Best of CASE District VII Award
 

Institution: University of California, Berkeley

Title of entry: FY26 Oski B-day Bear-a-thon Giving Day

About this entry: We launched Oski’s Birthday Bear‑a‑thon, a second, nimbler campuswide giving day in UC Berkeley's year, designed to create an additional early‑year moment of donor engagement. This two‑day digital campaign celebrated our mascot’s birthday and invited the community to “make Oski’s birthday wish come true” by giving to student‑support funds and voting on where Oski’s own gift should go. The playful framing created an accessible, low‑pressure entry point for donors who respond well to lighthearted, student‑focused appeals.

Our goal was to diversify our donor pool and drive the donor behaviors that strengthen our pipeline by: 1) Engaging Gen Z and Millennial alumni, who are less responsive to traditional channels but highly receptive to digital giving days that highlight community impact, offer choice, and feel less institutional 2) Acquiring and reactivating donors by focusing on student support 3) Driving early fiscal-year giving, making it easier to ask for 2-3 gifts/year, and 4) Creating new reasons to engage leadership-level donors by asking for a matching gift that'll be seen on a visual platform.

The campaign targeted Gen Z and Millennial alumni, current students, parents, lapsed donors, and non‑donor alumni, positioning Oski’s birthday as a broad, community‑wide invitation to support student flourishing at Berkeley.

Now in its second year, Oski’s Birthday Bear‑a‑thon raised $294K from 1,313 donors, including 461 new donors (35%). Notably, 27% of all donors were Gen Z or Millennial, surpassing participation from all other generations and validating the campaign’s strategic focus.