Giving Day 2025 Communicators Toolkit
Jump to a section: Resources for communicators | General information | Messaging and tools | Plans and timelines | Creative and copy assets | Stewardship | FAQs
Resources for communicators
Giving Day kicks off at noon ET on Feb. 19, 2025, and runs until noon ET on Feb. 20, 2025.
The Giving Day communicators toolkit has everything you need to help promote Giving Day and drive gifts to your college, unit, department, or program. Please share this toolkit with anyone on your team who may assist with your Giving Day communications, marketing, and promotional efforts.
Use the quick links at the top to jump to the section you need, or scroll down for the full roster of resources.
General information
About Giving Day
Giving Day is an annual fundraising and donor engagement event managed by the Advancement Annual Giving team. This high-energy event takes place over 24 hours and invites Hokies to support Virginia Tech colleges, units, programs, and activities that mean the most to them. Giving Day plays a critical role in maintaining Virginia Tech's alumni participation growth and helps foster a culture of philanthropy.
- Website URL: givingday.vt.edu
What to expect
Giving Day is almost a full year in the making. Behind-the-scenes work starts soon after the previous Giving Day wraps up with planning the next event, engaging all areas of Advancement.
Before the end of the calendar year, marketing activities have been finalized and challenge donors have been secured. The early giving period is set up for VIP gift-giving for approximately 3 weeks leading into Giving Day, but it is not mass-promoted like the big event itself.
During the 24 hours of Giving Day, you can expect to see an increase in digital promotion on social media and via email. Giving Day Ambassadors will be spreading the word to their networks and asking them to give. Leaderboards and challenges will be updated in real-time on the website as gifts come into current-use funds from across the university.
On the campuses in Blacksburg and Roanoke, you will see activities to hype up the excitement of Giving Day, led by both central Advancement and the Advancement teams in the colleges. Those who are located outside of Blacksburg can tap into the in-person headquarters via Zoom.
Dates to know
- Giving Day 2025 starts at noon ET on Feb. 19, 2025, and ends at noon ET on Feb. 20, 2025
- The early giving period for VIPs runs from Feb. 3, 2025, through 5 p.m. on Feb. 18, 2025
- ThankView videos for colleges and top-level units and thank you card quantity requests for all who are interested are due to Haleigh Williams on Dec. 1, 2024. Email them to haleighwilliams@vt.edu.
- Social media plans are due from colleges and units to Kate Adkins on Dec. 20, 2024. Email them to katelino@vt.edu
- The creative clinic will be held on Jan. 14, 2025, from 9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.; bring your questions and your area's Giving Day promotional items for feedback. Interest form
Resources
- Giving Day 101 virtual session, 11/12/24: Recording and slide deck
- Giving Day for non-advancement units virtual session, 11/14/24: Recording and slide deck
- Giving Day communicator toolkit walk-through, 11/20/24: Recording
- Early giving information and logistics (PID login required)
- URLs for individual funds (PID login required)
Contacts
- Erin Daugherty, marketing and communications lead, erindaugherty@vt.edu
- Kate Adkins, social media, katelino@vt.edu
- Tiffany Pruden, creative, tiffany1@vt.edu
- Susan Gill, Scalefunder website, susan83@vt.edu
- Brenna Sullivan, ambassadors, brennasullivan@vt.edu
- Haleigh Williams, stewardship, haleighwilliams@vt.edu
Messaging and tools
The list below contains tools and information you can use for talking about Giving Day with your donor audiences:
- One-pager on general Giving Day information (PDF)
- College/unit messaging planning matrix template
- Suggested text for eNewsletters, internal emails, and social media
How to be an Ambassador, while also being a Communicator
In past Giving Days, college and unit communicators would sign up as Ambassadors on the Giving Day platform and use those links in their areas' correspondence and digital promotion. This was found to be problematic for the overall strategy for the Ambassador program, which is a critical part of a successful Giving Day.
To remedy this, area communicators have custom vanity URLs provided by Marketing. These links should be used in promotional activities on behalf of their area.
If communicators wish to also participate as Ambassadors (which we highly encourage!), they should sign up as themselves and not as their area. Any Ambassador promotion should then be done as an individual — reaching out to personal networks, sharing the Ambassador link on personal social media, etc.
Plans and timelines
Marketing plan
The FY25 Giving Day Marketing Plan provides an overview of the timeline and cadence of centrally managed email, social media posts, direct mail, campus signage, and paid advertising to promote Giving Day.
Emails sent on behalf of colleges and units will use trackable URLs, and any additional promotion by the colleges and units from their owned channels (such as social media, department list serves, etc.) must use the same URLs as well to help in accurately reporting conversion performance. Please do not use UTMs autogenerated by social media posting tools (e.g., Hootsuite).
Social media plan
Social media is a vital communications and marketing tool during an all-hands campaign like Giving Day. The central social media plan contains tips and tricks for social engagement and the schedule of posts coming from the primary Virginia Tech social media accounts.
