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The campaign prospectus was used in tandem with invitations to leadership briefings to help set the stage for what attendees would hear more about at the briefing event. It was also used to advance campaign conversations with top donors who did not attend leadership briefings.
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This chart was used internally to depict for University leadership, board of trustees, advancement staff and other volunteer leaders how UD is growing the number of new donors, and securing larger gifts from existing donors with the capacity to give at higher levels.
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Campaign launch invitation sent to more than 300 alumni, donors and friends of the University of Dayton. This invitation was sent after a "Save the Date" email in which we asked recipients to indicate their availability/likelihood to attend the launch event. Doing so helped us target our invitation mailing to a smaller group of likely attendees, and therefore reduce printing/mailing expenses.
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Schedule of events for the public launch of the We Soar campaign, showing how we engaged attendees in "One Day Like No Other" — a full day of activities that demonstrated the impact of philanthropy and inspired attendees to take an active role in the campaign.
We Soar: The Campaign for the University of Dayton
Category
Fundraising > Multi-Year Campaigns (More Than 25 Staff)
Description
Best of CASE District V Award
Institution: University of Dayton
Title of entry: We Soar: The Campaign for the University of Dayton
About this entry: We Soar: the Campaign for the University of Dayton is the University’s first comprehensive fundraising campaign in over 20 years. Conversations in the feasibility stage of the campaign underscored the consequences, and opportunities, resulting from not fully leveraging alumni and prospects. Loyal supporters of UD challenged leadership to engage more new donors, and internal analytics uncovered that many prospects were not being asked to give at their maximum potential.
This feedback, coupled with declining net tuition revenue, propelled the University to launch the We Soar campaign — not only to ensure the revenue needed to attract and retain students and support the holistic, Catholic education that defines the student experience — but perhaps more importantly, to build a culture of philanthropy among UD’s students, alumni, faculty/staff, parents, and friends.
With a lofty campaign goal to raise more than $400 million to increase access to a UD education through scholarship, expand experiential learning to better prepare students for the workforce, and accelerate academic innovation and excellence, the We Soar campaign also acknowledged the need to expand the nationwide network of volunteers who could help communicate the importance of the campaign and build a strong donor pipeline. As such, the campaign includes goals for engaging volunteers and growing the number of consistent, annual donors.
UD’s efforts on all fronts have been successful. With 17 months left in the campaign, we are at 92.5% of our $400 million goal, over 100% of our participation goal, and nearly 91% toward our engagement goal.