Giving days for schools & nonprofits: The best giving days of 2024
As we head into 2025, nonprofits and educational institutions are utilizing lessons learned from this year’s giving days and gearing up to create impactful giving days in the year ahead. To help you succeed, we’ve pulled together some of the best giving days we’ve seen so far this year, and outlined strategies to inspire your own. Take a peek and make your next giving day stand out, driving your success to new heights.
University giving days: A winning strategy for higher ed fundraising
A giving day (also known as a day of giving) is most often a 24-hour fundraising campaign designed to rally supporters, both existing and new, around your mission. It creates a sense of excitement, urgency and friendly competition among your community. Giving days are a great way to re-engage donors and attract new ones. They are also an opportunity to showcase your impact and encourage donors to donate more by leveraging matching gifts and other incentives.
As we roll into the last few months of the year, nonprofits and educational institutions are gearing up towards Giving Tuesday and year-end giving appeals. We gathered some of the best giving days we’ve seen so far this year and tips to help you get a head start with yours.
Saint Leo University
Heading into their 2024 giving day, the development team at Saint Leo University faced a familiar challenge: increase participation rates and continue to bolster alumni engagement with a small, but focused, team. Through the use of digital gamification they inspired healthy competition and increased their online donor participation by 61%.
How did they do it? They dug in to focus on creative ways to leverage promotion leading up to the event, but also ways to expand their reach and meet their participation goals.
The solution was to promote more unique giving opportunities while driving healthy and fun competition. The development team worked with partners across campus to understand what their top funding priorities were, allowing them to double the size of their campaign, giving donors a variety of fund options to choose from on giving day. In addition, they added a leaderboard to their giving day site.
On the leaderboard, funds were ranked by the number of gifts they received throughout the day. The funds with the highest number of gifts (as their goal was to increase participation) were at the top. This organically created competition that faculty, staff, students and alumni were following throughout the day to make sure the fund they cared most about stayed at the top of the leaderboard.
Christine John,
Director of Development, Saint Leo University
Not only did the total number of donors increase by 10%, but they also saw a broader geographic participation than ever before, with gifts from donors in 35 states and 6 countries. 4% of all gifts that came in were international gifts, coming mainly from students’ families, a first for their giving day.
Giving Day Results
- 51% increase in digital gifts year over year
- 61% increase in online donors year over year
- 10% increase in total giving day donors
- 42% increase in total giving day revenue
Takeaway: Make the giving experience fun & engaging
Add elements like gamification to inspire healthy competition among donors. You can also add giving day challenges or live updates to create excitement and engagement. When donors enjoy the process—whether through leaderboards, friendly competition, or interactive content—they’re more likely to participate and share the experience with others.
Salt Lake Community College
With three previous giving days behind them, the development team at Salt Lake Community College aimed high for their spring campaign. A key priority was engaging new alumni donors, prompting the team to rethink their fundraising strategy and techstack. Their goal extended beyond just attracting new donors; they sought to cultivate authentic relationships within their alumni community to establish a sustainable donor pipeline. To achieve this, the team needed a platform that could facilitate a measurable, cross-channel, and engaging fundraising approach.
The SLCC team launched a fully branded, intuitively designed giving day website, complete with custom links for ambassadors to share and track their outreach success. This digital strategy quickly enhanced giving day performance, with the majority of funds raised stemming from challenges and matching gifts.
A significant contributor to their success was the integrated video messaging tool, which allowed key campus leaders to record personalized thank-you messages for each donor, tailored to the specific cause they supported. The student body president also contributed a heartfelt message, adding a personal touch to their outreach.
Bob Whittaker,
Executive Director of Development, SLCC Foundation
Giving Day Results
- 91% increase in donors
- 93% of all giving day gifts raised through Gravyty’s digital fundraising platform
- 2,000 responses to alumni survey via text outreach post-giving day
- 95% open rate and 63% watch rate for personalized video messages
Takeaway: Create an omnichannel strategy to engage giving day donors
It’s more challenging than ever to cut through the noise, and reaching donors before, during and after a giving day is critical to the campaign’s success. Concerningly, 45% of Gen Z cite “not being asked” as their reason for not donating to charity.
It’s imperative for organizations to adopt and leverage an omnichannel donor engagement strategy throughout their giving day campaign. An omnichannel approach is one of the most effective ways to optimize the number of constituents you can engage in any given fiscal year.
For your giving day, combine texting, email, and social media outreach to reach different segments of your donor base. Track the performance of your appeals in real time, retargeting any potential donors who haven’t completed their donations. This kind of data-driven approach will help you maximize your reach and improve overall engagement.
Follow these tips for reaching donors through an omnichannel approach:
Catch donors’ attention with text: Peer-to-peer (P2P) texting is easy to implement and quick to deliver results. P2P offers an authentic and scalable way to connect with donors personally, making them feel more connected to your organization and likely to become long-term supporters. It’s also backed by data: SMS open rates are close to a staggering 98%.
