Build lifelong relationships

Did you know that more than one in four adults in the United States lives with a disability? Despite this, many fundraising events are inadvertently designed in a way that excludes a significant portion of potential donors. This not only jeopardizes your revenue but also harms your community engagement and ultimately hinders your mission.

For schools and other youth-focused organizations, it’s especially important to ensure that every child has the opportunity to participate in your fundraiser. Fundraising helps kids build social bonds and develop skills such as personal responsibility and perseverance, and every child should be able to get involved regardless of ability.

In this guide, we’ll explore strategies for creating an accessible and inclusive fundraiser that invites every supporter to fully participate in advancing your cause.

Planning with Inclusion in Mind

The first step in creating an inclusive fundraiser is to shift how your team thinks about accessibility. Accommodating supporters with disabilities should be built into your planning process from the get-go. Consider these logistics as you plan your fundraiser:

• Audit your registration process to ensure it is fully accessible to screen readers and includes specific fields for accommodation requests. This proactive approach ensures that supporters who use screen readers can complete the most important part of the process—actually signing up. Plus, it demonstrates your commitment to accessibility early, making it more likely that supporters with disabilities will feel excited to be part of your event.
• Communicate event logistics transparently by providing detailed "Know Before You Go" guides. These documents should outline everything from the distance between the parking lot and the entrance to the availability of quiet zones for participants with anxiety or sensory processing needs.
• Budget for accessibility just as you would for catering or venue rental to ensure financial constraints do not limit inclusion. Setting aside a specific percentage of the event budget for services like ASL interpreters or tactile signage ensures that you treat these elements as a priority, rather than an add-on

Remember to include people living with disabilities and their families in your planning process; those with lived experience will be the best judges of what truly makes an event accessible. If you can’t create an in-person committee, create an online forum where you can engage with your audience and ask how to make your events better.

The Role of Accessible Venues

For in-person events like live auctions, galas, or festivals, it’s important to find an ADA-compliant venue that’s not just accessible, but also comfortable for all. Keep in mind that just because a venue has a ramp, that doesn’t mean it’s a truly inclusive experience. It’s your nonprofit’s job to make everyone feel welcome; if a person has to enter from the back of the building, they might feel alienated despite your best intentions.

To ensure your venue is fully accessible, follow these steps:

• Conduct a site walkthrough from the perspective of someone using a mobility aid to identify potential bottlenecks or hidden barriers. Look for heavy doors that lack automatic openers, high reception counters that are difficult to reach from a seated position, and inaccessible restroom layouts.
• Prioritize seating layouts that allow for easy navigation and integrated companion seating. Avoid "islands" where wheelchair users are forced to sit on the fringes of the action. Instead, design floor plans with wide aisles and dispersed accessible seating, so everyone can sit with their friends and family regardless of mobility needs.
• Evaluate the acoustic and lighting environment of your venue to ensure it supports those with sensory sensitivities. Using soft furnishings to dampen sound, providing a designated quiet room, and opting for adjustable, warm lighting can create a much more welcoming atmosphere for every donor.

Taking these details into consideration shows that your organization is doing more than the bare minimum to include supporters with disabilities. Oftentimes, it’s the small details that leave a lasting impression on your supporters, building a connection that will last for years to come.

Leveraging Digital Tools for Participation

Digital tools often enable participation for those who cannot attend in person or who require specialized assistance to engage with your content. By integrating technology thoughtfully, you ensure that physical or geographical barriers do not prevent a passionate supporter from contributing to your cause. Consider these digital best practices:

• Implement live captioning or transcription services for all speakers and video presentations during your event. This helps those who are hard of hearing, and, as Brightmont Academy emphasizes, technology accommodations help people with learning differences process information more quickly.
• Utilize mobile bidding and donation apps that are compatible with screen readers and offer high-contrast visual modes. For guests with visual impairments, a well-designed app allows them to participate in a silent auction with the same autonomy as other guests.
• Use high-quality streaming for supporters who may have chronic illnesses or physical disabilities that make travel difficult. This can involve interactive elements like live chat or digital Q&A sessions.

For many people living with disabilities, flexibility is key. Technology offers endless possibilities for involvement with your nonprofit, making it a crucial part of your ability to engage with your community members. If you’re updating any web content for accessibility, ensure it adheres to WCAG standards.

Creating Safe Spaces for Mental Health and Neurodiversity

Too often, conversations about accessibility solely focus on physical disabilities and fail to address accommodations for the neurodivergent community. You can create a welcoming atmosphere for everyone by:

• Celebrating different ways of learning and achieving. For example, if your school is hosting a Read-a-thon, instead of solely rewarding kids based on how many pages they read, try measuring minutes spent reading and include audiobooks and graphic novels as part of the competition. This encourages students with learning differences to participate without feeling overwhelmed.
• Offering sensory-friendly hours or "soft starts" for events that are traditionally high-energy or loud. For instance, you might host a carnival fundraiser that opens one hour early with no music and capped attendance for families with neurodivergent children. This small shift allows those families to enjoy the activities in a calm environment, significantly increasing their likelihood of becoming long-term supporters.
• Providing a clear schedule in advance so guests know exactly what to expect. This can be especially helpful for supporters with anxiety or autism, as it provides a predictable flow of events and eases the transition from activity to activity.

Making these changes will ensure your fundraiser is inclusive of supporters with disabilities that may not be immediately visible, allowing you to form deeper, more meaningful relationships.

Creating your first truly inclusive fundraiser will help you learn the ropes and pave the way for more accessible events down the line. When you remove barriers, you create a more vibrant, welcoming, and successful event for everyone. By prioritizing accessibility in your venues, tools, and planning, you prove that your organization’s values extend to every member of your community.

One of the first things fundraising teams discuss while planning an auction is the auction catalog. Which items should make the list? What will people actually bid on? And what will help raise the most money for the cause?

It's not an easy decision. According to the 2025 State of Nonprofit Auctions Report, 31% of nonprofits say finding high-quality auction items is one of their biggest auction planning challenges. There isn't one perfect answer because every audience is different. An item that works well at one event may fall flat at another. The goal is to build a catalog with enough variety that more people find something worth bidding on.

In this article, we've rounded up 15 charity auction item ideas that can help attract more bidders, spark competition, and maximize fundraising, along with practical tips for choosing, pricing, and planning an auction that runs smoothly from the first bid to the last.

Why host a charity auction?

In simple terms, a charity auction is a fundraiser where supporters bid on donated items or experiences. Depending on your event and audience, you might host a live auction, a silent auction, an online auction, or a combination of these formats. Each offers a different bidding experience, but the goal is the same.

Charity auctions continue to be a reliable fundraising strategy for three reasons. They can generate significant revenue, the right mix of auction items keeps bidding competitive, and modern auction platforms make it easier to engage supporters before, during, and after the event. Together, these factors help organizations create a more successful fundraising experience. That's why choosing the right auction items matters just as much as choosing the right format.

15 amazing charity auction ideas

The best auction lineup usually includes a mix of practical items, unique experiences, and premium packages. It works best when there's something for every type of bidder. Whether you're planning a school gala, university fundraiser, or nonprofit event, these ideas can help you create an auction with broad appeal.

1. Private chef's dinner

A private chef dinner turns a meal into an event. Instead of offering dinner for two, work with the chef to create an experience for six or eight guests. People are more likely to bid confidently when they can turn it into a celebration with friends or family.

You could also ask if the chef is willing to share the inspiration behind the menu, host a live cooking demonstration, or include a signed recipe card. These additions cost very little but make the package more attractive to bidders.

Jesuit High School's Modern Garden Gala, 2025 auction included a Private Dinner with Chef Michael Stember, giving the winning bidder an in-home chef-prepared dinner for up to 35 guests.

2. VIP sports or entertainment package

Tickets to exclusive events, like sold-out matches, opening nights, or farewell tours create far more excitement than events people can buy anytime. For example, the University of La Verne's 2026 Scholarship Gala auction featured premium Los Angeles Dodgers tickets with seats just behind first base for a Dodgers–Padres game. Adding extras like a pre-show dinner, a hotel stay, or parking and transportation can turn game or concert tickets into a complete night out, making the package feel more exclusive and harder to compare with retail prices.  

3. Luxury spa or wellness retreat

A spa day appeals to a wide range of bidders, making it a dependable auction item. Experiences that go beyond a standard spa voucher often stand out more. For example, Catherine Cook School's 2026 Gala featured an Escape to Kohler Spa package that combined $600 in Kohler Waters Spa gift cards with a $100 restaurant gift card, creating a complete wellness getaway. Similarly, a wellness retreat, guided forest walk, sound healing session, or half-day mindfulness programme offers something people are less likely to book for themselves, making the experience feel more memorable and worth bidding on.

