Best of CASE Asia-Pacific Region Award
 

Institution: Taipei American School

Title of entry: 3 Weeks to 300: The Return of Annual Giving

About this entry: During the pandemic and restrictions period (Spring 2020-23), Taipei American School paused active fundraising. In SY23-24, the first year free of pandemic restrictions, our new CAO was tasked with bringing back a fundraising program. TAS did not have an unrestricted leg of the giving program, and she decided to introduce a proper unrestricted Annual Fund.

In October 2023, our CAO coordinated a matching gift challenge of $125,000 USD from an anonymous donor. The Advancement team developed “3 Weeks to 300,” a participation campaign during which the community would have three weeks in December (December 1-20), to give a total of 300 gifts of any size, to unlock $100,000 USD. When this goal was met in week 2 of the challenge, a stretch goal of 600 total gifts was introduced with a reward of an additional $25,000 USD.

The campaign's goal was to educate our community about philanthropy in an engaging and fun way, conveying that annual giving is accessible to all, and that when a community gives together it is more impactful than when giving alone. Pre-existing community perceptions of the impact of giving suggested that only major donations with naming recognition made a difference to the school.

The campaign far surpassed our expectations, resulting in a noteworthy sum of over $250,000 USD raised from the collective contributions of more than 780 donors. Particularly notable was the 13% increase in parent participation in giving compared to the corresponding period in the 2022-2023 school year.