In the competition for the time, attention, and dollars of potential volunteers and donors, colleges and universities are pitted against civic and arts organizations, nonprofits of all kinds, and many other organizations. So it’s no wonder that crowdfunding and Giving Days are ascendent concepts among higher ed fundraisers. Both offer the potential to mobilize supporters, raise money, and keep an institution’s messages and needs in front of its community beyond the duration of the fundraising event itself.
Giving Days — a day (or sometimes two) during which an institution attempts to raise money, grow its donor base, and create good will in its community by conducting a largely online fundraising event—have been around for years. But when Columbia University raised $6.8 million from 4,490 donors on 29 October 2012, higher ed fundraisers really took notice. (The 2014 results: $11,064,924 from 10,452 donors.) By 2015, 42 percent of respondents to the Survey of Social Media and Advancement, which we sponsor with CASE and Huron Education, reported that their institution conducted a Giving Day.
In crowdfunding, a group of people join together to support a project or a cause, making even small donations count. The Obama Campaign in 2012 is a familiar example: millions of people made relatively small donations, which added up to a lot of money. In 2015, education institutions are using crowdfunding to raise money for research projects, academic initiatives, initiatives proposed by student entrepreneurs and groups, and other purposes. Many of these are prime candidates for crowdfunding since the projects often require relatively small amounts of money and already have a group of advocates who are passionate about them willing to serve as volunteer publicists for their cause.
While neither Giving Days nor crowdfunding are really new ways to raise money, they have some elements in common that are make them uniquely suited to our era, with high levels of access to the internet, use of social media, and desire for friction-free experiences:
- Both are deceptively simple to organize. Both require planning and lead-time in order to be as successful as possible.
- Both rely on the internet as an engine for giving and for spreading the word about the cause for which money is being raised. The web, videos, social media, and email are all essential to publicizing a Giving Day or raising awareness and support for a project that is being crowdfunded. Online giving is a key option for making donations. And the internet plays a key role in thanking donors, allowing institutions and their advocates, as well as people who benefit from the money raised, to provide personal, effective, but inexpensive, stewardship of gifts.
- Both Giving Days and crowdfunding initiatives rely on online ambassadors to promote the cause and appeal for money from their families, friends, and larger networks. Volunteering is easy and friction-free: you don’t need to leave your home or office to do it.
- Although people of all ages can and do support their institutions by participating in Giving Days and crowdfunding initiatives, they particularly appeal to Millennials, who feel comfortable giving online and are heavily connected through social media.
Learn more about these new fundraising strategies in these collections of resources from the mStoner team, Higher Ed Live, and other sources.
This year’s white paper about the 2015 Survey of Social Media and Advancement, “Refining, Prioritizing, Expanding: Social Media and Advancement in 2015,” contains appendices with more information about crowdfunding and Giving Days. You can make sure you’re notified when it’s released next month by filling out this quick form.
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