Best of CASE District VII Award
 

Institution: University of California, Davis

Title of entry: Launching the UC Davis Veterinary Medical Complex Campaign

About this entry: The UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine launched the public phase of its Veterinary Medical Complex expansion campaign, a transformative initiative designed to expand clinical care, veterinary education, and research that benefits animals, people, and the environment. In the summer of 2025, thanks to generous donors and a matching gift of $20M, the school reached that milestone and was ready to publicly launch the campaign.

To do this, the school needed to create messaging and branded materials to inspire donors to join the campaign, and elevate awareness among the veterinary community, alumni, donors, clients and the public.

The school created an integrated suite of campaign materials including messaging, marketing materials, donor communications, a microsite, videos, and a day-long celebration that included several events in one day. These included a donor event, a ribbon-cutting for a new All-Species Imaging Center which was part of the VMC expansion, a media event, and a school-wide celebration.

The launch exceeded expectations in many ways. The event itself inspired donors including several who increased previously planned gifts resulting in more than $20M in additional philanthropic commitments.

The launch elevated awareness of the importance of veterinary medicine and UC Davis’ unique vision to expand its footprint in order to serve more animals and communities through increased training capacity and expanded clinical care.

The core "story" to the campaign was in the form of a "story" book, in shorthand called a "donor book" because the audience was primarily to prospective donors to the campaign.