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“The challenges posed by the 21st century have increasingly required an international outlook from the world’s leading universities.” [1] There is more opportunity for collaboration, funding, and a general sense of connectivity between students, faculty, and culture worldwide.
Many initiatives and fundraising appeals are now focusing on causes with a more a global impact. Let’s take a look at a couple of schools who are leading the way in special appeals both on campus and abroad.
Programs with Global Impact
The University of Texas’ Global Initiatives program is a prime example of a fundraising program with global impact. Their initiatives include running pedagogy workshops in Pakistan, hosting the International Exhibition and Conference on Higher Education in Saudi Arabia [2] and on-campus Leadership Seminars focusing on leadership techniques, project management skills, & overcoming challenges in entrepreneurship.
The well-trained University of Texas staff, faculty, and business leaders are making a difference in education and leadership on campus, online, and worldwide! Their educational training and consulting provides assistance to governments, higher education institutions, schools, businesses, and nonprofits.
Many of the UT’s Global Initiative’s programs are funded by the government, however, UT Austin also does a great job with donor engagement. Consider their Giving Page [3] which lets donors know that their gifts and endowments are supporting noble causes. These gifts then become an active choice and not a passive obligation.
On-Campus Appeals that Make a Difference
There are of course many local fundraising appeals that have far-reaching effects.
Capital projects, which take a considerable amount of school and donor resources to improve campus infrastructure, may not seem like they would have much of an impact outside of an institution. However, consider the unique capital project going on at Humboldt University right now.
They have started a mini fundraising campaign for the smokestack of their HSU ocean research vessel – the Coral Sea. [4] The first step to making sure that their research on the Coral Sea continues was to identify prospects. They compiled lists of all marine-oriented industry alumni and all marine biology and oceanography majors, and then mined those lists for CEOs/Owners/Directors to find likely candidates for larger pre-campaign gifts.
They also searched for people who might have studied on the Coral Sea previously during their time at the University or might have an affinity for the project due to their current employment and interests.
This is an almost perfect example of how to strategize and engage the right donors to fund your appeals.
Be inspired! Investigate unique causes in your community and abroad that could relate to current work at your institution. Initiatives like these could influence the direction of your own upcoming annual fundraising appeals.
Hot Topic Webinar
To find out how you can use LiveAlumni to help with with your own fundraising initiatives, register to attend our next Hot Topic Webinar.
Title: Fundraising for Special Appeals & Global Initiatives
Date: June 6th at 9am Pacific Time / 12pm Eastern Time.