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#TheOG50: The one with Julie Donohue
“Giving Days are my jawn. If you let me, I’ll turn them into your biggest fundraising flex.”
— Julie Donohue, Director of Annual Giving, Tower Hill School
Meet Julie, the Director of Annual Giving at Tower Hill School.
We recently caught up with Julie to talk about her record-shattering Giving Days, and how she turned three separate traditions into major revenue drivers for the school.
Julie is a talented professional who excels in designing engaging ways for constituents to understand the impact of giving. Her expertise in digital, print, and experiential design has garnered recognition, with designs featured in AGN's "best of" sample library. Notably, she founded the University of Delaware's successful giving day, achieving remarkable growth and fundraising success. Now, Julie continues to make a positive impact on the Annual Fund program at Tower Hill School.
Founders Day Fundraising, Reimagined
Before Julie joined Tower Hill, their Founders Day Giving campaign brought in $138K at most. Under her leadership, that number climbed to $157K. Hiller Heroes Founders Day allows donors to celebrate faculty and staff through heartfelt shout-outs, giving them a rewarding sense of giving back and gratitude. A more community-driven twist? Yes. More dollars? Also yes.
Field Day’s 500% Fundraising Leap
Tower Hill’s Field Day—a century-old tradition—used to raise around $30K. Julie helped elevate it into the competitive, spirit-fueled giving challenge between Green vs. White teams. This year, they raised a whopping $150K. That’s a 500% increase and proof that legacy can meet innovation and still bring in serious results.
Giving Tuesday That Keeps Giving
Giving Tuesday was already a fixture, but Julie saw more potential. She optimized the messaging and design strategy to push results further, helping significantly increase returns in just a few short years.
What next for Julie and Tower Hill
Julie’s next mission? Building out the school’s first-ever Loyalty Society. After noticing multi-decade donors weren’t being meaningfully recognized, she’s determined to design a stewardship program that honors consistency just as much as size of gift. Her vision: “Let’s make loyalty feel legendary.”
Julie’s ability to inject creativity, storytelling, and strategy into everyday fundraising is what makes her a powerhouse in advancement. From leading three giving days to launching a Loyalty Society, she’s turning intention into impact, one initiative at a time.
Want to follow Julie’s work or connect with her? Here’s her LinkedIn.
“Giving Days are my jawn. If you let me, I’ll turn them into your biggest fundraising flex.”
— Julie Donohue, Director of Annual Giving, Tower Hill School
Meet Julie, the Director of Annual Giving at Tower Hill School.
We recently caught up with Julie to talk about her record-shattering Giving Days, and how she turned three separate traditions into major revenue drivers for the school.
Julie is a talented professional who excels in designing engaging ways for constituents to understand the impact of giving. Her expertise in digital, print, and experiential design has garnered recognition, with designs featured in AGN's "best of" sample library. Notably, she founded the University of Delaware's successful giving day, achieving remarkable growth and fundraising success. Now, Julie continues to make a positive impact on the Annual Fund program at Tower Hill School.
Founders Day Fundraising, Reimagined
Before Julie joined Tower Hill, their Founders Day Giving campaign brought in $138K at most. Under her leadership, that number climbed to $157K. Hiller Heroes Founders Day allows donors to celebrate faculty and staff through heartfelt shout-outs, giving them a rewarding sense of giving back and gratitude. A more community-driven twist? Yes. More dollars? Also yes.
Field Day’s 500% Fundraising Leap
Tower Hill’s Field Day—a century-old tradition—used to raise around $30K. Julie helped elevate it into the competitive, spirit-fueled giving challenge between Green vs. White teams. This year, they raised a whopping $150K. That’s a 500% increase and proof that legacy can meet innovation and still bring in serious results.
Giving Tuesday That Keeps Giving
Giving Tuesday was already a fixture, but Julie saw more potential. She optimized the messaging and design strategy to push results further, helping significantly increase returns in just a few short years.
What next for Julie and Tower Hill
Julie’s next mission? Building out the school’s first-ever Loyalty Society. After noticing multi-decade donors weren’t being meaningfully recognized, she’s determined to design a stewardship program that honors consistency just as much as size of gift. Her vision: “Let’s make loyalty feel legendary.”
Julie’s ability to inject creativity, storytelling, and strategy into everyday fundraising is what makes her a powerhouse in advancement. From leading three giving days to launching a Loyalty Society, she’s turning intention into impact, one initiative at a time.
Want to follow Julie’s work or connect with her? Here’s her LinkedIn.
Blackbaud, the leading provider of software for powering social impact, and Almabase, the digital-first alumni engagement solution, have announced the expansion of their partnership to the education sectors of Canada and the United Kingdom. The partnership will provide institutions with a modern, digital-first solution to improve constituent data, drive self-serve engagement, and boost event participation.
A Unified Vision
The partnership aligns with Blackbaud’s commitment to customer-centric innovation across digital engagement, Advancement CRM, and financials.
“Partners bring integrated capabilities that extend capabilities and outcomes for Blackbaud customers. We are thrilled that Almabase’s offering, integrated with Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT® and leveraging Blackbaud’s best-in-class payment solution, Blackbaud Merchant Services™, is now available to even more of our customers around the world.”
- Liz Price, Sr. Director of Global Partners at Blackbaud
