Georgetown University Leveraged Innovative Giving Day Challenge, Resulting in Donations Totaling More Than $500,000 and Inspiring 898 New Donors in the Fiscal Year

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The innovative technology platform was the foundation we needed to build out a robust and focused day of giving to drive donor participation for Georgetown and fundraise for student scholarships.

Austin, TX (PRWEB) July 02, 2013

Kimbia announced today that the 2013 Georgetown University Alumni Association City Challenge giving day to support undergraduate scholarships raised $529,278 in 24 hours using the company's best-of-breed fundraising solution.

“The innovative technology platform was the foundation we needed to build out a robust and focused day of giving to drive donor participation for Georgetown and fundraise for student scholarships," said Georgetown University's Joannah Pickett, senior director, annual fund. “Their platform enabled us to reach our donors across all online channels, and the team was available to give us the answers we needed in real time. This was a great new initiative for Georgetown, and we were pleased to partner with Kimbia on delivering this fun and exciting giving effort and look forward to what we can do together in the future.”

The online giving day produced impressive results:

• Driving donor participation was a key goal, and the alumni association had its sights set on getting 500 donors to make a gift. The end result was a total of 1,514 donors, of which 898 were new donors in the fiscal year.
• 21 undergraduate scholarships of $25,000 each will be funded with the money raised.
• $91.49: Average online donation.
• $220,000: Matching gifts total, which added excitement and inspiration to the City Challenge.
• 2,100 unique visitors visited the website over 24 hours, extending the reach of the university’s scholarship message.

Organized by the Georgetown University Annual Fund and funded by the Georgetown University Alumni Association, the giving event started at midnight EST on Wednesday, May 15, and ran for a full day. The one day donation challenge to increase donor participation and raise funds for student scholarships, sparked healthy competition between the school's seven largest domestic undergraduate alumni markets: New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston and Washington, D.C. Competition was measured by donor participation rates among alumni from the period between July 1, 2012, and May 15, 2013, with the giving day as a push toward the end of the fiscal year. Chicago came away as the winning city with 37.41% of Georgetown undergraduate alumni there donating, and a $25,000 scholarship will be named for the city for the 2013-14 academic year.

The City Challenge is the latest instance of Kimbia's fundraising solutions exercised successfully in the higher education sector. Kimbia's online solutions work seamlessly in conjunction with traditional fundraising methods to inspire first-time or renewing donors and to increase overall giving. A push via social media by alumni volunteer online ambassadors — leveraged tools like Facebook-ready images and sample text for posts and tweets — drove excitement for the giving day and linked potential donors to the website’s donation page. Donors responded positively, spreading the word about the event throughout the day. One alumna even tweeted, "Just made a gift for @2006hoyas & @GUAlumni #GUCityChallenge. Love my alma mater's innovative fundraising efforts."

About Georgetown University

Founded in 1789, Georgetown University is one of the world’s leading academic and research institutions, and it is ranked No. 21 among national universities in U.S. News & World Report’s 2013 edition of Best Colleges.

About the Georgetown University Alumni Association

This City Challenge was made possible by a grant from the Georgetown University Alumni Association, a 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1881 that provides more than 165,000 alumni with programs, services and events that generate goodwill and support for the university and to foster a lifelong connection among alumni, our alma mater and the global Georgetown community. To find out more about the alumni association’s activities, visit alumni.georgetown.edu.

The funding for this project came in the form of an Alumni Serving Alumni Program Grant (ASAP Grant), a grant program developed to serve as a launch pad for new and often unprecedented programs that engage, serve and excite alumni on a grand scale.

About Kimbia

The Internet has revolutionized the economics of fundraising for all demographic groups. Kimbia's flexible, best-of-breed, Omni-Channel Fundraising™ platform enables you to create a deeper donor relationship by leveraging the strengths of each channel and putting your donors at the center of all development activities. Ultimately, this approach results in greater brand awareness, giving and life-long advocacy. Based in Austin, Texas, Kimbia is proud to support more than 5,000 customers to date, including the American Heart Association, WGBH-Boston, The Heritage Foundation, Columbia University and The Boston Foundation. For more information, visit Kimbia.com.

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