A Team Effort has Created Ten Successful Giving Days

Meredith College held the first Giving Day on February 23, 2016, with a goal of raising $125,000, which was met by 11 a.m. By the end of the 24 hours, the Meredith Fund more than doubled the goal, raising $283,052. That was the start of Make It Count for Meredith Giving Day, and it was a wonderful way to celebrate Meredith’s 125th birthday. 

Not only do alumnae within classes work together to make this day a success year after year, but the offices of Institutional Advancement and Marketing work behind the scenes each year to strategize, create, and implement all that you see on Giving Day.

From the first Giving Day to now, preparation for a successful Giving Day starts almost nine months in advance. The Meredith Fund office gathers a group to figure out how to energize alumnae/i to give back to Meredith and create a sense of pride for their alma mater. Each year, the Meredith Fund, Alumnae Relations, Advancement Services, and Marketing teams meet to start strategizing. Emily Parker, director of advancement and strategic communications, is the liaison between the teams and keeps everyone on track, creating and implementing a marketing plan for the day.

The process begins with the design. Each year has a distinct look created by designers in the Marketing Department. For the past five years, Katie Bryant, ʼ07, assistant director of visual communications, has led this effort. Over several months, the Meredith Fund and Marketing teams have refined the look before revealing it to alumnae and donors on a postcard they receive in the mail. The design is also used for t-shirts, social media graphics, giveaways, thank you cards, videos, and other materials.

The Giving Day process has grown each year. What started as an event only on Facebook and Meredith’s website has expanded to coverage on Instagram and LinkedIn, and there are more posts, videos, and pictures than there were in 2016. Part of the reason for that is for the second Giving Day, the decision was made to ask donors to honor strong women with their gift. The theme has continued through the last nine years. 

Donors give in honor of friends, mothers, daughters, aunts, faculty, staff, former roommates, and people who have made an impact on their lives. It is wonderful to see posts on social media by supporters sharing who they honored with a Giving Day sign or a photo. The tributes on Giving Day drive a lot of the gifts on that day. Donors want to honor those they care about. 

Many photos and videos are taken in advance of Giving Day by Charlotte McKinney, assistant director of visual communication-multimedia. McKinney has seen how the event has grown visually. In the first year, she took almost every photo and video for social media, and back then, there was no Facebook Live. Videos had to be filmed and edited before they were posted on Facebook. Also, the creation of the Giving Day promotional videos has been led by McKinney each year with input from the Meredith Fund staff.

The Marketing Department coordinates and writes all the social media posts for the day and works with the Meredith Fund to schedule the day’s challenges. The challenges have been a great way to keep the momentum going throughout the 24-hours. This year was the first year the College advertised what time challenges would occur and what fund the challenge donor was supporting. Of course, when donors give during those challenge times they can still designate their gifts to whatever they wish. It is a win-win for everyone involved. 

“Many of our Giving Day donors become challenge donors because they have been a part of past Giving Days and want to ignite the generosity and participation of other donors,” said Jean Gambrill,  ʼ19 (MBA), director of the Meredith Fund. “Giving Day challenges and matches highlight the many ways our donors support Meredith, and they create fun and impactful giving opportunities to make it the best day possible for Meredith.”

In 2024, Marketing hired Anna Blount to serve as its first social media strategist and content producer. Her expertise led to a reimagining of Giving Day’s social media strategy. The College’s social media channels saw a jump this year in all of the analytics. There were 249,212 views with over 5,000 interactions from February 25-27. Published content included 36 videos, 78 photos, 26 stories, and five Facebook Lives. 

The growth of Giving Day has been a steady rise. Each year, the College has met the goal, so the next year the goal is raised. Year after year, alumnae and donors show they are up for the challenge. The opportunity to give to the fund that is most important to them and for them to know that their gift is being used for the betterment of the students gives donors the confidence to contribute year after year.

Initially, a total of $1,582,557 was raised this year, but additional cash gifts were counted from the day that were not given on the Giving Day website. The total of this year is now $1,634,211.