4. Tasting experience

Instead of sourcing a single food or drink experience, build a collection around a shared theme. Invite local businesses such as wineries, coffee roasters, restaurants, or specialty food shops to contribute to experiences. These could be private tastings, chef-led dinners, cocktail masterclasses: the list goes on. Grouping similar experiences gives bidders more choice and creates a stronger auction category.

The Triangle Wine & Food Experience, which raises funds for the Frankie Lemmon Foundation, follows this approach by centering its fundraiser around wine, spirits, and culinary experiences. Alongside chef dinners and tastings, its live auction features rare wines, bourbons, and exclusive food experiences, creating a cohesive theme.

5. Behind-the-scenes experiences

Behind-the-scenes experiences give bidders access to places that most visitors never get to see. Whether it's a film set, a working studio, or an animal care facility, the exclusivity is what makes these appealing.

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For example, BGL Lawrence's charity auction featured a behind-the-scenes tour at Franklin Park Zoo or Stone Zoo for up to six people, giving the winning bidder exclusive access beyond the public exhibits. Experiences like these offer something money can't easily buy, making them memorable additions to any charity auction.

6. Teach a skill or hobby

Instead of asking supporters to donate products, ask whether they'd be willing to host a small-group experience around a skill they already have. A photographer could host a beginner's workshop, a gardener could teach seasonal planting, a chef could run a cooking class, or an artist could lead a painting session.

These experiences cost little to organize but can become sought-after auction items because they're personal, limited, and sometimes entirely unavailable elsewhere.

Classes and workshops are easy to find online, so avoid auctioning a standard voucher. The draw is the person leading it.

7. Teacher or staff experiences

Teacher experiences have become a staple of school auctions because they're rooted in relationship-building. A pizza lunch with a favourite teacher or an afternoon spent doing science experiments in the lab are experiences families can't buy elsewhere, which is exactly why parents are happy to bid on them.

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The Parkside School regularly includes teacher-hosted experiences in its fundraising auction. Recent offerings have included cooking sessions, art experiences, and other small-group events led by teachers, promoted alongside the school's annual benefit auction.

8. Turn local favourites into one auction package

Most local businesses can't always donate a holiday or a high-value prize, but many are happy to contribute one product they're known for. Instead of treating those as separate auction items, combine them into a picnic basket that celebrates your community: a bakery's signature loaf, locally made jam, handmade chocolates, soaps, fresh fruit, and flowers.

There's another advantage to this approach. Every business featured in the basket has a reason to talk about the auction, whether that's through social media, email, or in-store displays. One auction item can end up bringing in far more visibility than a single donor ever could.

9. Commissioned Portraits

Art is a staple at charity auctions, but a commissioned piece takes this idea one step further. Instead of bidding on what's already been created, the winning bidder gets to decide what the artist creates. It lets the winning bidder work with the artist to create something personal to them, making it an easy way to give them something no one else owns.

Whitechapel Gallery's 125th Anniversary Auction featured a Watercolour Portrait Commission by Francesco Clemente. The winning bidder received a private portrait sitting with the artist, and the commission sold for £25,800.

10. Host-led dinner parties

Instead of asking someone to donate a restaurant voucher, invite them to host an evening. It could be a barbecue, a themed dinner, a wine-and-cheese night, or a regional cuisine experience at their home. These events work because people are buying into a shared experience.

School communities have used this idea for years through parent-hosted parties that guests buy tickets to as part of the auction. At Ventana School, families host community parties ranging from dinners to hobby classes, with proceeds supporting the school.

11. Private sports lessons

Signed jerseys and game tickets are always popular, but don't overlook the value of access. A private lesson with a coach or athlete gives bidders a chance to learn a new skill while spending time with someone they admire. Local sports academies, clubs, and athletes are often just as willing to donate their time as memorabilia.

The Philadelphia Phillies' 2025 Phantastic Auction featured private hitting, pitching, and catching lessons with All-Stars Trea Turner, Zack Wheeler, and J.T. Realmuto alongside signed memorabilia and VIP experiences.

12. All-inclusive vacation package

A vacation package is a non tangible purchase that bidders can enjoy, adding an element of novelty to the bidding. Try and work experiences into the regular hotel stay or a tour package to make the getaway memorable, whether that's a food tour, spa treatment or even local excursions.

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A Charitybuzz auction benefiting the Our Change Foundation features seven nights in a private Bali villa for up to 10 guests. The package includes a private chef, a traditional Balinese culinary experience, cultural performances, airport transfers, and an on-call driver.

13. Professional services

Professional services can be an unexpected hit with the right audience. House cleaning for three to six months, seasonal lawn care, home organization, pet grooming or boarding are all services people already pay for. The key is choosing services that actually adds value to the bidder’s daily life.

14. Collectibles and Memorabilia 

Collectors and fans will bid for items they can't easily find elsewhere. But it does take knowing your audience really well to pull this off. Signed jerseys, books, sports equipment, musical instruments, limited-edition merchandise, and other collectibles can all make strong auction items, especially when they have a connection to your institution or community.

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At Trine University's 2025 Scholarship Gala, bidders competed for memorabilia such as Taylor Swift–autographed sheet music and a football helmet signed by Peyton Manning, Adam Vinatieri, and others.

15. Adventure getaways

Adventure experiences give people a chance to try something they've always wanted to do but might not book on their own. Hot air balloon rides, white-water rafting, scuba diving, guided hiking trips, rock climbing, and wildlife safaris can all attract competitive bidding.

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The Girls Inc. of Santa Fe 2025 Auction featured a hot air balloon ride as one of its auction items, showing how adventure experiences can attract interest from bidders looking for something memorable

The ideas above are some of the most popular auction items, but they're far from the only options. Here are additional charity auction ideas across different price points to help you build a well-rounded auction catalog:

Sourcing and pricing your auction items

Here are a few quick tips you can keep in mind while sourcing your items:

• Start sourcing 3–6 months early: High-value experiences take longer to secure, while gift cards and local services are quicker to arrange. Starting early also leaves time to follow up, replace declined requests, and fill gaps.
• Build a wishlist first: Identify the categories and price points you need before approaching donors. This helps create a balanced catalog instead of ending up with too many similar items.
• Keep refining the catalog: Combine complementary donations into stronger packages. For example, three restaurant vouchers may work better as one dining package. Skip items unlikely to attract multiple bidders rather than adding them just to increase the item count.
• Price strategically: Use fair market value (FMV) as your reference. Opening at 30–50% of FMV can encourage early bidding, while bid increments should increase with item value. Use reserve prices sparingly to protect premium packages without discouraging bidders.
• Review the catalog as a whole: Look for competing items, gaps in price points, and underrepresented high-performing categories from last year. A few strategic adjustments can matter more than adding last-minute donations.

How Almabase can help

A successful auction depends on dozens of these moving parts. Managing each of those with separate tools could add work for your team and create a disconnected experience for guests.

With Almabase, you can run live and silent auctions alongside your fundraising event, create a branded auction page, manage registrations and ticketing, accept auction payments and donations, and send automated bid notifications from a single platform.

That means your attendees get one cohesive experience from registration to checkout, and your team doesn't have to reconcile data across multiple systems.

Bringing it together

Truthfully, there’s no secret formula for a great auction. The items that spark a bidding war at yours might barely get a second look at another. But what will never let you down is paying attention to what your audience wants and responds to, and giving yourself something new to build on each time.

So whether you’re planning your first auction or are seasoned at it, you could take a few of these ideas, put your own spin on it and see what happens.

When it’s time to turn those ideas into an actual event, Almabase can take some of the operational weight off your plate.

Curious to see what that looks like? Book a personalized demo to see how you can manage your auctions in one platform.

The right sponsorship can have a significant impact on your event budget and fundraising experience, allowing you to reach more donors and bring even more awareness to your cause. Sponsorship requests and sponsorship letters are quite different from asking for donations, however, and not knowing where to start can be a bit overwhelming.

In this blog, we’ll explore what exactly a sponsorship letter is, important things to include, a few guidelines on crafting a compelling request, and some common templates to get you started.

What is a Sponsorship Letter?

Simply put, a sponsorship letter is a formal request for an individual or a business to support/fund an event, charity campaigns, nonprofit projects, or other ongoing initiatives headed by your organization or school. It’s a kind of a partnership proposal, where working together benefits both.

