How Saint Leo University inspired healthy competition through the use of digital gamification & increased giving day donations by 42%

About Saint Leo University

Saint Leo University is one of the largest Benedictine Catholic universities in the United States, offering more than 100 undergraduate and graduate-level degree programs and specializations. Located in the Tampa Bay region of Florida, Saint Leo also offers degrees online and in-person at five education center locations. Saint Leo is home to more than 100,000 alumni.

The challenge: Increase giving day participation with a small yet focused team

For more than ten years, the Day for Saint Leo giving day campaign has provided alumni with the opportunity to help advance the university mission and enrich the lives of others. This 24-hour giving day helps raise critical funds for the institution. Heading into their 2024 giving day, the development team faced a familiar challenge: increase participation rates and continue to bolster alumni engagement with a small team.  

The team 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: Promote more unique giving opportunities while driving healthy & fun competition

Saint Leo leaned into their partnership with Gravyty to support their efforts as they planned the Day for Saint Leo. They implemented two new strategies that had a large impact on their results. 

With the flexibility that Gravyty’s digital giving platform provides, the team at Saint Leo was able to double the size of their campaign, giving donors a variety of fund options to choose from on giving day. The development team worked with partners across campus to understand what their top funding priorities were. By listening to the needs of the community and providing those as options for giving, donors saw clear, tangible ways to make an impact. It also inspired faculty and students to give to those specific areas they were passionate about. 

In addition, the Saint Leo development team 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. 

Solution spotlight

Gravyty’s digital fundraising platform lets you create fully customizable giving sites and crowdfunding campaigns, amplified by best-in-class texting, email, and video stewardship tools. Retargeting campaigns, recurring giving options, employer matching gifts, DAF payments, and transaction fee coverage convert more donors on any device.