North Carolina State U.’s Giving Day Yields Record $58 Million

On March 24 — with many students still living off campus and attending virtual classes and development staff still working remotely — North Carolina State University had a major fundraising breakthrough.

Its 24-hour Day of Giving raised $58.1 million, breaking all previous records for a campus giving day.

The university held its first 24-hour fundraising blitz in 2019. Last year’s event was initially scheduled for March 2020 but was delayed until September because of the pandemic. This year’s record-breaking event came a mere six months later.

At the outset of the pandemic, many colleges initially pressed pause on spring giving days or pivoted to support emergency needs for students, staff, and faculty. But the digital fundraising drives have been largely successful over the past year.

Giving days present donors with a sense of urgency because of matching gifts available exclusively during that 24-hour period. This year, for example, the university’s chancellor approved the use of unrestricted funds to support a six-figure match for other contributions.

The grand total was bolstered by a handful of large donations. N.C. State received nine gifts of $1 million or more, including two of at least $5 million.

Brian Sischo, vice chancellor for university advancement and president of the N.C. State University Foundation, said some donors have become savvy about taking advantage of matching funds. Major donors who made a commitment in January or February might hold off on making their gift, he said. “They know that by waiting until Day of Giving, they can help their college earn some extra bonus money.”

There’s always the concern that a giving day will decrease the flow of funds at the end of the calendar year. But Sischo said N.C. State’s year-end fundraising hasn’t taken a hit. “We’ve seen relatively no drop-off in December,” he said. “The giving in March represents incremental giving,” as donors make additional gifts.

Personalized Videos

Giving days are also an opportunity to appeal to first-time donors. In N.C. State’s first two fundraising blitzes, fundraisers charted significant increases in new supporters.

While total dollars raised is an important measure of a giving day’s success, connecting with first-time donors is equally important, Sischo said. “That pays dividends for years to come.”

The university’s overall number of donors and gifts have both increased sharply as a result of its foray into giving days. During the giving day last month, 10,879 donors made 14,272 gifts — 1,878 of which came from new donors. Sischo believes giving days hold promise to help reverse the trend of declining rates of alumni donor participation in recent decades.

Donors can support a wide variety of campus areas, funds, and programs during a giving day.

“We look to emphasize things that donors are interested in supporting,” Sischo said. “If I can connect you as a donor to the thing you are most passionate about, you tend to give more and you tend to give more often. And so that’s kind of what undergirds our entire approach.”

But at the same time, fundraisers highlighted specific funding needs like support for a student emergency fund, need-based scholarships, faculty, and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

“While we emphasize donor centricity, our message often will highlight certain parts of campus that we know are important to large constituencies of donors,” Sischo said.

Stewardship is also a critical component of success during the fundraising sprint. Sischo’s team has emphasized moving quickly to recognize donors.

Fundraisers have been working remotely since March 2020, so the bulk of planning happened via Zoom calls. On the giving day, a rotating group of 15 to 20 fundraisers socially distanced in “command central,” a large campus ballroom, to coordinate social-media posts and record gift acknowledgments in real time.

Fundraisers recorded more than 5,000 short thank–you videos, each around 30 seconds or less, to send to donors. Many featured students. Some also included campus leaders.

Some of those videos were personalized. For example, the chancellor was recorded thanking major donors by name. Donors received the videos within 30 minutes of making their gift.

“That kind of stewardship goes a long way for people to feel really good about having stepped up to support the university on this special day,” Sischo said.

Pandemic Bump

Could increased engagement on March 24 be the result of so many alumni being at home and online more than they were in past years?

Future giving days may help provide an answer, Sischo said. “The fact that we still have a number of folks who are working remote or continue to live in isolation versus being out and about, I certainly think that could have contributed to this success.”

Purdue University held the previous record for a campus giving day. The university held its first giving day in 2014 and raised $42.2 million during its most recent event on September 9.

Purdue’s early giving day success generated lots of interest from fundraisers at other institutions who wanted to learn how the campus made it happen. After more than 200 nonprofits and other universities wrote to ask about everything from communication strategy to getting buy-in from campus leaders, several Purdue fundraisers started a for-profit consulting firm to provide their expert advice.

The co-founders of that firm, State of Wow, advised leaders at N.C. State as they got their giving day off the ground.

The pandemic is a double-edged sword in terms of donor engagement, said Kate Pottschmidt, senior director of broad-based campaigns and digital engagement at the Purdue Research Foundation and a cofounder of State of Wow.

“Sometimes it’s easier to reach people because they’re online,” she said. “But it’s also a little bit harder to beat through the clutter since everyone is sending emails.”

With many people on their computers all day, timing is key. “They don’t really want to be on their computer all evening, so you have to make sure that you’re getting them at the right time.”

But Covid-era giving days have fostered a sense of community for campuses, Pottschmidt said. Donors, fundraisers, and volunteers have been able to come together to protect their institutions. “People are almost celebrating what the institution has done this year and overcome this year,” she said.

Even before the pandemic began, giving days proved to be prime opportunities to foster a culture of philanthropy on campus. That’s only intensified during the pandemic, said Amber Turner, another co-founder of State of Wow and the assistant vice president for broad-based campaigns and strategic engagement at the Purdue Research Foundation.

“One of the key things for a successful giving day is to have that universitywide commitment and leadership buy-in and support,” Turner said.

Universities that take a holistic approach to a campaign and involve the entire advancement staff, as opposed to making it a project of the annual-giving team, see that success pay off year-round.

Fundraising staff who organize the event put a lot of energy into building relationships with staff, volunteers, and faculty across the campus. “That’s one of the best things that have come out of giving day efforts — creating those partnerships where our campus units learn more about how their communication ties directly into philanthropic support,” Turner said.

Ideally, everyone in the institution shares the giving-day message but puts a unique twist on it, she said. “They’re incorporating their key initiatives and priorities while keeping the branding consistent.”

That team effort can help build morale, especially for fundraising professionals who support a specific campus unit. “For giving days, you’re one institution,” she said. “It really brings a sense of community to the fundraising team. And it’s not just a one and done; it’s an ongoing conversation that we’re having 365 to be able to better the institution as a whole.”

Turner and Pottschmidt are thrilled to see other campuses embrace the giving-day ideas with success. But there’s still a friendly competition when it comes to those big fundraising numbers.

“When it comes to dollars in the door, yes, [N.C. State] did dethrone Purdue,” Turner said. But with Purdue’s next giving day coming up on April 28, it remains to be seen which institution will hold the record.

“Every year we strive to do better than we did the year before,” Turner said.