And that’s the key difference to remember here; unlike donation requests where you’re only asking someone to contribute to a cause, sponsorship requests also highlight what the business has to gain from the partnership. This could be a number of things including brand visibility, advertising, etc.

While one-off sponsors aren’t uncommon, sponsorship requests are usually utilized to form long-term partnerships and ensure continued support for future events and initiatives. Naturally, organizations that share common values with your nonprofit work best. Landing great sponsors comes down to how you frame your mission in a convincing way.

What to Include in a Sponsorship Letter

For all practical reasons, a sponsorship letter is almost the same as a business proposal, and you should treat it as such. You’re pitching a partnership that is mutually beneficial for both parties.

A good sponsorship request should feel personal without losing it’s professionalism. Briefly explain your objectives and causes, explain why you think your nonprofit would be a good fit (if the organization has similar motives and brand image, that’s a huge boost), highlight the specific benefits they would get by funding your initiatives (avoid being vague or generic), and mention exactly what kind of support you are looking for.

Key information to include:

• Introduction to your organization and fundraisers: As with any letter, start by introducing yourself, and briefly explain your causes, initiatives, and ongoing projects.
• Incentives to support your fundraiser/event: Clearly highlight the benefits they gain by supporting your nonprofit. This might include branding, access to a particular demographic or product giveaways, speaking slots, and so on.
• How you want them to support you: Have clarity on what kind of support you need from the sponsors (financial, logistics, or something else), and communicate that in the letter effectively.
• Call to action and clear next steps: Lay out the process for getting involved as a sponsor. If it’s online, send them all the relevant pages and links. Provide multiple contact options and modes, and don’t forget to thank them.

Formats You Can Use

There are a bunch of different formats you can use when you’re requesting sponsorships. Some of them are new, emerging formats that might make your request stand out, but may not be the most formal. When drafting a request, keep in mind the type of organization you’re reaching out to.

Here’s a few common formats you should consider:

• A formal request letter: Usually preceded by a brief introductory email, this is a standard document providing all the necessary details mentioned in the previous section. It’s safe, fairly simple, and works great for any businesses that you plan to approach.

📬Depending on the situation, you can also consider sending a direct mail instead of communicating through email.

• Proposal video(s): This format works best combined with a letter or email. You can create a short video to showcase your events, give an idea of the usual turnout and energy, highlight sponsorship perks, or even include testimonials from previous sponsors. You don’t want to use this as a standalone format since finer details are much easier to grasp and revisit on text.
• Presentations/slide decks: If you want to include both visual medium and text, slide decks are a great option. Similar to the video format, you’re able to give sponsors a better idea about your events and fundraisers, and also combine text smoothly for all the necessary details and contact information.

Sponsorship Request Letter Templates

If you want a more concrete framework for writing sponsorship requests, templates are a great place to start. While personalization has been taken into account while designing these, you should definitely tweak and add things depending on the context. Remember, your letter should feel tailored to the recipient, using these templates for automated email campaigns can be far less effective. With that out of the way, here are some useful templates to get you rolling:

1. General Event Sponsorship Letter

Use this for galas, dinners, auctions, or any single-day fundraising event where you're looking for a straightforward monetary sponsorship.

Subject: Partner with [Organization Name] for [Event Name] on [Date]

Dear [Recipient Name],

My name is [Your Name], and I'm the [Your Title] at [Organization Name]. For [X years], we've worked to [one-sentence mission statement], and this [Month], we're hosting our [Event Name] to raise funds for [specific program or cause].

We're reaching out because [Sponsor Business Name] has [reason for the fit, e.g., "long supported education initiatives in [City]" or "a customer base that overlaps closely with our donor community"], and we believe a partnership between us would be a natural one.

This year's event will bring together [expected number] guests, including [notable attendee types: donors, local business owners, families, etc.]. As a sponsor, you'd receive:

• Logo placement on event signage, the program, and our website
• A dedicated shoutout across our social media channels (reaching [follower count])
• [X] complimentary seats or tickets to the event
• Recognition from the podium during the program

We have sponsorship levels ranging from $[amount] to $[amount], each with its own set of benefits. I've attached a one-page breakdown for reference.

Would you be open to a quick call this week to talk through the details? You can reach me directly at [phone] or [email], or simply reply to this email. Thank you for considering this partnership, we'd love to have [Sponsor Business Name] alongside us this year.

Warmly,

[Your Name]
[Title, Organization Name]
[Phone] | [Email] | [Website]

2. Corporate Sponsorship Letter

Best for larger, established companies, especially ones with a formal corporate giving or CSR program. This version leans more into ROI and structured packages, since bigger sponsors typically expect a formal proposal.

Subject: Exclusive Partnership Opportunity – [Event or Campaign Name]

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Dear [Recipient Name],

[Organization Name] is reaching out to invite [Company Name] to become a [tier name, e.g., "Presenting" or "Champion"] sponsor of our [Event/Campaign Name], taking place [date/timeframe]. Every year, this initiative helps us [core outcome, e.g., "provide meals to over 10,000 families across [Region]"], and we're hoping to grow that impact with the right partner this year.

We chose to reach out to [Company Name] specifically because of your commitment to [specific CSR pillar, value, or past initiative – do your homework here]. A partnership with us would let you put that commitment into action in a visible, measurable way.

Here's what sponsorship at each tier includes:

[Tier 1 Name] – $[Amount]
‍ • [Benefit 1]
• [Benefit 2]
• [Benefit 3]

[Tier 2 Name] – $[Amount]
• [Benefit 1]
• [Benefit 2]

[Tier 3 Name] – $[Amount]
• [Benefit 1]

Last year, our [comparable event/campaign] reached [audience size] people and generated [specific metrics like media impressions, attendees, dollars raised]. We're happy to share a full impact report and sponsorship deck on request.

I'd welcome the chance to set up a call with you or your team to discuss which tier makes the most sense for [Company Name]'s goals this year. Feel free to book time directly on my calendar here: [scheduling link], or reply to this email with a few times that work.

Thank you for considering this opportunity, we hope this is the start of a long-term partnership.

Best regards,

[Your Name]
[Title, Organization Name]
[Phone] | [Email]

3. In-Kind Sponsorship Request Letter

For when you need goods, services, or venue space rather than a check: catering, printing, venue donations, supplies, and the like. Keep this one specific about exactly what you need; vague in-kind requests are the hardest ones for a business to say yes to.

Subject: Donation Request for [Event Name] – [Specific Item/Service Needed]

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Dear [Recipient Name],

I'm [Your Name] with [Organization Name], a local nonprofit working to [one-line mission]. We're currently planning our [Event Name] on [date], and we're reaching out to a handful of businesses we admire in [City/Neighborhood] to ask for support in the form of an in-kind donation.

Specifically, we're hoping [Sponsor Business Name] would be willing to provide [exact item or service, e.g., "50 boxed lunches," "printing for 500 event programs," "your event space for a 3-hour evening reception"]. This would go directly toward [what it enables, e.g., "feeding our 200 volunteers," "cutting our print costs so more of every dollar raised goes to families we serve"].

In return, we'd be glad to:
• Feature your logo and a short blurb on our event materials and website
• Tag and thank you across our social channels
• Include a card or signage crediting [Sponsor Business Name] at the point of use during the event

We know your generosity has limits, so if a partial donation or a different item makes more sense, we're happy to work with whatever you're able to offer. If you have any questions or would like to discuss this further, you can reach me at [phone] or [email], or I'm happy to stop by in person.

Thank you for considering supporting our work.

Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Title, Organization Name]
[Phone] | [Email]

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4. Peer to Peer Fundraiser Sponsorship Letter

Suited for charity walks, runs, rides, or similar peer to peer events, where sponsors often support the overall event rather than a single participant. This template leans on participation numbers and visibility at a live, high-energy event.

Subject: Sponsor [Event Name] – [Expected Number] Walkers Supporting [Cause]

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Dear [Recipient Name],

On [date], [Organization Name] will host our [Xth] Annual [Event Name], a [walk/run/ride] bringing together [expected number] participants to raise funds for [cause/program]. Last year's event raised $[amount] and drew [number] participants and spectators, and we're aiming even higher this year.

We'd love for [Sponsor Business Name] to join us as a sponsor. Businesses like yours help cover the costs of [race-day logistics, permits, supplies, etc.], meaning more of every dollar raised goes straight to [cause].

