How Wake Forest University surpassed giving day goals through holistic donor engagement
Key stats
$120k
Gift
Raised a $120,000 gift from previously unassigned donor within portfolio
95%
Interaction
95% interaction rate on outreach, compared to industry average of just 35%
14%
Over goal
Exceeded giving day donor goal by 14.3%
About Wake Forest University
Established in 1834, Wake Forest is a private university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. With more than 5,000 total undergraduate students, Wake Forest has 81,189 living alumni. 37% of their alumni are based in North Carolina, while the remainder are spread across all 50 states of the U.S. and can be found in over a hundred foreign countries. Wake Forest is proud to graduate leaders with integrity and courage who use their success to make an impact on society.
The challenge: Effectively engaging a growing alumni and donor network
With an alumni population of more than 81,000, it was challenging for Wake Forest fundraisers to engage meaningfully with their prospective donor base. Sending out generalized mass communications resulted in poor engagement and return on investment.
Additionally, they faced obstacles in adequately expressing gratitude to donors following campaigns like giving days due to ineffective traditional thank-you methods, creating a barrier to deeper donor connections and meaningful engagement.
The team at Wake Forest decided to take a revolutionary approach to reaching a diverse audience effectively through personalized messaging at scale.
The solution: An integrated, omni-channel strategy for personalized engagement & giving across a vast audience
Through Gravyty’s cohesive and integrated platform that included a customized giving day site, AI-powered engagement and video messaging tools, Wake Forest fundraisers connected with donors at a scale previously not achievable, resulting in 14.3% more donors on their giving day.
They adopted an integrated omni-channel approach for their giving day campaign, affectionately known as Deacs Day of Giving, using Gravyty’s digital fundraising solution. The fundraising team tapped into a variety of channels—on-campus events, ambassador outreach, email and social media—to engage new and past donors at a new scale, driving bigger and better results than in previous years.
Features on Gravyty’s digital giving platform such as the leaderboard and ambassador page boosted donor participation and contributions, and self-selecting causes helped fundraisers understand donors’ motivations to give, serving as a key insight to follow-ups beyond giving day.
The outcome: Identifying & unlocking new revenue through AI
With the help of Gravyty’s AI-powered fundraiser enablement solution, the team was able to identify previously unassigned donors, unlocking further donations and continued giving opportunities. With thousands of giving day donors identified, fundraisers then engaged personally based on the donors selected causes. Gravyty’s AI-powered fundraising tool accelerates outreach by providing a first draft for email messages, which are integrated with the organization’s native email solution and CRM. A member of the team was able to secure a $120,000 gift from a previously unassigned donor within their portfolio.
They also leveraged Gravyty’s built-in video messaging solution to send donors personal thank-yous from faculty and students, deepening donor relationships.
Solution spotlight
Gravyty’s AI-powered fundraising platform helps fundraisers 4x productivity, deliver a best-in-class digital giving program, scale 1:1 outreach and maximize dollars raised. Create fully customized giving day sites and crowdfunding campaigns, amplified by texting, email and video outreach tools. Capture every dollar available with retargeting campaigns, abandoned cart reminders, recurring giving options, matching gifts and more. Build a sustainable, scalable donor pipeline with AI-powered donor discovery, integrated digital giving data, portfolio saturation and smart prompts to reach the right people at the right time.
