(06-21-2016 11:37 AM)Lwflyrod Wrote:  

(06-21-2016 10:17 AM)ShadyP Wrote:  

(06-21-2016 10:10 AM)JMUTrippster Wrote:  

(06-19-2016 07:53 AM)DoubleDogDare Wrote:  

(06-18-2016 12:41 PM)HotHamandCheese84 Wrote:  It's odd to me that JMU was shocked. The goal was so embarrassingly low. 568 donors with all of our alumni? We have a history of celebrating alleged milestones that could have been reach by my old high school.

I haven't done much fundraising or goal setting in that environment but JMU makes it seem like the hardest thing in the world. The Duke Club hasn't hit their goal in at least 5 years and it took up to this past year just to hit I believe the 2012 goal. Giving Day goals were embarrassingly low and they kept setting these small incremental increased goals. I thought it was so they could call it a "success" no matter how much was raised but I just found this quote from a Breeze article.

Quote:Prior to Giving Day, the university’s goal was set at 568 gifts because the number spells “JMU” on a keypad. By 10 a.m., the goal had been reached and was then raised to 1,787 gifts: the same year that James Madison traveled to Philadelphia to help draft the Constitution. At 4:46 p.m., the goal was once again reached and the final revision was made to 2,016 gifts.

That's ummm a unique way to set measures of success.

As an alumni chapter leader and being pretty involved in promoting Giving Day and the lead up to it, we had no idea how it would be received. You can say what you want about "setting attainable goals so that it looks like a success" but the goal was participation, not an amount of money, so increasing the number of donors was the goal. When 7% of our increasingly growing alumni base gives back, there was no telling what kind of numbers we would see. It was a great day for JMU that should be celebrated as a success and built upon. You have to start somewhere and I think JMU did a great job building a foundation for this event in the future.

Agree, now for future events you have something to gauge off of. It is always tough to estimate for the first such event and the last thing you want to do is shoot yourself in the foot by setting too aggressive of a goal the first time out of the gate.

Participation is the KEY .... $$ numbers are always what we end up measuring but in reality # of donors is more important...cause if you do it right the goal is to get those donors on board and more of them even if its 5 or 10 bucks (just threw a # out there cause didnt wanna offend anyone) to start cause you want...VOLUME... over reasonable time with reasonable effort they will increase their amounts VOLUME will Lead to $$$, especially once they see how easy it is and there reason and value to their giving...thats when you can start to measure $$ ...but you have to have a database of willing donors first. The little donations add up over time along with frequent donations.... The Moats and other donations are nice and well appreciated but many cant give like that. But if you can start people in the donation mode and you can keep them growing then you will have success.
One thing that should be considered is identifying your donors and understanding what they do for a living and identifying their possible abilities for reasonable donation levels...and focus on ways to get them to be consistent or to their next level. thats how you can measure your successes.

Exactly, well said.

The fact that the goal was people or dollars is irrelevant to the goal setting process. The way that the goal was set was laughable at best. Like why was the second goal based of him drafting the Constitution in 1787 and not his birth year or the year JMU was founded or the amount of times JB said monitor in 2015. It doesn't matter if the goal is people or dollars because it is impossible to determine success if you set goals in that ridiculous manner. While I don't know the number of living alumni (and would love to know if anyone has that insight) I got to assume 568 people isn't even close to 1% of alums.

Two other items:
(1) Are we still at only 7%, I thought it had gotten up to around 9%?
(2) How is the % of alums donating handled with married dukes. The Giving Day letter had both of our names on it, the Duke Club and COB Deans Club stuff always only has my name on it. I don't remember including my wife's name in the Giving Day donations but maybe I did.

(06-21-2016 01:00 PM)DoubleDogDare Wrote:  The fact that the goal was people or dollars is irrelevant to the goal setting process. The way that the goal was set was laughable at best. Like why was the second goal based of him drafting the Constitution in 1787 and not his birth year or the year JMU was founded or the amount of times JB said monitor in 2015. It doesn't matter if the goal is people or dollars because it is impossible to determine success if you set goals in that ridiculous manner. While I don't know the number of living alumni (and would love to know if anyone has that insight) I got to assume 568 people isn't even close to 1% of alums.

