We pioneered the very concept of single-day higher-ed fundraising in 2012 with Columbia University’s first Giving Day, creating everything from the overarching strategy, messaging (our line “Changing Lives that Change the World” is still used across a wide range of University communications), and look and feel to website design, video production and social media management. This 24-hour experiment broke records for educational fundraising, drawing $6.8 million in a single day and delivering such success helping Columbia University reinvigorate their “jaded” donor base that they hired us to help them repeat the feat five years running.
Along the way, we:
- Shattered the school’s previous fundraising record by 500%
- Created a brand new donor base, with a full 40% of donors either first-timers or “lapsed”
- Continually broke our own record, with $7.8 million raised in 2013, $11 million in 2014, $12.8 million in 2015 and $14.6 million in 2016
- Continually increased the number of donors, to 14,000 gifts in 2016
- Won a CASE Gold Award for fundraising excellence