How Santa Clara University Utilized Gratavid for their Day of Giving
How to engage donors with video
Day of Giving campaign objective
Emerging from the COVID slump, Santa Clara University wanted to improve donor engagement, drive participation and try new technologies—particularly video emails.
Enter Gratavid from Gravyty.
Gratavid is a tool that allows universities, colleges and organizations to create personalized videos and send them via email and text. Fundraisers use Gratavid to thank donors, report on donations and connect donors with students.
Santa Clara University partnered with Gratavid for their Day of Giving. The results exceeded expectations.
Gratavid opens up a whole new way of connecting with people. It’s easy to use. It made a huge difference in our recent campus campaign, and for that, I am very grateful.
Sergio Lopez, Director, Annual Giving Strategies at Santa Clara University
The solution
Santa Clara University turned to Gratavid for help.
They were looking for a new way to connect with alumni, friends, faculty, staff and students—their Day of Giving donors.
They utilized the Gratavid embed feature to share their videos, focusing on direct appeals. Utilizing the embed feature allowed them to share out mass emails in a more timely manner while still creating a fun, branded and meaningful landing page that drove donors closer to their Day of Giving mission.
The interactive nature of Gratavids was a great selling point. We utilized the background image to convey additional messages with text and images. We also used the call-to-action buttons to provide relevant links. Within minutes, I was able to add closed captioning for greater accessibility as well.
Sergio Lopez
Day of Giving with Gratavid results
For our Day of Giving campaign on campus, we were lucky to have a captive audience that provided immediate feedback. People loved the Gratavids, and we were very impressed with the open rates.
Sergio Lopez
Here are some of the amazing replies they received from recipients:
- “Sergio! This is fabulous!!”
- “This Day of Giving campaign is so refreshing and fun!”
- “The blooper reels were hilarious!”
Sergio’s Day of Giving top tips
1. Don’t be afraid to experiment with the type and tone of your Gratavids. During our DoG campaign, people reacted most positively to the silly blooper reels. Those Gratavids humanized individuals, including deans, professors, and directors, who don’t always connect with the university community in informal ways.
2. Don’t worry about presenting highly produced videos. There is no need to spend lots of money and time editing them. Our two-person team used our iPhones and Adobe Rush to produce our Gratavids in a matter of minutes, not hours. We went for the organic, natural feel—including shaky videos at times.
If you’re feeling inspired to connect on a deeper level with your donors for your Day of Giving, schedule your free consultation today.
