On December 3, 2018, AUB celebrated the first AUB Giving Day, a 34-hour giving day to increase participation from its alumni and friends worldwide in support of the university’s priorities. The campaign was held on AUB’s Founders Day, an especially appropriate day since the first task of AUB founder Dr. Daniel Bliss was to fundraise for a $100,000 endowment. AUB is the first university to organize a Giving Day in the Middle East and North Africa region. The campaign’s initial goal was to attract 250 donors, secure five $10,000 matching-gift challenge donors, and raise cash gifts of $50,000 for a total of $100,000 in one 34-hour day. The campaign also included a Faculty Challenge, a friendly competition between alumni worldwide to encourage graduates to make a gift to AUB on Giving Day as a way of demonstrating support for their faculty. The Faculty Challenge succeeded in galvanizing alumni faculty and staff on campus as well. A prominent part of the Faculty Challenge was the participation of the seven faculty deans who recorded videos to rally their alumni. AUB Giving Day was a great success: 1,051 donors contributed $616,822 far surpassing the original targets. This was the first time AUB organized a fundraising campaign driven largely by digital communications. Utilizing the hashtag #AUBGivingDay through numerous social media outlets and creating compelling videos with the AUB president, deans, staff, and alumni, AUB was able to harness the power of digital communications.
