Our 2024 Giving Day campaign was designed to celebrate the diverse Vanderbilt community, engaging alumni, students, faculty, staff, parents, and fans. We segmented our audience for targeted outreach—using traditional mailers with remittance cards for loyal donors, self-mailers for digital donors, and postcards with free stickers for non-donating alumni, while emails and texts highlighted playful messaging for young alumni. This segmentation contributed to a 48.1% increase in donor participation through direct mail, and an 11.9% lift in email engagement among young alumni.

Inspired by Nashville’s neon lights, our design featured a vibrant secondary color palette that resonated with local culture, aligning Vanderbilt’s brand with its hometown. A unique sticker sheet—showcasing campus icons, the Nashville skyline, and Vanderbilt’s VU hand symbol—enhanced the direct mail experience, evoking nostalgia and school pride. We also expanded our on-campus events with food trucks, giveaways, and a photobooth, creating memorable touchpoints and achieving Vanderbilt’s highest-ever social giving engagement for Giving Day.

This creative approach, combined with on-campus activations and shareable “I Gave” graphics, reinforced donor pride and resulted in a Giving Day participation record of 7,759 donors, a significant increase from the previous year.