2014 Circle of Excellence Entry Fundraising Programs: Targeted Campaigns Contact Amanda Skowronek, Communications and Graphic Design Manager Eastern Michigan University Foundation 1349 S. Huron St. Ypsilanti, Michigan 48197 Email: askowro2@emich.edu Phone: (734) 481-2335 Title of entry: 2013 #GivingTuesday at EMU URL and Additional URLs www.emich.edu/givingtuesday Kerri’s Konsciousness: #GivingTuesday at EMU edition http://vimeo.com/emufoundation/givingtuesday-kerriskonsciousness Why I Love EMU: GivingTuesday edition http://vimeo.com/emufoundation/iheartemu Brief description of your institution/organization (type, enrollment, mission). The Eastern Michigan University Foundation is an institutionally-related nonprofit organization that solicits funds on behalf of the University, and manages donations that are made to help academic areas of need. The purpose is to increase the sources and amounts of private funds for the benefit of the University, and all fundraising activities and events undertaken by individual units of EMU are coordinated through the EMU Foundation. The funds are then used to support several areas, including student scholarships, programs, facility enhancement and development and faculty research and growth. The EMU Foundation is governed by an independent group of volunteers who serve as the Board of Trustees that elects its own officers. Additionally, the EMU Foundation manages the University’s endowment, valued at more than $58 million at the close of fiscal year 2013, and manages the University’s database of more than 145,000 alumni and friends. Eastern Michigan University is a master’s public institution that currently serves more than 23,000 students who are pursuing undergraduate, graduate, specialist, doctoral and certificate degrees in the arts, sciences and professions. In all, more than 200 majors, minors and concentrations are delivered through the University’s Colleges of Arts and Sciences; Business; Education; Health and Human Services; Technology, and its graduate school.
1 | Eastern Michigan University Foundation: 2014 Circle of Excellence Entry
Provide a concise description of this entry: Eastern Michigan University successfully launched its first-ever single-day fundraiser on December 3, 2013 to coincide with the national #GivingTuesday movement that encourages philanthropic giving to a non-profit of one’s choice. After the final audit of figures, EMU raised more than $136,000 from nearly 400 donors to support the students and programs at EMU. With the use of several media channels, including direct mail, email, social media, video and web, EMU encouraged all alumni, faculty, staff, students and friends to use their social media prowess to spread the message and give back to EMU on December 3. We began the communication campaign more than one month prior to the actual event to properly educate our donors and friends about the campaign and help them understand the importance of participation in the one-day fundraiser. Number of Donors Contacted More than 16,000 donors were contacted regarding this one-day fundraiser, along with EMU alumni, faculty, staff, students and friends. For the most part, these constituents were contacted through email, with roughly 1000 contacted through direct mail for a more targeted approach. Email open rates were the highest in university and advancement history. EMU email open rates hover around 10-12%, but #GivingTuesday emails saw open rates as high as 52%. Number of Donors who made a gift, if applicable 395 Funds raised to date A total of $136,527.99 was raised on December 3, 2013 to complete EMU’s first-ever single-day fundraising campaign. Overall Fundraising Target When this communication campaign was originally conceived, based on past online giving and single-day numbers, we were hoping for anywhere between $10-20,000. With the #GivingTuesday movement itself in its infancy and the fact that EMU had never attempted a single-day fundraiser, we were completely overjoyed with the support the EMU community gave that day to banned together and raise more than $136,000 for EMU. If outside vendors/consultants were used, please explain what role they played. Outside vendors were used for print collateral (postcards, stickers, signs, t-shirts), advertising (Facebook), day of event entertainers (photo booth, DJ), website and electronic gift form changes. Total budget for entry, excluding salaries but including the cost of vendors/consultants $4,000
2 | Eastern Michigan University Foundation: 2014 Circle of Excellence Entry
Describe your results and how you met your goals and objectives. If this is a recently launched program, describe your plans to evaluate it. • Over 24 hours, $136,527.99 raised by 395 donors • $33,217.00 collected online from 148 donors, helping increase December giving by nearly $20,000 and 100 donors. • Of the 395 donors, 121 were first-time donors and 58 were returning donors who increased their year-end giving from the previous year. • Of the 395 donors, 124 made consecutive year-end gifts from November/December of 2012, and 47% of them upgraded their gift on #GivingTuesday • Of the 395 donors, 45% of them were alumni, 23% were faculty/staff, 19% were students and 12% were corporations, foundations and other. • Sent more than 400,000 emails over the course of 6 weeks regarding #GivingTuesday to alumni, faculty, staff, students and friends which resulted in the best email open rates in Advancement history (as high as 52%) • Saw the highest number of single-day visits to our webpage, emufoundation.org in organizational history (564) Based on these statistics and the impact it made to end-of-year fundraising, we feel that it is a worthwhile campaign to continue for next year. We are looking at the global picture and how it will not only affect annual giving, but how it can inspire major giving. We will look to our major gift officers to use #GivingTuesday as a discussion point with major donors and to encourage those donors to make their year-end gifts on #GivingTuesday. Share any additional information to clarify the purpose and/or outcome of this work. I’ve included an index of screen shots of the various pieces we did to help gain a better understanding of the campaign. It is by no means everything we did, but it does give a glimpse into the campaign.
3 | Eastern Michigan University Foundation: 2014 Circle of Excellence Entry
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