Sponsorship at the $[amount] level includes:
• Your logo on event t-shirts worn by every participant
• A branded mile marker or water station along the route
• A booth at our pre/post-event expo to meet participants directly
• Recognition in pre-event emails reaching [number] registered participants

We also offer sponsorship at $[lower amount] and $[higher amount] levels – happy to send the full breakdown if you'd like to compare.

If you're interested, just reply to this email or call me at [phone], and we can lock in your spot before route materials go to print on [deadline date]. Thank you for considering a partnership with us, we'd be proud to have your name on the course.

Best,

[Your Name]
[Title, Organization Name]
[Phone] | [Email]

5. Local Small Business Sponsorship Letter

A shorter, warmer version for small, community-based businesses, where a personal connection or a shared neighborhood matters more than a polish. Keep this one conversational, and if you can, hand-deliver it.‍

Subject: Would [Business Name] Like to Support [Event/Program Name]?

Hi [Recipient Name],

I'm [Your Name] with [Organization Name]. We're the [nonprofit description, e.g., "group behind the community garden on Elm Street"]. I've long admired what you've built at [Business Name], and how much you've supported [neighborhood/community] over the years.

We're currently raising funds for [event/program name], which helps us [what it does for the community]. Given how connected [Business Name] already is to this neighborhood, we thought you might want to be part of it.

We're asking local partners to contribute [specific ask, e.g., "$150," "a gift card for our raffle," "space for a flyer in your window"]. In return, we'll list [Business Name] as a community partner on our materials and make sure everyone at the event knows you helped make it happen.

No pressure at all if the timing isn't right but if you're open to it, I'd love to swing by and chat, or you can just give me a call at [phone]. Thanks so much for considering it either way.

Take care,

[Your Name]
[Organization Name]
[Phone] | [Email]

6. Sponsor Thank You Letter

Don't skip this one. A short, specific thank-you sent right after the event (or after a donation lands) is often what turns a one-time sponsor into a recurring one.

Subject: Thank You for Sponsoring [Event Name]!

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Dear [Recipient Name],

On behalf of everyone at [Organization Name], thank you for sponsoring [Event Name]. Your support at the [tier name] level directly helped us [specific outcome, e.g., "raise $45,000 for our after-school program" or "serve 300 additional families this quarter"].

Thanks to partners like [Sponsor Business Name], we were able to [one more concrete detail like attendance numbers, a milestone reached, or a story from the event]. Guests noticed your presence too, your booth/banner/logo was a highlight for many of our [number] attendees.

We've attached a short recap of the event, including a few photos featuring your branding, for your own records or marketing use.

We'd love to have you back for [next event or ongoing program]. I'll follow up in the coming months with details, but please don't hesitate to reach out in the meantime with any questions.

Thank you again for believing in our mission.

With gratitude,

[Your Name]
[Title, Organization Name]
[Phone] | [Email]

Wrapping Up

Finding the right sponsor can take time and research, but they’re essential for your nonprofit to be sustainable over the long-term. A good sponsorship letter highlights the benefits effectively, is convincing, and is tailored to the business or individual you’re sending it to.

Giving days have become a staple in most if not all institutions’ fundraising strategy, bringing alumni, parents, faculty, staff, and friends together around a shared goal. Pulling one off takes a lot: communications, marketing, matching gifts, clear goals, all acting together to build a strong sense of urgency and momentum.

Without clear ownership and the right systems in place, teams run the risk of spending more time chasing, reconciling data or troubleshooting problems.

In this article, we touch upon the key steps to planning a successful university Giving Day, hoping that it helps you and your team plan a smooth execution for your upcoming giving day.

How do you plan a successful university Giving Day?

A good rule of thumb is to make it easy for people to understand why their gift matters and make it just as easy to give. That means setting clear goals, reaching the right audiences with the right message, and making sure every gift is tracked accurately from the moment it comes in, on the backend.

1. Set Giving Day goals and success metrics

Determining success metrics with your team will make it easy for you to choose the right set of metrics to track so that you can measure if the event achieved what it was supposed to, and if and where it fell short.

While some goals such as total dollars raised are obvious, it’ll likely only tell you half the story. To get the full picture, set goals for:

• donor participation;
• first-time donors;
• major gifts;
• recurring gifts; and
• alumni engagement.

These numbers will tell you if you're expanding your donor base or simply raising more from existing supporters. You can also look at tracking channel performance and ambassador-driven gifts, as these reveal which outreach efforts brought donors to your campaign and where you can improve next time.

2. Build the right team for each task

A successful Giving Day takes people across advancement working toward the same goal, with each team responsible for a different part of the campaign.

Build the right core team and divide responsibilities clearly.
Let annual giving or alumni relations lead the overall strategy, while the advancement services team oversees gift processing and CRM data.

Marketing and communications keep emails, social media, and campaign messaging on track.  Major gift officers can help secure matching funds. You could even recruit student groups or campus partners to expand the campaign's reach across campus.

Well before launch day, during the planning stage, every major workflow should have a single owner so decisions can be made quickly and nothing falls through the cracks.

The best team is where each owner is clear about their responsibilities, as is the entire team, and each member holds the other accountable.

3. Segment donors and alumni audiences

Audience segmentation makes your campaign more relevant by tailoring the appeal to each group's relationship with your institution. Every donor gives for a different reason, so they should also be receiving different messages. It also makes post-campaign stewardship and follow-up much easier and the better your segmentation, the more you’ll be thanking yourself a week after the event.

Common segments include:

• First-time donors
• Previous donors
• Young alumni
• Reunion-year alumni
• Parents
• Athletic supporters

Keep in mind that a recent graduate may be more motivated by stories about current students, while a long-time donor may respond better to an update showing the impact of previous gifts. You’re essentially creating a win-win situation for both, the sender and the recipient. 🤗

4. Create a Giving Day theme and story

A good Giving Day theme is a great enhancement to your event because it gives people something to rally around. It should be memorable, easy to share, and, most importantly, make it clear what donors are helping to achieve.

Lamar University did this with its "Raise the RED" campaign, tying the theme directly to academic programmes and endowed funds. The campaign surpassed its original goal of 500 donors, bringing in 610 donors and 727 gifts.

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Here are some ideas from (a lot of) institutions doing things differently for their Giving Days in 2026.

5. Secure matching gifts and challenges

One of the most compelling reasons donors feel inspired to give is knowing their contribution will be doubled or unlock an additional benefit. It makes the campaign feel more immediate, while also giving your team fresh moments to promote throughout the day.

Rutgers Athletics, for example, announced a $1 million dollar-for-dollar matching challenge, doubling every qualifying gift made in support of student-athletes.

The best part is, the match needn’t even be institution-wide. You can tailor challenges to different donor groups or segments. For example:

• Launch the day with a first-time donor challenge.
• Encourage participation through a young alumni match.
• Invite departments or programmes to unlock their own matching gifts.
• Run time-limited "Power Hours" to boost giving during quieter periods.

Whatever format you choose, keep the rules easy to understand, and you’re golden! 🥳

6. Recruit ambassadors for peer-to-peer fundraising

Sometimes the most effective Giving Day messages could come from classmates, teammates, faculty or alumni who are already known, trusted and sometimes part of your donor group. This is obviously because they add an element of authenticity that no institution-led email blast could.

But ambassadors are busy and may not always have the time to make a video or write a message. The easier you make it for ambassadors to participate, the more likely they are to share consistently throughout the campaign.

You can solve for this easily by providing ready-to-use resources they can personalise and post in minutes. Put together a kit that includes email templates, campaign graphics, text message prompts, personal tracking links, and a suggested sharing schedule. This toolkit will ensure the content your ambassadors put out is equal parts on-brand and authentic.

7. Set up a smooth donation and gift tracking process

A Giving Day campaign can generate excitement quickly, but to sustain that momentum you need the right systems: a fast check out process and gift tracking handled well.

How should universities promote a Giving Day?

Build your promotion plan weeks before event day. Give your messaging enough time to soak in for your donors. As the day gets closer, your messaging should become more frequent and more urgent, making it easy for people to recognise the urgency and get involved.

1. Reach donors across multiple channels

Your donors engage with your messages across different channels: someone will open an email, someone else will look at their text messages, while a third donor will find a reel from your ambassador on your social media. Allow your Giving Day campaign to show up across multiple channels instead of relying on a single announcement.

The University of Arizona took this multichannel approach by bringing together email, social media, and student text outreach into a single campaign hub. Held in February 2026, the campaign raised more than $25.6 million, comfortably surpassing the university's previous Giving Day record of $7.3 million.

