"JMU’s Office of Annual Giving hosted an online "Capture Campus" summer photo contest to encourage alumni and parent engagement and then featured the 12 winning photos in a custom designed 2023 wall calendar. Photo winners received a copy of the calendar and bragging rights. To maximize the number of submissions represented in the calendar, we included a spread with as many of them as possible.
The wall calendar was offered in September and October as a give-to-get solicitation for a gift of $25 or more to our unrestricted fund. It solicited new donors and reactivated and retained past donors. This solicitation resulted in 2,011 donors, including 489 new and 523 reactivated donors. Our email campaign was the biggest driving force raising $33,381. We raised a total of $43,593, nearly doubling our previous year’s total of $22,270.
This successful engagement/solicitation combination utilized direct mail, email, and a digital ad campaign while partnering with JMU's Office of Alumni Relations to promote the photo contest. We combined eye-candy photos of our campus taken by alumni, students, and parents to fundraise while generating engagement and impact for the entire year of 2023. This calendar is a piece of JMU purple pride that our donors proudly display, and we plan to build upon our success next year."
From the Judges
Judges appreciated the use of user-generated content to build excitement and information about the appeal, followed by solicitations to drive great performance metrics.