Two other items:
(1) Are we still at only 7%, I thought it had gotten up to around 9%?
(2) How is the % of alums donating handled with married dukes. The Giving Day letter had both of our names on it, the Duke Club and COB Deans Club stuff always only has my name on it. I don't remember including my wife's name in the Giving Day donations but maybe I did.

All of my letters in regards to fundraising at JMU have both mine and my wife's name and I don't put her name on anything.

(06-21-2016 01:00 PM)DoubleDogDare Wrote:  The fact that the goal was people or dollars is irrelevant to the goal setting process. The way that the goal was set was laughable at best. Like why was the second goal based of him drafting the Constitution in 1787 and not his birth year or the year JMU was founded or the amount of times JB said monitor in 2015. It doesn't matter if the goal is people or dollars because it is impossible to determine success if you set goals in that ridiculous manner. While I don't know the number of living alumni (and would love to know if anyone has that insight) I got to assume 568 people isn't even close to 1% of alums.

Two other items:
(1) Are we still at only 7%, I thought it had gotten up to around 9%?
(2) How is the % of alums donating handled with married dukes. The Giving Day letter had both of our names on it, the Duke Club and COB Deans Club stuff always only has my name on it. I don't remember including my wife's name in the Giving Day donations but maybe I did.

I would also note that a major part of this campaign was to get younger alumni to participate and contribute. My understanding was that making the goal "low" or something related to JMU was just a means to be "fun" and make people say "hey, that's an attainable goal and I can give $5 to help" and was easy to advertise and keep track of on social media. I cannot say that I agree with knocking ANY attempt by the Advancement Office to encourage people to give back to JMU in whatever form, and whether the goal is laughable is a matter of opinion, the fact of the matter is that JMU alumni stepped up and many more people contributed (beyond participation number AND financial goals) which is something to be celebrated and built upon. Now you have a goal of increasing this year's participation which certainly will be a loftier goal but one that should also be attained.

I have no idea on the number of living alumni, but the fact that so few give (be it 7, 8, or 9%) is the laughable part, and is frustrating and confounding to me, and to many people on this board who give back in support of athletics and other programs because know the value of our contributions to JMU and how every little bit can help.

Not sure about how they handle married Dukes but my wife and I both gave separately but got a combined letter thanking us.

I would encourage anyone on here with feedback about Giving Day to contact Kelly Snow in the advancement office (snowka@jmu.edu) as we had an entire breakout session at MAC about Giving Day and improving it for next year.

Another record year for overall giving:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BJS_lyYDbyI/

(08-19-2016 11:34 AM)JMU_Degenerate Wrote:  Another record year for overall giving:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BJS_lyYDbyI/

Well that's a good thing....like seeing an upward trajectory in giving.

Bump from last year.

http://www.breezejmu.org/news/university...e9edf.html

2016 Total:
$338,964
2,840 gifts

(03-15-2016 08:41 AM)bridgeforthduke Wrote:  The Duke Club has already raised over $20,000. I think their goal was $24,000 for the whole day. Impressive start.

$26,564 by 9:45 am. Exceeded last year's pace.

(03-15-2016 09:01 AM)Deez Nuts Wrote:  Hit 100K for the day so far. Hopefully the steam doesn't let up throughout the day. # of gifts goal (568) is already to 530+

$79,372. 479 gifts at 10 am.

(03-15-2016 09:19 AM)RootinFerDukes Wrote:  And just broke 1 full scholarship at 10AM. Well done everyone.

Exceeded before 10 am this year.

Hi Folks, sorry been off the board for a while, alot of personal issues...But I felt why not get back in the 'purple groove' today what better day than giving day

if any of you are on Facebook have you seen the new GIVING Day Video with Pres Alger and crew called "Carpool Karakoe" if not its really really good!
I saw it on my FB feed for 'JMU NATION" page...if your not on that page get with Carol Bernassi (page admin) to be added.. its a great page of folks and has over 5910 members on it.
its also at the bottom of the giving day page
https://givingday.jmu.edu/



10:02 am update
$82,687 507 gifts