North Carolina State University Nearly Doubled Donations on Its Day of Giving by Texting Alumni

How a large, public university leverages text messaging powered by Modern Campus Message to engage learners for life

In today's busy world, we are always looking for tools that help us to break through the noise in the market and continue to not only be multi-channel but meet our constituents where they are. For us, texting provided a critical tool to communicate with our constituents on a realtime basis to drive further engagement through our day.

Adam ComptonExecutive Director of Annual Giving

About North Carolina State University
 

 

37,500+

students

 

300+

degree programs

 

250,000+

living alumni

Challenges

NC State's University Development team hosts an annual Day of Giving to rally alumni donations. 

Staff have used various outreach methods, including email and social media, to reach their quarter million living alumni. However, in 2020, they wanted to expand their communication efforts and dive into a new, modern method: text messaging. 

 

Implementation of Modern Campus Message

NC State's Day of Giving is typically held in March, but the Development team moved it to September in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To prepare, staff created an Insider Program that gave alumni who opted in instant access to Day of Giving information.

The NC State team notes that an important element of their Day of Giving is Game Theory. Staff members gamify giving by sparking friendly competition between colleges, programs and student organization affinity groups. They also emphaize how important even small donations are. Finally, they create a sense of urgency among donors by communicating challenges that expire in a certain amount of time and announcing when the Day of Giving is about to end. 

With these strategies in mind, NC State used Modern Campus Message to segment populations and test out its Insider Program with hopes of seeing a positive impact on the Day of Giving. 

 

Results

In the 24 hours of NC State's 2022 Day of Giving, alumni donated more than $23 million in donations and 8,230 gifts—nearly double the 2019 total. 

Best Practices

The Executive Director of Annual Giving at NC State, Adam Compton, shared a few of his team’s best practices. 

  • Segment audiences: The content of your text messages should change depending on the recipent. Alumni should receive different messages from their parents and families, and alumni can be segmented by former major or college to further unify them, driving donations.
  • Create friendly competitions: Compton and his team circulate leaderboards to showcase alumni groups who donate the most collectively. In 2022, the College of Veterinary Medicine ranked #1 on the leaderboard in the Red Division while the Wilson College of Textiles ranked #1 in the White Division.
  • Involve institutional partners: Compton notes the importance of making a Day of Giving a university-wide effort. His team involved NC State’s chancellor and recruited ambassadors to support the text-based Insider Program, which helped supercharge the event's promotion. 
  •  

Discover additional ways you can use text messaging to connect with alumni—and how doing so fits into the entire learner journey—in our free guide:

 

How Text Messaging Supports Every Stage of the Higher Education Journey - download now

 


Related Case Studies

 
Sowela Technical Community College campus
SOWELA Technical Community College Re-Engaged Students After Hurricanes and COVID-19

How a public college leveraged Modern Campus Message to re-enroll 46 otherwise-unresponsive students

Learn how

Georgetown campus
The Georgetown University McDonough School of Business Amplifies Academic Advising through Text Messaging

How undergraduate academic advisors use Modern Campus Message to drive student success

Read the story

students smiling at their desks
NCAN Connects with Students Via Text Message to Reduce Summer Melt

How a college access non-profit leverages Modern Campus Message to increase matriculation

Explore NCAN's success


About Modern Campus

Modern Campus empowers 1,700+ higher education institutions to attract, engage, and retain learners for life with software solutions that enable a modern student experience. 

The Modern Campus learner-to-earner lifecycle platform powers solutions for web content managementconversational text messagingcatalog and curriculum managementcareer pathwaysstudent engagement and development, and non-traditional student management. The result: innovative institutions engage their modern learners for life, while providing modern administrators with the tools needed to streamline workflows and drive high efficiency.  

Learn how Modern Campus is leading the modern learner-to-earner movement at moderncampus.com and follow us on LinkedIn. 

We use cookies on this website to enhance your experience and improve our services and our website’s functionality. By continuing to use our website, which includes remaining on this landing page, you consent to the use of cookies and agree to our Privacy Policy.