University of Kansas

Posted on 11/07/2018
AudienceGeneral
PurposeAppeal
Click image to view complete sample
Description

As one of KU Endowment’s flagship projects, this multichannel solicitation was sent to all mailable and e-mailable degree-holders from the University of Kansas regardless of donor status in November and December 2022 (fiscal year 2023). What makes this annual campaign unique is that it is the one solicitation a year where all degree-holders are asked to support the university through an unrestricted gift to the two designated university unrestricted funds. The channels leveraged for this appeal included mail, email, and social media. The direct mail component was sent to 75,429 households which included anyone who made a gift in the last 8 years. The signer for this mail piece was KU Chancellor Douglas A. Girod. The self-mailer displayed a beautiful collage of KU campus doors with the theme of ‘Open Doors at KU’ and included a 2023 premium calendar with each month displaying a different KU campus door and clues for viewers to guess the building from which the door belonged (answer key on the back page). The printed gift card was specially designed to provide recipients with current university statistics and icons on one side, with information on ways to give on the other side, including a link and corresponding QR Code for donors who preferred to give online. Two follow-up emails branded with the theme were sent to roughly 144,000 e-mailable degree-holders, all donor/nondonor types. The emails included URLs linked to a customized online giving form with the unrestricted fund associated to which campus the degree-holder graduated from. When a donor made a gift, they were presented with a doors themed confirmation page signed by KU Endowment President, Daniel J. Martin, with a link at the bottom inviting donors to download the 2023 premium calendar. Social media solicitation posts to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram went up in tandem with the first email send promoting the same ‘Open Doors’ theme. Donors responded favorably to the direct mail piece and the emails were well received with a combined average gift of $362.19. Coming in at a total of 711 gifts and $257,515 dollars raised, the fiscal year 2023 Winter Mail solicitation made a historical record to its predecessors and opened the door to expanding and creating more opportunities to build a greater University of Kansas.

Submitted ByJulie Toplikar - Sr. Multichannel Campaign Coordinator
Year2022
Award Recipient
Keywords
  • Participation

AGN Members receive unlimited access to our resources, discounts, and other benefits. Click here to learn more.

Want to stay up-to-date on best practices in annual giving? Click here to follow AGN's Page on Linkedin!
  • s
  • s