ZTA Foundation Day of Giving
Amidst the pandemic, ZTA staff and board members made a bold move to host a day of giving.
Oct. 15 is the day ZTA was founded, so what better day to reach out to alumnae to ask for their support? The nostalgia hits every member pretty hard on Founders' Day and we always have a big celebration!
My roles in this campaign were rewarding. I was able to help design and build a website, write copy for the site, direct and write social media posts, shoot and edit a video, train ambassadors via three webinars, and be a part of the overall planning and strategy meetings each week leading up to the event. Working with ZTA's staff and board members is incredibly rewarding.
The Results: Amazing
As this was our inaugural Day of Giving, we weren't sure what to expect. As usual, the members of ZTA really came through.
1,402 donors
220 first-time donors
$192,285.70 raised
All the hard work and planning paid off ten-fold. Writing this in 2020, I can't wait to see how Day of Giving goes in 2021!
The Plan: Multipronged
A singular day of giving doesn't sound that involved, but we found so many ways to approach it! Below is a non-exhaustive list.
Social media promos: We teased the Day of Giving on social media, with a countdown to "a big announcement" on Oct. 1. This built up a lot of excitement before people even knew what we were doing! Once the announcement was made (around 4:10 in this video), we were full steam ahead on interactive social media posts, like sharing the Which Founder Are You? Quiz.
The quiz really came in handy, as you could donate toward individual Founders on the Day of Giving website. Having Zetas relate directly to a Founder ahead of the DofG helped instill a higher sense of purpose (and maybe piqued some members' competitive nature).
Ambassador program: With staff and board members, I helped train volunteers who worked to promote Day of Giving on their personal social media accounts. Their grassroots efforts were huge and it was fun to see all their posts leading up to and during the day.
The Production: Rewarding
There were lots of assets to be made, and a lot of fun to be had doing so!
I designed our website in InDesign (see the image on this page), then our fundraising company created the web template. I was able to fill in all the info ahead of the DofG, as well as update the site during the day to reflect progress. You can scroll the site here, but we will likely re-use it each year, so you can enjoy whichever iteration you see!
The Day-Of: Incredible
I'm just going to hit you with a schedule of events because A LOT happened this day!
9 a.m.: Facebook Premiere video plays, featuring testimonies from women who have benefitted from the ZTA Foundation's generosity
11:30 a.m.: first of nine Founders, $1,000 gift unlocked by 50 donors
11:45 a.m.: reached first-time donor goal of 20 donors, unlocked $1,000 gift
2:20 p.m.: all nine Founders, another $1,000 for each in gifts unlocked by donors
3 p.m.: total donor goal (450) reached, a $9,000 gift unlocked, new goal set (750 donors)
4 p.m.: 750 donor goal complete, $5,000 gift unlocked, new goal set (1,000 donors)
7:30 p.m.: 1,000 donor goal complete, $6,000 gift unlocked
7:45 p.m.: new goal announced (100 donors in 1 hour)
8 p.m.: 150 first-time donor goal, $2,000 gift unlocked
8:30 p.m.: 100 donors in 1 hour blown away (150 donors in 45 minutes), special bonus video unlocked
9:45 p.m.: new goal announced (1,275 total donors)
11 p.m.: final goal (1,275 donors) achieved, $10,000 gift unlocked