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Almabase’s integrated communications platform also makes it easier to see which channels are driving donations, so your team can adjust messaging while the campaign is still live.

2. Build a Giving Day content calendar

A content calendar will keep your campaign moving at a steady pace and prevent your team from going into the scramble triggered by last-minute tasks.

Before Giving Day arrives, it helps to map out when each story, email, and social post will go live, so that it’s easy to coordinate across departments and avoid gaps in communication.

West Virginia University used a structured content calendar to build awareness before Giving Day and then shifted to targeted hourly updates once the campaign began. They also created a social media toolkit for their ambassadors to spread the word.
This consistency helped maintain momentum throughout the 24-hour campaign, resulting in 11,202 gifts and more than $22.8 million raised.

Planning that sequence in advance also gives ambassadors enough time to prepare and keeps everyone on the same page.

3. Use storytelling to motivate donors

Storytelling is one of the best ways you have to demonstrate exactly the impact your donors make.In fact, data from the National Alumni Survey (2026) shows that younger donors especially respond to causes that they find emotionally compelling. The key is to show, not tell

The best Giving Day campaigns show donors the people and impact behind the fundraising goal, whether that's a student receiving a scholarship, a research project gaining support, or an athletics programme reaching more student-athletes. When donors can picture the impact of their gift, the ask feels natural.

Rowan University centred its Giving Day around a story from its president, who shared how a single modest gift changed the course of his education. That message reinforced the idea that every donation, regardless of size, can make a lasting difference, helping the university raise $439,966 from 3,068 gifts.

What Giving Day campaign ideas drive more donor participation?

The ideas that best convey the urgency of the cause are the ones that see higher participation. Here are a few ideas that universities return to, year after year.

1. Matching gift challenges

We already touched upon this before: matching gifts are one of the simplest ways to create urgency. If donors know their contribution will be doubled or help unlock an additional gift, they're more likely to give while the campaign is live.

2. Class, department, and affinity group competitions

A little friendly competition can encourage donors to rally behind the communities they already identify with. Leaderboards, participation goals, and reunion challenges give supporters something to root for beyond the fundraising total.

They also create plenty of opportunities for updates throughout the day as different groups move up the rankings, adding to the energy and excitement of the event.

UVA Darden built its campaign around class participation brackets, spin-the-wheel pledges, reunion incentives, women's scholarships, and early-career alumni challenges. Alumni accounted for 77% of all donors, with the Class of 2011 recording the highest participation.

3. Leaderboards, progress bars, and donor recognition

Progress bars, fundraising thermometers, and live leaderboards show how close the community is to reaching its goal, creating a very real reason for more to join in before the day ends.

Recognising donors along the way , too, can add to that momentum. This could look like celebrating milestone gifts, highlighting class standings, or sharing supporter shout-outs on social media, but all of them remind donors that they're part of a collective effort.

Purdue University famously uses gamification in their Day of Giving events. In their April 2026 edition, they used real-time leaderboards to put colleges, alumni clubs, and student organizations directly in competition for shares of matching pools. This strategy worked out beautifully for them because they were able to turn passive donors into active participants who were invested in the process of giving. The giving day, of course, was a smash hit, raising $ 95,456,146.

What goes into a university’s Giving Day planning checklist?

By the time Giving Day arrives, your team should be focused on engaging donors. This needs advance planning and a planning checklist would help everyone stay aligned.

Overall, these are the broad considerations your checklist should cover:

Bringing it all together

A successful Giving Day is the result of thoughtful planning, clear communication, and a campaign that's easy for donors to support, at a conceptual level and at the execution level as well.

Whether it’s introducing first-time donors, strengthening alumni participation, or working towards a fundraising milestone, bring as much intention as possible to every step of the donor journey.

How does Almabase help institutions run successful Giving Days?

Giving Day campaigns take a lot: fundraising, marketing, advancement services, and alumni engagement, all working together like a well-oiled machine.

Almabase helps advancement teams manage Giving Day campaigns from a single platform, bringing together donor-facing experiences and the backend workflows that support them. With fewer disconnected tools to manage, teams can focus on running the campaign instead of piecing and holding together multiple tools and the consequent manual overhead.

With Almabase, you can:

• Build branded, mobile-friendly Giving Day pages that make donating simple.
• Keep donors engaged with live leaderboards, progress bars, and campaign updates.
• Help supporters find the funds, departments, clubs, or programmes they care about.
• Capture gifts cleanly and sync them with your CRM to reduce manual reconciliation.
• Send automated receipts and segment donors for timely post-campaign stewardship.

Book a demo with us to see how Almabase can support your next Giving Day campaign! 🥳

FAQs

What is a university Giving Day?

A university Giving Day is a focused fundraising campaign, typically held over 24 hours, that encourages alumni, parents, students, faculty, staff, and friends to support institutional causes. Many Giving Days use matching gifts, peer-to-peer fundraising, and real-time campaign updates to encourage participation.

How far in advance should we start planning a Giving Day?

Most institutions begin planning at least six to eight weeks before launch. This gives teams enough time to set goals, prepare campaign messaging, secure matching gifts, recruit ambassadors, and test their giving platform before the campaign begins.

How do matching gifts work on Giving Day?

Matching gifts are funded by major donors, alumni, or sponsors who agree to increase the value of donations made during the campaign. They may match gifts dollar for dollar or unlock additional funding when a participation or fundraising milestone is reached.

How can universities increase Giving Day donor participation?

Campaigns that combine compelling storytelling with tactics that create urgency, such as matching gifts, class challenges, department competitions, peer-to-peer fundraising, and live progress updates have a good chance of increasing participation from donors.

What should we track after Giving Day?

Review both fundraising and participation metrics, including total dollars raised, donor count, first-time donors, recurring gifts, campaign performance by channel, and stewardship outcomes. Looking at these together helps identify what worked well and where next year's campaign can improve.

What are the best Giving Day ideas for universities?

Popular Giving Day ideas include matching gift challenges, class-year competitions, department leaderboards, ambassador campaigns, student stories, and donor recognition throughout the day.

Over the past few months, we've been talking to healthcare foundations across the country. From large health systems to community hospitals, each serving different communities and fundraising goals.

While every organization was different, one thing stood out—healthcare fundraising is built on relationships. Relationships with grateful patients, family members, donors, sponsors, volunteers and members who care deeply about improving healthcare in the communities they call home. And yet, many fundraising teams are being asked to manage those relationships across systems that were never really designed for the way healthcare foundations work.

As we spoke with foundation teams, we heard the same frustrations again and again and again.

"We have great donor data in our CRM, but events, registrations, sponsorships, and campaigns are happening somewhere else.”

“We’re chasing sponsor logos, guest lists, and event details over email”

“Event data didn't flow automatically into Raiser's Edge NXT, so the team spent weeks cleaning it up after every event.”

Underneath each of these challenges was the same issue: relationships were getting fragmented across systems.

The result wasn't just duplicate work or manual data entry. It meant less visibility into supporter engagement, more time spent connecting data across systems, and fewer opportunities to focus on the relationships that drive fundraising forward. But there was another challenge we heard repeatedly. Most fundraising platforms weren't built with healthcare foundations in mind. Teams supporting grateful patient fundraising were constantly navigating HIPAA requirements, ensuring donor information was handled correctly, preparing for audits, and worrying that a single mistake could expose sensitive patient information.

Healthcare foundations don't struggle with mission. They struggle with technology that wasn't built for healthcare.

When fundraising teams are juggling disconnected systems and constantly thinking about compliance, they have less time to do what matters most: building relationships with grateful patients, donors, sponsors, and their communities.

That's what got our attention. And that's why we're excited to share what we've been building.

Introducing Almabase for Healthcare Fundraising ✨

Built around four integrated products, Events, Giving, Beacon (Donor Communications & Marketing), and TrueSync, Almabase helps healthcare foundations manage the entire fundraising journey while keeping every interaction connected to Blackbaud's Raiser's Edge NXT.

Fundraising works better when every relationship stays connected.

Whether someone attends a gala, sponsors an event, gives online, participates in a peer-to-peer campaign, or responds to an email, every interaction contributes to a richer understanding of that supporter.

Almabase brings those interactions together into one connected experience, giving fundraising teams a complete view of every donor relationship instead of scattered pieces spread across different systems.

And because Almabase is powered by TrueSync, every registration, sponsorship, donation, attendance record, and engagement activity flows seamlessly into Raiser's Edge NXT. Constituent records stay complete and up to date without manual imports or duplicate work.

