New Fundraising Blitzes Bring Colleges Big Money in a Matter of Days

Colgate University marked a recent Friday the 13th by raising $5.1-million—its biggest one-day haul ever.

Columbia University raised even more last year during a one-day event, nearly $8-million.

Muhlenberg College, a small liberal-arts institution, raised more than $212,000 in a 24-hour push. Of the 1,430 people who gave to the drive, 16 percent were donors who had not given to the college in at least a year—and nearly one in four had never given.

For a growing number of colleges and universities, these fundraising blitzes are sparking explosions in donor support. The events, which colleges dub “money bombs” after a term coined in quick-hit political fundraising campaigns, are aimed at prodding alumni to give to campaigns that begin and end fast—over 24 hours, 36 hours, or 125 hours.

The drives, conducted largely through social media, demonstrate how well-established, big institutions can adapt to two trends that are powering many young charities: crowdfunding and “giving days,” in which people in a certain geographic region are urged to support charities on a particular day.

While raising money is key, some institutions say they are more interested in increasing the number of alumni who support them, in large part because college rankings take into account how many alumni give.

The drives also send a message to donors, which Rebekkah Brown, Muhlenberg’s vice president for development and alumni relations, sums up this way: “Every single gift does count.”

Muhlenberg started its daylong event in November as a way to counter alumni concerns that only large gifts mattered to the institution. The event attracted nearly 14 times the number of donors the college had previously drawn on a single day.

The event, Ms. Brown says, “was about the act of giving rather than the amount of giving.”

Matching Gifts

The most successful money-bomb drives have a few elements in common: a date that has special meaning for alumni, a promotional buildup veiled in mystery, a cadre of connected volunteer fundraisers, and a few matching gifts organized ahead of time.

This last bit is key, fundraisers say: Small donors may feel their contributions can have more impact with the match.

Some fundraisers say that these time-limited drives help them open a conversation with skittish prospective donors, who feel less self-conscious about giving small amounts because their gifts are part of a big pot.

Such drives can also help uncover a charity’s most fervent supporters, notes Justin Ware, director of interactive communications and social media at Bentz Whaley Flessner, a fundraising consulting firm. More nonprofits, even those not on college campuses, should research and identify who their strongest cheerleaders might be.

A nonprofit should not only thank these loyal contributors, Mr. Ware says, but also provide them with webinars or other training on fundraising and outreach so they can help the charity even more.

Colgate University’s first-ever giving-day campaign unfolded like a textbook example of a money bomb. The institution last year picked the last Friday the 13th of the year for its event, Colgate Day.

The effort was kept under wraps for months until a week before the December event. The university sent a cryptic postcard to alumni, directing them to the campus radio station: “Trust Us. Tune into WRCU on 12/13.”

About 700 volunteers were notified about the challenge two days before launch and were asked to spread the word by phone, email, text message, and social media.

On the big day, the university announced multiple million-dollar matching challenges.

First, an anonymous donor offered to give $1-million if 1,300 donors gave that day in any amount. By 10:30 a.m., that goal was met.

Next, two more alumni stepped up, each offering a match if 1,300 more donors gave before midnight. Together they chipped in $2-million, and the 2,600-donor goal was hit by late afternoon.

Then another donor put in another $1-million if the campaign got 3,513 people to give. By midnight, the drive had reached 5,686 donors—16 times the previous one-day total, says Kristin Loop, senior associate director of the annual fund for Colgate University.

“It was incredible, the level of excitement in the office that day, for the whole 24 hours. It was just a lot of fun,” Ms. Loop says. “It was a true team effort.”

Volunteer Power

At the University of Tennessee, fundraisers hedged their bets by extending the giving day into a 125-hour campaign. The drive, called the “Big Orange Give,” emphasized the university’s goal to be ranked in U.S. News and World Report’s top 25 American higher-education institutions.

The campaign was slated for homecoming week last November. Six months in advance, the team of 20 university employees began planning—and worrying about hitting a target of $125,000.

“We are trying to grow a stronger culture of philanthropy among alumni, and we wanted the campaign to be successful,” says Haylee Marshall, senior director of alumni affairs and advancement for the University of Tennessee Alumni Association.

To help ensure success, the effort featured regional icons like the entertainer Dolly Parton and the NFL quarterback Peyton Manning (an alumnus) in a two-week teaser campaign on social media. In a video, they asked viewers: “Are you ready?”

“And everybody was ready,” Ms. Marshall says. “But they didn’t know what they should be ready for.”

On the opening day of the drive, its organizers were ready, too, with announcements of four matching-gift challenges from prominent people connected to the university. Some 300 supporters had pledged to give and to recruit other donors on social media, and an online marketing campaign was planned to coordinate efforts by the various colleges and departments to push social-media visitors to the drive’s donation page.

Throughout the 125 hours, organizers reacted nimbly to trends. As they saw gifts pouring in from across the country, they posted a map on social media; states turned orange as donors from them gave. Behind the scenes, the fundraisers appealed to alumni from states that lagged. In the end, the university got gifts from all 50 states, plus Australia, China, Canada, Jamaica, and Japan.

See examples from the campaign that helped the University of Tennessee raise $250,000 in 125 hours.(PDF)

The results: 1,630 donors gave a total of $250,105; eight out of 10 gifts were $100 or less. The campaign drew new donors (17 percent of the total), while 27 percent had not given in at least a year. As a follow-up, each supporter received a thank-you video by email and a phone call of appreciation from a University of Tennessee student.

The drive’s best results came from the 300 “champions” who pushed the message, says Ms. Marshall. The next time around, she wants to expand the group to 500 or 1,000.

“There’s a great opportunity there for them to be involved in something,” she says. “That’s where the power is.”

Nonprofit Challenge

Another institution, Whitman College, scored big in a money-bomb drive that pitted it against other local charities. It’s now working hard to encourage the donors it wooed to give again.

A year ago, the college took up a challenge offered by the Seattle Foundation. The fund’s GiveBig campaign asked local nonprofits to raise as much money as they could in 24 hours, and those gifts would be matched by the foundation—or, as it said, “stretched”—based on the nonprofits’ proportional share of the total amount of money raised.

GiveBig was “just too ideal a setup for us to let go,” says John Bogley, vice president for development and college relations.

Over a period of weeks, through a series of emails to alumni and other donors, Whitman College promoted the giving day and emphasized the “stretch” that could make supporters’ gifts go further.

In the end, Whitman got 194 donations, bringing in $46,177 without the foundation’s match. But with it, Whitman’s take increased by 30 percent because of how well it performed. (Over all, the Seattle Foundation campaign raised more than $11.1-million, which was divided among the charities that donors selected.)

Now, inspired by its money-bomb experience, and in the midst of an eight-year drive to raise $150-million, Whitman College officials are trying new ways to raise money and seeking to get their GiveBig supporters to donate again.

In the last six months, the institution has started “Taste of Whitman” fundraising campaigns, with six events held so far in cities including San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington.

Whitman parents and alumni—including GiveBig donors—have been invited to kickoff events where faculty members, coaches, and administrators give short presentations and guests enjoy hors d’oeuvres and local wines. The college then offers matching gift challenges, usually donations from a trustee and a alumni couple, and tells alumni and parents they have a week to give or the college will lose the match.

So far, Whitman has raised $325,000 from the donors, or $650,000 with the match. Two more weeklong drives are planned.

Mr. Bogley is waiting to see if the donors picked up through the money-bomb event will stick with Whitman over time.

“The real question is, When we do GiveBig this year, how many people will make another gift? Will they say, ‘I’ve already given to Taste of Whitman and the challenge?’” he asks. “I don’t have the answer yet.”