Why I Gave at the Office

Meredith Blair, Executive DirectorUC San Diego

Agenda

• Why are these campus campaign programs so important?• Why are these campus campaign programs so hard?• A unique constituency• Which tools in your toolbelt are needed?• How to structure your campaign

Why even do them?

• Creates a culture of philanthropy• We need partnership. Builds internal allies• Inspire others and lead by example• Alumni Participation

What makes them so hard?

• This is their most primary relationship. It changes their perspective and overrides any other. relationship.

• They see it all—the good, the bad, the ugly. They are CYNICAL.

• This is intrinsically, illogically but unavoidably, tied to their feelings about their job.

• In no other industry do we ask employees to give back some of their paycheck.

Faculty & Staff: Unique Constituencies

• How are they similar? How are they different?• What do they care about? What opportunities or messages

will inspire them?• What would giving opportunities or solicitation messages

will they reject?• What do they want?

Your Toolbelt: Best Tool

• Volunteer-led, peer to peer ambassadors are the cornerstone.

• Recruit thoughtfully. Influencers, skeptics, leadership, support staff, faculty, staff, reflective of campus community, representation for largest departments, challenging departments (e.g., Budget Office, Housing & Dining, Facilities), vital departments (e.g., Campus Communications, President’s Office…)

Your Toolbelt: All Your Tools• Direct Mail: Personalized and variable. Don’t skip it but use it

sparingly• Email: Personalized and variable. Vital communication tool• Website: Best way to push content• Posters: Make it omnipresent and pervasive!• Yard signs: Reinforce key messages• Face to Face: One to One and One to Many• Events: Depends…

Your Identity

Enriched Media

University of North Texas

How to structure your campaign

• Plan diligently; work that plan with vigor.• Year-long plan—builds to a short, all hands on deck

solicitation phase • Five weeks. Five key messages. Rotate messages and

profiles every week. • Profiles demonstrate options—for how, when, and where

to give.• Rotate messages with new posters, campus signs, emails,

etc. each week.• If you give yourself five weeks, you have to hit it with

everything you have!

Stewarding your donors

• Have your stewardship in plan pre-solicitation. • Thank you notes from your volunteer committee. • Tokens of appreciation that reinforce and advertise your

campaign?• Thank you from President queued up.• How will you handle existing payroll deductions?

Goal Setting & Celebrating• Set a participation goal. If necessary, focus on the hard number.• Make sure you are counting soft credit for households with faculty/staff• Then celebrate everything!

• Total donors• Total dollars • Breadth of impact• Outstanding increases• New donors? Retained donors?

Never Stop

• Your solicitation phase should not be evergreen. Your campaign is.

• Continue to educate, engage, cultivate, steward, and celebrate all year.

• Plan ahead to make this a campus tradition. Holiday update? End of fiscal year update? Quarterly newsletter?

• Tag on to campus appreciation events. Have a presence everywhere.

• Volunteer to serve on campus councils.

Let’s Discuss! Questions?