Best of CASE District IV Award
 

Institution: Rice University

Title of entry: The Moody Experience: A New-Look Stewardship Initiative

About this entry: In 2021, the Moody Foundation made an extraordinary $100 million commitment to Rice University to build a transformative student center and to create 12 endowments for students spanning global travel, leadership, civic engagement, social sciences, research, the arts, athletics, wellness and more. With the largest single gift in the university’s 111-year history, the Moody Foundation helped transform the face of philanthropy at Rice and raised expectations on how we, the community at large, communicate about, steward and celebrate our most prominent donors.

In 2022-2023, Development and Alumni Relations spearheaded a coordinated, university-wide stewardship initiative that included developing a new brand called "the Moody Experience," launching a new student event tradition called "Moody X-Fest," and advocating for a programmatic model, housed in the Rice provost's office, to disseminate and steward the Moody Foundation's gift. This involved meeting with campus partners across Rice's schools and departments to coordinate various efforts. It also involved creating a unifying brand to ensure a common voice and standard for all stewardship communications. In spring 2023, we launched a campus-wide food and music festival to steward the foundation, officially launch the Moody Experience brand and build greater awareness among the student community. The comprehensive efforts were well received by the Moody Foundation, students and campus partners alike, with the Moody trustees remarking after the festival: "All of it was high energy. Again, congrats to the entire Rice team. I never imagined endowments could be so exciting. You all have raised the bar.”