Healthcare fundraising comes with unique privacy and compliance responsibilities, especially when engaging grateful patients. That's why Almabase is designed to support the privacy and compliance expectations healthcare foundations operate under, helping teams confidently engage supporters while protecting sensitive information.

Put simply, we're not building another database. We're building on top of the one healthcare foundations already trust.

Now, if you're thinking,

"Wasn't Almabase the company that worked with advancement teams on alumni engagement and fundraising?" 🤔

Fair question. After all, we literally have "alma" in our name.

So how did we end up here?

Eleven years ago, our founders watched classmates leave college because they couldn't afford tuition. Together with alumni, they raised scholarships that helped more than 150 students complete their education. That experience became Almabase. Over the next decade, hundreds of colleges, universities, and independent schools trusted us to help strengthen alumni relationships, build engaged communities, and raise more support for their missions.

As we grew, we realized the challenges we were solving weren't unique to education. Different missions, but the same fundamentals: building meaningful relationships, inspiring support, and advancing a mission that matters. Alumni became patients. Advancement teams became healthcare foundation teams. But the work, and the people behind it, felt remarkably familiar.

Fundraising has always been about understanding supporters, creating meaningful experiences, and building relationships that last far beyond a single campaign or event. That's what Almabase has always been built for. So when we started working closely with healthcare foundations, it didn't feel like a pivot. It felt like a natural extension of the mission that brought us here.

That's why we're thrilled to officially launch Almabase for Healthcare Fundraising! ✨

And the product wasn't built behind closed doors, either.

Built alongside healthcare foundations

We built it alongside healthcare foundations that challenged our assumptions, shared their workflows, and helped shape what the platform looks like today.

Take Essentia Health. Their foundation supports a 500-mile footprint across Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin, covering 15 hospitals with a team of just 16 people.

Working closely with teams like theirs helped us design workflows that reflect how healthcare fundraising actually happens, from sponsorship management and gala planning to donor engagement and CRM integration.

As Wade Jones, Director of Foundation Operations at Essentia Health, shared:

"One of the reasons we chose Almabase was so that we could more seamlessly get our constituents and event attendees into our database so that we could engage with them and build a relationship with them."

Purpose-built for healthcare fundraising teams

Healthcare fundraising doesn't happen in isolated systems. Neither should your technology.

With Almabase, healthcare foundations can:

• Run fundraising events with ticketing, sponsorships, auctions, registration, and mobile check-in in one platform.
• Give sponsors a self-service portal to upload logos, agreements, invoices, and guest information without endless email follow-ups.
• Raise more through online giving and peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns.
• Use Beacon to deliver personalized donor communications and grateful patient outreach, with technology designed to support HIPAA requirements.
• Keep every donation, sponsorship, attendance record, and engagement activity automatically synchronized with Raiser's Edge NXT through TrueSync.
• Build a more complete picture of every supporter, helping teams create stronger relationships over time instead of starting from scratch with every campaign.

Together, Events, Giving, Beacon, and TrueSync give healthcare foundations a connected fundraising platform designed for the way they work, helping teams spend less time managing disconnected systems and more time building relationships that advance their mission.

We're incredibly grateful to organizations like Essentia Health who trusted us early, challenged our thinking, and helped shape what Almabase for Healthcare has become.

And we're far from done.

We'll continue listening, learning, and building alongside our customers, just as we have throughout our journey in education. Healthcare Fundraising is an exciting new chapter for Almabase. But our mission hasn't changed. We're still building technology that helps mission-driven organizations strengthen relationships, better understand their supporters, and raise more for the communities they serve.

And to our friends in higher education, this doesn't change a thing for you.‍

Everything we learn building for healthcare foundations will continue to strengthen the products you already use every day. Education was the beginning. Healthcare is the next chapter, and we're excited to see where the journey leads from here.

Want to learn more? Explore Almabase for Healthcare Fundraising.

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AI has arrived in advancement faster than the field has had time to make space for it. It’s influencing advancement ways both large and small, showing up everywhere from internal operations to donor engagement.

Institutions are experimenting, donors are forming opinions, and best practices are still taking shape. The most relevant question emerging seems to be how institutions can make use of this technology without weakening the very relationships they’re meant to nurture. As institutions try to find these answers, recent research offers an early look at what's changing, what's holding steady, and what donors are asking for.

AI in Advancement: Where Things Stand in 2026

Where do advancement teams stand?

Most institutions are still in an experimental phase with AI. Some teams have found workflows where it clearly helps. Others are still figuring out where it fits or whether it fits at all. That's the backdrop advancement teams are operating in, regardless of whether their institution has a formal AI policy in place yet.

Fundraising staff, for the most part, have already moved past that experimental stage individually. Almost two-thirds of nonprofits and foundations already report using AI in their work, according to a 2025 Center for Effective Philanthropy survey.

Governance hasn't kept pace with that adoption: a 2026 report found 47% of nonprofits have no AI policy at all.

This gap between individual use and institutional guidance shows up clearly in how nonprofits handle disclosure. Only 15% of nonprofits disclose their use of generative AI tools, even though a majority of donors say they want to know when AI is involved. Blackbaud's donor research puts a number on that expectation: 76% of donors want to know when and how an organization is using AI. What their research also found is that transparency, not AI use itself, is what protects donor trust.

How do donors feel about AI?

The data above points to a stance that isn’t necessarily for or against AI: donors are simply asking to be told when it's in use. This reframes the ethical question for advancement, taking it from adoption itself to how openly that adoption happens.

Donor opinion on AI isn't uniform

A 2024 study led by Nathan Chappell and Cherian Koshy, surveying more than 1,000 donors, found that younger donors (ages 18-44) show more openness to AI-driven innovations, while donors 60 and older expressed a stronger preference for maintaining traditional human interaction.

This split is particularly relevant to advancement, since most alumni bases span every one of these generations at once. A single approach to AI use will land differently depending on who's receiving it, which is all the more reason disclosure and consent need to be built into institutions’ AI strategy from the start.

Why advancement carries different stakes

Most of the AI conversation in higher ed treats advancement like any other back-office function: a place to automate reporting, speed up admin work, save staff time. But advancement carries a distinct responsibility on top of that. It's the function that manages an institution's most valuable, hard-earned asset: trust with the people who choose to care about it.

• AI drafting a grant report or cleaning up a spreadsheet stays invisible to the donor. The output gets judged on accuracy and speed alone, and the work itself is mechanical.
• AI touching a donor-facing email or a segmentation decision operates inside a relationship the institution has spent years building. Getting it wrong here could leave a donor feeling like a data point instead of a person, which affects their giving decision.

That's what makes the stakes in advancement multi-dimensional, and harder to get right than in most other back-office use cases.

A predictive model flagging alumni at risk of lapsing is a promising, emerging use of AI in this space. Applied without care to how that flag gets acted on, the same model can turn a relationship into a transaction.

What is driving and blocking adoption?

The main driver for adoption right now seems to be time saved. Teams are using AI to handle the repetitive parts of the job, drafting, data cleanup, first-pass research, so staff time goes toward the relationship work that really does require a human. Cost plays a role too. Advancement teams are on the leaner side, relative to the scope of their work, and AI gets pitched internally as a way to do more without adding headcount.

On the barrier side, sensitive data handling is the concern that comes up most. Advancement holds some really sensitive data an institution has: giving history, wealth indicators, family relationships, or personal details shared over years of stewardship. That sensitivity raises the bar for what responsible AI use means in advancement specifically, and it shows up clearly in the numbers. Data privacy and security are the top adoption barrier in higher ed, cited by 61% of individuals and 56% of institutions.

Data privacy and security concerns aren’t the only reservation teams have with AI adoption. The same survey found newer concerns emerging too: environmental impact now shows up among the top three barriers for more than 1 in 5 respondents, and concern about AI-related role elimination nearly doubled year over year, from 7% to 14%. Training hasn't kept pace with any of this. Concerns around training will likely continue to shape reluctance around embracing AI.

Put together, this paints a picture of willingness to adopt but also one of uneven adoption. Nonprofit-wide, 92% of organizations report using AI in some capacity, with a disconnect: only 7% agree that it’s made any significant impact.

Advancement specifically is tracking a bit ahead of that nonprofit-wide baseline. Ellucian's third annual higher ed AI survey placed alumni relations and advancement among the field's Emerging Adopters, at roughly 59 to 60% momentum.

