Annual Giving at NC State’s new crowdfunding programs bring communities together to support projects across NC State’s campus. Crowdfunding is a program that allows departments to create specific projects in areas in which they need financial support.
Josh Privette, associate director of development for the Division of Academic and Student Affairs (DASA), is a part of the group of people responsible for the crowdfunding program at NC State.
“So, Crowdfunding tries to identify certain projects on campus that we think a wide group of people would be passionate about … that they could support through personal philanthropy,” Privette said.
There were five crowdfunding projects running for the fall semester. All of them reached their fundraising goals.
“Each college can have different projects,” Privette said. “So, this semester, there were five projects representing different areas. DASA had two. University Theater did a crowdfunding project for their production support for this upcoming academic year. The other one was the clothing closet in the Career Development Center.”
Other projects included medical supplies and equipment for the Turtle Rescue Team, North Carolina Science Olympiad and Student Teacher Mini-Grants.
Adam Compton, executive director of Annual Giving at NC State, is part of a team that oversees the mass marketing and direct frontline fundraising of all gifts in the Annual Giving space. This includes their new crowdfunding project which addresses specific needs of organizations across campus.
“Crowdfunding is an opportunity for us to raise some funds for very specific projects on campus, so if you look at Crowdfunding projects we just launched, the [medical supplies and equipment for the Turtle Rescue Team] was a really good example because they had something really specific they wanted to fund,” Compton said. “They needed a new freezer for the facility, so it was a great way to go out and identify an audience.”
Kelly Laraway, director of employer relations at the Career Development Center, manages the Wolfpack Styled Professional Clothing Closet, which was part of the fall round of crowdfunding projects. Laraway said she knew exactly what she wanted to do when she saw the advertisement for fundraising projects from Crowdfunding.
“Up to now, it’s really been a function of physical donations that we have received that students can then come and connect with,” Laraway said. “One of the dreams I always had for it is that we would actually have a pot of money where we could provide under-resourced students with stipends so that they could buy their own new things that were really bought just for them.”
Compton said the Crowdfunding team takes care of mass marketing and awareness processes like sending emails and text messages, but where projects find success is through reaching out to their own communities.
“If we’re looking at the example of the [NC State Turtle Rescue Team], they had a dedicated group of volunteers that were sharing it on their social media and texting it to friends and emailing it to friends,” Compton said. “And the same way that you look at a Kickstarter or some GoFundMe type campaigns, it’s the organic side of things that really drives more people to it. So, while we’ll do some promotion, I think the success will really come from those student groups or faculty and staff groups really pushing the message.”
Becca Dandeneau, a temporary employee through the Rural Works internship program, led communications for the clothing closet, creating a social media content calendar, making graphics and more for the crowdfunding project. Dandeneau said crowdfunding is about community.
“I think that’s what a crowdfund is about,” Dandenau said. “It’s about raising money, but it’s also about your community coming together, and you get to see something grow and make it even better.”
Privette said the crowdfunding process starts with centers approaching the development office with a project they would like to nominate for consideration for Crowdfunding.
“We then look over that project and make sure it is a project we feel like would be met with good success — they have an identifiable audience, it’s an area people would be passionate about — and then we refer those to the [Annual Giving] office,” Privette said. “And the Annual Giving office makes the decision as to which projects will be placed on the Crowdfunding website and that project runs for six weeks.”
The six weeks gives each project team a chance to meet a goal they identify.
“Most groups identified a goal of $5,000 for their project,” Privette said. “When they meet that goal, we celebrate that goal and that project wraps up.”
Laraway said DASA’s development office was a huge help in making the clothing closet’s campaign through Crowdfunding a success.
“The development office that was running the crowdfunding was so organized,” Laraway said. “Everything was so developed … and we went through a training so they [could] answer all of our questions to make sure we understood what we were doing and gave us ideas, and it helped us snowball it. It was such a well-run campaign, in my opinion, and they gave us guidance on everything.”
Laraway said the crowdfunding program did more than just raise money for the projects.
“I think that one of the unexpected results, which we were not really prepared for staff-wise, was the added attention that the clothing closet started getting,” Laraway said. “We have had an overwhelming number of students, and we have heard students say, ‘Oh, my professor talked about [the clothing closet] in class.’”
Compton said his team hopes the Crowdfunding project will expand by next year.
“So, this first year, we did this fall round and we’ll do this spring round,” Compton said. “The longer term goal is to do this more times throughout the year, so maybe if we looked at the next academic/fiscal year, we might do it four times and continue to grow it from there.”
Learn more about Crowdfunding through the Crowdfunding website, through NC State colleges’ fundraising offices or emailing Crowdfunding directly with questions at crowdfunding@ncsu.edu.
