The Impact Project is a peer-to-peer student philanthropy education initiative that started in the 2018-19 academic year. It replaced our Senior Class gift model, which was inciting anger, frustration, and annoyance out of our student body. Our participation numbers were not only declining—our student volunteers (down to just 1) were getting harassed when tabling for the program. The Impact Project was born out of this and is a complete rebranding of philanthropy education for us. It is modeled after a socially-conscious start up. We co-brand a limited-edition item each year with a different Minnesota company (promoting local business). Each year we have a different focus as well. In 2018/19 we partnered with the office of sustainability and all proceeds for hat sales went to benefit sustainability initiatives. This year, we focused on mental health support at the university, which aligned perfectly with the opening of our new Center for Wellbeing. The focus is philanthropy, engagement, and education. Our hope is to rebrand the university into a "worthy" cause with impact on students rather than a large, faceless institution where philanthropy isn't needed or isn't making an impact on actual student lives.
From the Judges
We applaud the ability to turn a struggling senior class gift model to a thriving philanthropy project, which we feel will continue to thrive in future years. We commend the community collaboration and the focus of the project as a “philanthropic start-up,” and how that works well with a student audience at an institution with a strong entrepreneurial spirit.
