’s day of giving has been successful because of these strategies. This can be the formula for success for other organizations as well. We have a small staff, so these methods allow us to conduct this campaign amidst our other responsibilities. The key is to build good relationships and communicate both the goal and successes with your constituents. Remember, after your successful giving day, be sure to thank your donors several times.