Boost Giving Day Donations
In recent years, universities of all sizes have begun harnessing the power of social media to boost their Giving Day donation amounts.
We’ve highlighted five schools that have successfully put the fun back in fundraising and have increased donations through strategic social media campaigns. Plus, we’ve got a few takeaways from the MVPs of university Giving Days that you can try out at your next donation event.
University of Dayton
University of Dayton invited their entire community to the One Day, One Dayton celebration on campus for their annual Giving Day event. They extended this reach to social media by using Photoboxx to print #1day1dayton photos from the campaign. In addition, they also provided food, entertainment, fun activities and had various giveaways for both students and faculty to participate in throughout the day. By the end of the event, Photoboxx printed over 300 Instagram and Twitter photos with students, parents, alumni and faculty showing their Dayton pride.
Regis University
Regis University held their annual 24-hour online fundraising event where they challenged Regis alumni, students and parents to post their #regisgivesback photos to show their Ranger pride and donate. Social media campaigns that incorporate students and alumni are known to be more effective at raising donations because user generated content helps expand reach so much further than traditional social media marketing. Seeing posts from someone you know personally on social media has more of an emotional pull on potential donors, which encourages people to donate.
On campus, Regis held their Regis Gives Back giving day fair where students tied a blue and yellow string to the display for each donation made. Anyone who posted their Instagram or Twitter photos with #regisgivesback and tagged the official @regisuniversity account, received a free Photoboxx print of their photo.
Cornell University
Cornell University’s recent Giving Day included event elements that helped generate a buzz both on campus and online. Cornell brought in both Photoboxx and Live Digital Display to boost social media reach and encourage sharing. Setting up Photoboxx next to a large step and repeat wall, as well as handing out t-shirts (always a hit), encouraged students to snap photos and tag them on social media with #CornellPhotobooth to receive free Photoboxx prints.
In addition to incorporating #hashtagprinting, Cornell also had great success using Live Display for their Giving Day campaign. Students and faculty tagged their photos with the campaign wide #CornellGivingDay to watch their posts populate into the Live Digital Mosaic Display. Live Display made it easy for anyone to participate in Cornell Giving Day, whether they were physically on campus or not.
University of Portland
University of Portland held their annual Pilots Give day this year and raised well over $1,000,000 dollars from the pilots community. On the day of the event, they set up a backdrop wall, complete with lots of themed props to take photos with. The signs prompted users to share their reasons to support their academic departments and programs. University of Portland brought in both Photoboxx and Live Digital Display to boost social media reach and encourage sharing online. The #pilotsgive hashtag generated close to 300 photos by the end of the day.
Brandeis University
Brandeis University asked their community to come together to help reach the collective goal of $100,000 in donations. Creating a collective goal that the entire Brandeis community worked for helps make these donation goals a reality. Photoboxx printed #OneForBrandeis photos to help incentivize students, faculty and alumni to spread the world and help them reach their $100,000 goal.
When it comes to giving days, it’s important to get students, faculty and alumni involved and sharing with their circles. Photoboxx and Live Digital Mosaic are natural additions to university Giving Day events due to their ability to create user generated content that helps expand reach and make a personal connection with potential donors.