Understand your donors and their channel preferences: Where do your donors spend their time? What are their preferred communication channels?
Implement video: Preference for video has skyrocketed, making up 70% of all mobile traffic. Maximize personal connection and boost engagement by incorporating video into your outreach.
Reach donors before they become donors: One way to ensure you stay top of mind for a prospective donor is to engage them well before the ask. Create a community of donors, alumni and members. Connect with them personally through video and tailored messages.
Villa Victoria Academy
Villa Victoria Academy faced significant challenges in its fundraising efforts, primarily due to a one-person team managing both development and admissions with a limited budget. With stagnant annual fund growth and past campaigns relying heavily on costly mailers that lacked measurable impact, Villa Victoria was looking for a solution to effectively find and engage with alumni while also streamlining their fundraising efforts.
To overcome these obstacles, Villa Victoria partnered with Gravyty to implement a modern digital fundraising platform. Gravyty’s support enabled them to create visually appealing and themed giving days, significantly enhancing engagement. As a result, Villa Victoria more than doubled its fundraising success from $19,000 to $45,000 year-over-year, with 95% of donations coming through the new platform.
The initiative not only improved immediate fundraising outcomes but also fostered long-term donor relationships, with nearly half of the giving day donors contributing again six months later.
Colleen White,
Director of Admissions & Development, Villa Victoria Academy
Giving Day Results
- 95% of donors gave through giving day site
- Giving days accounted for 20% of Villa Victoria’s total annual giving
- 2x funds raised year-over-year
- Nearly half of giving day donors gave again six months later, giving on both the spring and fall giving days
Takeaway: Leverage digital tools to target & acquire donors
By using digital tools like automated reminders and retargeting strategies, you can boost donations without always seeking new donors. Ensure your donation forms are mobile-optimized and easy to complete, reducing abandonment.
Offering a modern, fully branded giving experience, similar to what donors see on your other channels, can also enhance engagement and build trust. Retargeting donors who abandon their carts with personalized outreach or alternative payment options can quickly turn missed opportunities into completed contributions.
Butler University
In the post-pandemic fundraising landscape, Butler aimed to boost donor participation on giving day by enhancing its engagement strategies in a digital-first fundraising environment. The fundraising team sought a user-friendly video outreach tool that would enable personalized interactions, allowing students and faculty to connect informally with donors. This included promoting the giving day through segmented video messages and providing updates on progress towards fundraising goals, all culminating in heartfelt thank-yous post-campaign.
Partnering with Gravyty, Butler implemented an automated video messaging solution that allowed for efficient, personalized communication with donors. The ease of use enabled the team to send out video requests in under an hour, fostering stronger connections with the community. As a result, Butler experienced a 44% increase in gifts on giving day, raising a total of $653,000, including $272,000 from challenge funding and nearly 800 more gifts than the previous year.
Alyssa Cacini,
Assistant Director of Donor Relations & Stewardship, Butler University
The success of the video outreach not only strengthened donor relationships but also raised over $150,000 more than the last campaign.
Giving Day Results
- Raised $653,000, including $272,000 in challenge funding from 2,594 gifts
- Drove 44% more gifts than the last day of giving
- Over $150,000 more dollars raised
- 1,434 donors received personalized video messages
Takeaway: Use video outreach to build genuine connections
Incorporating personalized video messages into your fundraising strategy can significantly enhance donor engagement. By sending segmented, tailored videos before, during, and after your campaign, you can connect more authentically with donors.
Video outreach is a powerful tool that fosters stronger relationships, helping donors feel appreciated and more likely to contribute. Gravyty’s quick and easy-to-use video tool allow for real-time updates and personalized thank-yous, which can drive increased participation and greater overall success in fundraising efforts.
Putting it all together: University giving day ideas for success
With the right strategy and planning, your next giving day can drive significant results. Here’s how to bring it all together:
- Engagement: Promote your giving day well in advance through multiple channels, including alumni portals, social media, and email campaigns. Leverage peer-to-peer outreach by empowering volunteers and ambassadors to share your message.
- Campaign management: Use campaign management tools to track your progress in real time. Send targeted texts, emails, and videos, and retarget donors who haven’t completed their gifts.
- Personalized video: Automate personalized video messages to thank donors and maintain strong relationships. Personalized stewardship can help turn one-time gifts into recurring donations.
- Long-term development: Use donor data and CRM automation to move giving day donors into future fundraising pipeline, ensuring that your giving day is the beginning of an ongoing relationship.
Giving days can be a powerful tool for fundraising. These examples offer us a glimpse into what’s possible when you rally your community around a shared purpose. With the right strategy and execution, your giving day can make a big impact and help you achieve your fundraising goals. Gravyty’s digital fundraising platform empowers your organization to scale your giving day with a seamless, personalized and modern digital fundraising experience. Get started today.