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Virginia Tech Foundation
Challenge
Solution
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) has a passionate alumni base but, like many universities, had trouble connecting with younger graduates, specifically Millennials and Generation X.
When the Virginia Tech team received a mandate from their president to accomplish a 22% alumni participation rate by 2022, they knew they’d need to try new marketing channels. With this goal in mind, the team made a plan to connect with their most extensive alumni base where they are, on their mobile phones.
Virginia Tech’s Director of Annual Giving Heather Keopec decided to incorporate [GiveSmart’s] text-to-donate and mobile messaging into their #GivingTuesday campaign. Initially, her team was hesitant to devote more resources to their #GivingTuesday campaign, but Virginia Tech needed a way to stand out on their alumni’s crowded social media feed. Heather worked with the [GiveSmart team] to create paid social campaigns specifically for Facebook and Instagram. These ads featured a “Hokie Challenge,” where the university prompted viewers to donate and sign up for text message alerts. After capturing sign-ups from the ads, Heather sent three text message asks within a 4-day window before #GivingTuesday. She also segmented the campaign based on the time zone of participants, so alumni outside of the Eastern Time Zone did not receive the messages too early in the day.
Impact
The text-to-donate addition to Virginia Tech’s #GivingTuesday campaign proved to be a success, as it received over 800 gifts. Additionally, 60% of the #GivingTuesday donations were made from a mobile device. With mobile giving proving to be a viable marketing channel, the team decided to add text-to-donate to other marketing campaigns. They added a text-to-donate component to their Annual Giving Day and drove 295 clicks and 163 gifts, raising $15,665. With an embedded video, these text messages were sent to the Baby Boomer and the Silent Generation alumni as well. By reaching both younger and older alumni through mobile messaging, the Virginia Tech team increased alumni participation from 10% to 13%, closer to the university’s goal of 22% by 2022.
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University is a public land grant institute, with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. The school offers 280 undergraduate and graduate programs and a total student enrollment of over 34,000 students.
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Disclaimer: This case study originally featured a nonprofit that used MobileCause. MobileCause is now fully integrated into the GiveSmart platform. All mentions have been edited to reflect the new naming conventions.
The legacy feature set, staff assistance, and training continue to support thousands of nonprofits in raising billions of dollars. We invite you to check out GiveSmart Fundraise, Events, and Donor CRM today.