From the Nominator

Buffs Together was simultaneously a community engagement campaign and a fundraising campaign for students and employees in crisis at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

From April to July 2020, the campaign sought financial gifts to the university’s emergency funds for students, staff and faculty, as well as support for a crowdfunding effort for students initiated by a recent CU Boulder grad.

The campaign also featured CU-themed activities to do at home—like coloring pages of our mascots drawn by a well-known, local cartoonist—and repurposed lifelong-learning content from previous in-person events that could be viewed any time, anywhere during quarantine. Buffs Together included uplifting storytelling about how members of the CU community were making a difference by donating N95 masks or meals to their community, and opportunities for everyone to make an impact by sharing words of encouragement to the Class of 2020 or supporting an alumni-affiliated business in the hard-hit hospitality industry. 

The Buffs Together campaign was a successful cross-campus collaboration across email, social media and web platforms, which garnered multiple media mentions. In the end, more than 350,000 constituents were engaged, and $1,068,896 was distributed directly to 2,215 students, faculty and staff.

From the Judges

We liked that this was both a community engagement campaign and a fundraising campaign for students and staff. It was very altruistic and well thought out, and had excellent engagement results. We were especially impressed with what you did, given such a small budget.