- Social media plans are due from colleges and units by Dec. 20, 2024. Submit them here.
Challenges timeline
Colleges and units compete in multiple challenges throughout the day to win bonus funds for their area. They build the gamification and excitement that is unique to Giving Day and encourage donor participation. Hourly challenges are based on gift count to help encourage multiple gifts per donor, therefore helping to boost their overall giving to Virginia Tech.
You can view the planned timeline of challenges here, which will be updated in real-time on Giving Day as gifts come in. The front-end view of challenges can be found on the Giving Day website.
Editorial roundup and CMS tagging information
One of the best ways to inspire donations is through storytelling. You should consider uplifting VT News articles that demonstrate the impact in your area as part of the overall Giving Day strategy. The central VT News team will be tracking Giving Day-tagged stories using this spreadsheet. If you have stories planned and/or stories that previously ran that help with this strategy, add them to the list.
About CMS tagging: All Giving Day-related stories will need to be tagged "giving-day." If you are uplifting a story that has been previously published in VT News, you can edit the article to add the tag, then send it to the publishing workflow. Be sure to also add it to the tracking spreadsheet. For questions, contact vtnews@vt.edu.
Stewardship
Thanking donors in a timely, personalized manner is critical to ensuring a positive donor experience and to keeping donors engaged year over year.
- For a full accounting of all Giving Day 2025 stewardship activities, please view the recording of the Oct. 15, 2024 stewardship Zoom presentation
- There are example thank you social media posts available in the creative and copy section above -- use them!
- Giving Day stewardship questions can be sent to Haleigh Williams at haleighwilliams@vt.edu
Thank you videos
This year, we are sending video messages to all donors who supported each college and top level unit. Video requirements and tips can be found on this document. College and top level unit thank you videos should be sent to donorrelations@vt.edu by Dec. 1.
Thank you cards
Please fill out this online form by Nov. 15, 2024 to request blank 2025 themed thank you cards. This document contains tips for personalizing and sending cards to donors to thank them for their Giving Day gift.
Frequently asked questions
Below is key information about the 2025 Giving Day campaign. This information is for your college/unit’s own edification, and/or the base for college/unit-developed social media posts. We have also supplied sample social media posts for us as-is or to guide the creation of your own posts.
What is Giving Day?
Giving Day is Virginia Tech’s annual fundraising event, started in 2018, where Hokies come together for 24 hours to support the area that means the most to them at the university. This year’s Giving Day campaign takes place Feb. 19-20, 2025 from noon to noon, Eastern Standard Time.
What is the purpose of Giving Day?
Giving Day plays a critical role in maintaining Virginia Tech's alumni participation growth and helps foster a culture of philanthropy. In 2025, our goal is to engage 19,000 unique donors.
How can donors make a gift on Giving Day?
Gifts can be made at givingday.vt.edu starting at noon on Feb. 19 and ending at noon on Feb. 20. Donors may also call 800-533-1144 during that time and mention they would like to give to the Giving Day campaign.
What do gifts support?
Gifts can be made to the program, organization, college, etc. that matters most to the person making a gift!
Is there a minimum gift amount required to participate in Giving Day?
Yes, you can make a gift of $5 or more to participate in Giving Day.
What are Giving Day ambassadors?
Ambassadors are Virginia Tech alumni, faculty, staff, students, family members, and friends who are passionate about Virginia Tech and supporting Hokies. Ambassadors are key to the success of Giving Day because they advocate for the area of their choice by doing peer-to-peer outreach. Gifts made through ambassadors consistently account for a significant percentage of all Giving Day gifts. Individuals who sign up as ambassadors are assigned a unique giving link to share with their networks; donors who give through ambassador links consistently account for half of all Giving Day gifts.
What is You+2?
You+2 is a challenge that is exclusive to Giving Day ambassadors. When you make a gift to the area that matters most to you, and enlist two other people to make a gift through your unique ambassador link, you’ll receive a limited-edition phone clutch slide and duffel bag.
What is the gamification of Giving Day?
Giving Day is a gamified giving campaign composed of dozens of “challenges” that pit colleges and units against each other in friendly competition for the chance to earn additional funds, thanks to gift-matching opportunities from some of our most generous donors.
Challenges are primarily based on donor count to individual areas. Challenges build on the excitement that is unique to Giving Day and encourage donor participation. Hourly challenges are based on gift count to encourage multiple gifts per donor, therefore helping to boost their overall giving to Virginia Tech. Colleges and units can promote challenges they would like to highlight on their college or unit social media channels and in emails to their faculty/staff.
If someone is having trouble making a gift, who can they call?
Anyone experiencing issues with our giving site should call 800-533-1144 to make their gift over the phone.
Who can I contact if I have questions?
If you have questions, please contact the Giving Day team at givingday@vt.edu.