Within fundraising, AI shows up across:

• Donor communications: 85%
• Automation: 72%
• Predictive analytics: 67%

Leaders credit AI adoption specifically in operational improvement and personalized engagement specifically, with only about 30% agreeing that there has been any direct impact on revenue.
The nuance remains that advancement teams are using AI to free up time for the parts of the job that actually move donors: the relationships. In this revelation lies the congruence between what donors expect and what advancement teams are trying to achieve.

Where AI fits into modern advancement

Advancement is working through AI adoption for the first time alongside every other part of the institution with no established playbook to follow. The leaders shaping this work right now are figuring out what responsible use looks like as they go. These are the open questions the field is sitting with and working through.

The problems AI shouldn't be expected to solve

Alumni giving participation has been declining for years. It's easy to assume the answer is better tools: smarter segmentation, more personalized outreach, sharper messaging. But the 2026 National Alumni Survey suggests the problem is something else entirely.

Younger alumni aren't giving less, they just give elsewhere rather than strictly to their alma mater.
With motivations shifting, the strongest predictor of giving has very little to do with their age and their capacity to give. It's whether they feel connected to their alma mater. Alumni who feel very connected are 24 times more likely to donate than those who feel disconnected.

More than convincing younger alumni to give, we should think along the lines of "How do we help more of them feel like they still belong?" Because the generosity is already there! It’s just a matter of establishing the connection, or rekindling it, rather.

If connection is the real problem, AI can help institutions:

• Tell their story at scale and make it feel personal to each recipient
• Catch drift early: predictive tools can flag alumni pulling away before they lapse, so teams can re-engage in a timely manner

The actual relationship-building work remains a deeply human function.
AI can widen the aperture on who gets noticed and when, but it can't replace the judgment and warmth that make an alumnus feel like an individual rather than a segment.

The line between assistance and substitution

For many advancement professionals, AI brings a lingering concern: where does this eventually lead; is it just another tool, or does it change the role itself?

So far, AI adoption has been more  practical rather than existential:

• Institutions are using AI to cut administrative work, move faster, and support more personalized engagement. They’re expanding what teams can do with the people they already have.
• Donors back this up as well. Most are comfortable with AI having a role to play, as long as it's transparent. Honesty matters more to them than whether AI touched part of the process.
• AI comes in at the implementation stage: summarizing donor research, surfacing patterns, and touching anything that buys back time for real relationship building.

Toeing the line between assistance and substitution is a sensitive task, but one we believe teams are very much capable of doing. Some of these decisions will vary by institutional requirements. But the consensus is that AI works best in a supporting role while the relationships themselves must stay distinctly human.

Transparency and consent

For institutions still figuring out their AI strategy, there's no need for a sweeping rollout. Most teams are better served starting internal use cases (research, reporting, drafting, data analysis) and expanding as they get comfortable.

But as AI moves closer to donor-facing work, transparency matters most. Chappell and Koshy's study found 93% of donors rate transparency about AI use as "very important" or "somewhat important," which leaves little room for  disclosure to be optional.
Clear disclosure and real consent should be one of the main concerns in policy and cannot be treated as an afterthought. Across the research, one pattern holds: AI adoption is moving fast, donor confidence is catching up more slowly, and trust and transparency are what close that gap.

As for the decline in alumni giving, it isn't really about generosity at all. It's about connection and that's where AI can do the most good: helping teams uncover more relevant stories, personalize outreach, and catch signs of drift before alumni disengage entirely. The relationship itself still belongs to the people doing the work. Few advancement professionals, and even fewer donors, want to hand that part to a machine.

Where this leaves advancement

Watching this play out at CASE Summit this year, one thing stood out: the conversation centered on using AI well without losing the human touch.

That tracks with the data. AI adoption is already underway, even if unevenly and without formal policies at many institutions. Donors have made clear that transparency matters more than AI's mere presence. And the core challenge advancement teams are solving: helping alumni feel connected enough to stay engaged and give, is still fundamentally a human one.

AI can spot patterns, reduce admin work, and make personalization easier at scale. It creates more space for relationship-building, but it can't do the building itself.

The tools will keep improving, and institutional policies will catch up. What won't change are the pillars advancement has always depended on: trust, real connection, and people who know how to build both.

Homecoming is one of the most vibrant traditions on any college or university campus. Thousands of alumni return to celebrate, reconnect, and show their school pride, resulting in a surge of foot traffic and digital engagement alike. While packed stadiums, sold-out ticket packages, and high on-site attendance reflect a successful event, they do not automatically convert into long-term philanthropic support. The energy generated is often fleeting if advancement teams lack a dedicated strategy to anchor that excitement into ongoing involvement.

And that’s where workplace philanthropy comes into play. Programs like corporate matching gifts and employee volunteer incentives provide a powerful bridge between event attendance and sustained contributions, unlocking significant revenue and turning a weekend of school spirit into year-round financial support. Read on to learn exactly how your school can eliminate that gap.

Capturing Employment Data During the Homecoming Surge

To effectively tap into corporate philanthropy, you first need to know where your alumni (and other supporters) work. Homecoming registration and check-in present prime opportunities to gather and verify employment details from thousands of graduates at once.

To maximize data collection without creating friction, advancement teams can deploy a few seamless strategies:

• Add Streamlined Employer Search Fields: Update online event registration forms and digital ticketing pages with auto-completing employer search fields. This reduces typos and normalizes company names in your database.
• Deploy Digital Check-In Portals: Use prominently displayed QR codes on event signage, tent cards, and digital screens. Direct attendees to a digital check-in portal in exchange for event perks, entry into a giveaway, or other exclusive benefits. When alumni are excited about returning to campus, they’re far more willing to complete brief profile updates.
• Train On-Site Staff and Volunteers: Equip event staff and volunteers to confirm employer details during event check-in or badge pickup. A simple, "Are you still with [Company]?" takes mere seconds and keeps your database pristine.

Gathering up-to-date workplace information changes the game for your alumni fundraising operations. Instead of spending weeks conducting manually research, automated tools can instantly cross-reference employment details against corporate giving databases to pinpoint the most promising opportunities.

From there, clean, enriched employment data sets the foundation for personalizing communications based on specific program guidelines, ensuring that the right alumni receive the right information at the right time.

Converting Event Momentum Into Matched Donations

Homecoming attendees are actively engaged. Many make financial contributions during registration, purchase event add-ons, or join annual giving campaigns while on campus. Because these donors tend to be in a particularly supportive mindset, immediate outreach is critical.

If you wait too long to follow up, the weekend’s emotional connection fades, along with the likelihood that alumni will complete corporate match requests. Therefore, to capture match dollars efficiently, institutions should embed matching gift prompts into every post-event touchpoint. Here’s what we recommend:

1. Personalized Follow-Ups: Send automated, personalized thank-you emails immediately following the conclusion of your Homecoming weekend. These messages should explicitly highlight the donor's eligibility for an employer match based on the workplace data captured during check-in.
2. Interactive Search Widgets: Incorporate standard search widgets directly onto donation confirmation screens, event follow-up portals, and tailored email streams. This allows alumni to look up their company’s specific guidelines, donation ratios, and request instructions in seconds.
3. Direct Submission Links: Eliminate as much friction as possible by linking donors directly to their employer’s corporate portal or online submission form. Guiding individuals step-by-step through the request process ensures they complete the task while motivation is high.

The revenue potential here is massive. Double the Donation’s workplace giving research indicates that over 26 million individuals work for companies with matching gift programs, yet billions of dollars in matching gift funds go unclaimed every year, primarily due to a simple lack of donor awareness.

When advancement teams proactively highlight corporate matches during post-event communication, the benefits compound. Educating donors about match eligibility not only boosts overall response rates, but it also drives higher average donation amounts in the first place. In other words, alumni are far more likely to give (and to give more generously) when they know their employer will multiply their financial impact.

Leveraging Corporate Volunteer Incentive Programs

Alumni involvement at Homecoming regularly extends beyond financial donations. Graduates often dedicate their time as class representatives, panel speakers, career mentors, and event organizers. While these volunteer efforts are essential for the weekend’s operations, they can also generate direct workplace giving revenue.

Many corporations incentivize employee volunteerism through volunteer grant programs and Volunteer Time Off (or VTO). Advancement teams can unlock these hidden corporate funds by educating and engaging event volunteers. After all, many alumni are unaware that their employers offer "dollars for doers" programs in which corporations contribute financial grants to nonprofits and schools based on the number of hours an employee volunteers.

Inform your Homecoming volunteers that their time spent planning, speaking, or staffing can directly turn into grant dollars for the university.

