It was the final hours of the University of New Hampshire’s annual 603 Challenge — its springtime participation and challenge-based giving campaign.
With just about four hours to go until the midnight deadline, Michael Randall, Director of Development for the College of Liberal Arts, was nervous.
Leading up to the 603 Challenge, Michael’s team secured a $45,000 challenge gift for the Classics, Humanities and Italian Studies program that would be unlocked if 50 donors gave to the department during the Challenge.
In the waning hours of the Challenge, the gift-o-meter was stuck at 42 donors. The UNH team had already solicited their assigned prospects, sent emails to degree-holders, and pushed out all their social media messages. But they still hadn’t hit their goal.
At home on the couch, while watching the scoreboard, Michael pulled up EverTrue on his laptop. By searching contact reports by keyword, he started building a list of unassigned, non-degree holders who had mentioned an interest in Classics, Greek Literature, Italian Literature, the Rennaissance, the Oddessy, or any other term he could think of.
In seconds, Michael built a list of 30 potential prospects who had mentioned an interest in “Classics” in the past.
With the minutes counting down to the midnight deadline, Michael’s team emailed all 30 of these prospects asking them to make a participation gift and help unlock the $45,000 challenge gift.
Before the night ended, several of the folks they contacted made a gift. UNH hit the 50-donor goal for this challenge and successfully unlocked an additional gift from a pair of generous donors.
Not only did UNH secure another $45,000 for Classics and engage donors around a known area of interest, but the university closed all of its 62 different challenges during its giving week.
Using EverTrue, Michael and the UNH Development team connected donor interests with an opportunity to give, and helped the university close out this year’s 603 Challenge with a perfect score.
Now that’s something to celebrate.
Want to see how you can search contact reports and Facebook Posts and Comments by keyword to build interest-driven prospect lists? Request a demo and we’ll give you a tour.