After the weekend comes to an end, send targeted follow-ups to all registered volunteers. Provide clear, step-by-step details on how they can log their service hours in corporate systems to claim funding for your institution, thereby scaling the event’s overall return on investment.

Streamlining Workplace Giving With Automation Technology

Manually managing post-event engagement can quickly overwhelm advancement teams, especially during busy university fundraising seasons. Tracking down updated employer records, checking company guidelines, and sending individual follow-up emails to thousands of attendees is simply not a scalable solution.

However, by leveraging automation tools, institutions can streamline the entire workplace giving pipeline, converting event attendance into reliable revenue without placing additional burden on staff. And it’s easy to do, thanks to Almabase’s native integration with Double the Donation!

Let’s explore a few ways these tools can work.

• Real-time data matching: Automatically identifies eligible donors using corporate databases at registration or check-in, ensuring no match-eligible donors slip through the cracks
• Automated email streams: Sends company-specific guidelines and submission links instantly after an event or donation, eliminating manual outreach while capturing match requests when interest is highest
• Continuous analytics: Delivers detailed reporting on workplace giving status, pending donations, and corporate participation metrics, providing visibility into total corporate revenue generated across campaigns

All in all, integrating automation into your advancement workflow reduces administrative overhead and ensures every post-event interaction is optimized for corporate giving. Rather than spending hundreds of hours on administrative tasks, your team can focus on high-touch stewardship and donor relationships while software drives workplace giving engagement behind the scenes.

Next Steps to Maximize Your Homecoming Event Impact

Capturing the momentum of Homecoming traffic requires looking beyond single-weekend participation metrics. While high attendance numbers and energetic crowds make for great event recaps, the ultimate goal should be building lasting, sustainable alumni relationships.

By collecting verified employer data during check-in and seamlessly integrating automated matching gift and volunteer grant workflows into your post-event touchpoints, your institution can turn short-term event enthusiasm into long-term financial support.

Ready to get started? See how Double the Donation partners with Almabase to help colleges and universities automate workplace giving and seamlessly scale their corporate revenue.

Alumni don't give because they should. They give because it matters.

For years, higher education has treated declining donor participation as a generosity problem. The data tells a different story.

Alumni haven't stopped giving, and neither have they stopped caring about causes. And they certainly haven't become less philanthropic. In fact, most alumni continue to support organizations and causes they believe in. They are simply becoming more intentional about where and why they give.

The 2026 National Alumni Survey, which gathered insights from more than 82,000 alumni nationwide, reveals an important truth: colleges and universities no longer have a default claim on alumni generosity. Trust, relevance, and meaningful relationships now determine whether alumni choose to engage and give.

The good news? The survey doesn't just explain why participation is declining. It also reveals what makes alumni want to give in the first place.

Across generations and institutions, the same patterns emerge. Alumni are more likely to give when they feel connected, informed, understood, and confident that their support creates meaningful impact.

So, what should institutions do differently?

If institutions want alumni to give, not out of obligation, but because they genuinely want to participate. Here are five priorities that stood out from the data.

1. Make Alumni Feel Connected

Connection isn't just a feel-good metric. It's one of the strongest predictors of generosity.

Alumni who feel connected to their alma mater are far more likely to prioritize it philanthropically, while those who feel disconnected often direct their generosity elsewhere.

But connection doesn't happen through a single campaign, reunion, or annual giving appeal.

It's built through meaningful experiences that remind alumni they still belong to something bigger than themselves.

That could mean mentoring students, volunteering, joining affinity communities, participating in events, or engaging with stories that reflect their values and identity.

Connection doesn't just increase engagement. It increases the likelihood that alumni want to invest their time, attention, and generosity in their institution.

💡Seen in practice: The Illinois Institute of Technology realized that meaningful engagement couldn't depend solely on the university initiating every interaction. By creating more opportunities for peer-to-peer networking and measuring engagement beyond event attendance, the institution built a stronger sense of community among students and alumni. When alumni have reasons to connect with each other—not just with the institution—they're more likely to stay engaged over the long term.

2. Help Alumni Understand What Matters

Many institutions communicate frequently. Yet many alumni still don't feel informed about their alma mater's direction, priorities, and decisions. The issue is about the communication clarity.

Alumni want to understand:

• Where is the institution headed?
• Why do these priorities matter?
• How can I play a meaningful role?

More emails don't create understanding, but clear communication does. Institutions that build stronger alumni relationships don’t just increase touchpoints; they help alumni connect institutional priorities to the outcomes they care about.

When alumni understand where their institution is going and why it matters, they're far more likely to see themselves as part of that journey.

💡Seen in practice: Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) took this approach by bringing alumni engagement, events, communications, and fundraising into one connected experience. Instead of sending disconnected updates from different teams, RISD created a unified journey where alumni could see how events, mentoring, Giving Day, and career initiatives all connected to the institution's larger mission. That consistency helped make communication feel purposeful rather than promotional.

3. Show the Difference Their Giving Can Make

For decades, fundraising messages often focused on institutional need. Today’s alumni respond differently to the who, what, and why.

They want to know:

• Who will benefit?
• What will change?
• Why does this matter right now?

Across generations, alumni are increasingly motivated by visible outcomes and confidence that their support makes a tangible difference.

The message can no longer be:

"We need your support."

It needs to become:

"Here's the change your support can create."

Alumni are far more likely to want to give when they can see the people, outcomes, and impact their contribution makes possible.

💡Seen in practice: Minnesota State University Moorhead embraced this idea through focused micro-campaigns. Instead of relying solely on broad fundraising appeals, the university invited alumni to support tangible projects like renovating the wrestling room and expanding the campus Oceanarium. Because donors could clearly see what their gifts would accomplish, these campaigns generated enthusiasm and sustained participation long after Giving Day ended.

4. Make Alumni Feel Known

Perhaps the most striking finding from the survey is this:

Most alumni don't believe their institution truly knows them.

They don't feel their interests are understood or priorities are being recognized. And they don't feel seen as individuals whose lives, careers, and motivations have evolved since graduation. That feeling matters more than we often realize.

When alumni feel known, trust and connection deepen. When they don’t, generosity often flows elsewhere.

Personalization isn't simply adding a first name to an email. It's listening continuously and remembering what alumni care about. It's reflecting those interests back to them through relevant opportunities, thoughtful communication, and meaningful engagement.

💡Seen in practice: Castilleja School demonstrates what this looks like in action. Rather than treating alumni records as static databases, the school invited alumnae to continuously update their professional interests, mentoring preferences, and volunteer goals. Those insights became the foundation for more relevant introductions, career networking, events, and mentorship opportunities—helping alumnae feel recognized as individuals rather than names on a mailing list.

5. Give Alumni Something Specific to Believe In

The era of broad, one-size-fits-all fundraising appeals is ending. Alumni increasingly want choice, specificity, and opportunities that align with their values.

They want to support something tangible, something they can understand and something they can believe in.

The survey shows a clear preference for opportunities that feel meaningful, immediate, and connected to causes alumni care about.

When alumni can see exactly how their contribution creates change and why it matters, they're much more likely to want to participate.

💡Seen in practice: Elon University applied this principle during Giving Day by organizing fundraising around clearly defined causes and opportunities rather than one generic institutional appeal. By making it easy for donors to support the programs and initiatives they cared about most, the university raised $3.6 million while creating a giving experience that felt personal and purposeful.

The Future of Alumni Giving Starts with Connection.

The story emerging from the National Alumni Survey is one of changing expectations.

Alumni still believe in philanthropy. They still want to make a difference. But they're increasingly choosing organizations that make them feel connected, informed, appreciated, and known.

The survey points to a simple but important truth: institutions don't create generosity through better fundraising tactics alone. They create it by building relationships that make alumni feel connected, informed, known, and capable of making a difference. That's what makes alumni want to give.

The institutions that succeed in the years ahead won't be the ones sending more appeals or optimizing more campaigns.They'll be the ones that listen more deeply, communicate more clearly, and build relationships rooted in trust and relevance.

The best advancement teams aren't simply running better campaigns—they're creating better experiences. Whether it's Illinois Tech strengthening peer connections, RISD simplifying the alumni journey, Castilleja building a living alumnae network, or MSUM extending Giving Day into year-round stewardship, the common thread is the same: they invest in relationships before asking for support. And that's what ultimately inspires generosity.

Get the Full Playbook

The 2026 National Alumni Survey offers deeper insights into what drives connection, trust, and generosity and how institutions can rebuild participation by strengthening relationships.

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