For Giving Tuesday, one community college decided to take a fundraising approach that, it hopes, will really strike a chord.
To convey the power of giving, Harper College created an original song and music video for Giving Tuesday, a global day of philanthropy. The 40,000-student college, located outside Chicago, has a big Giving Tuesday goal: to raise $20,000 for scholarships.
The video features students with dreams of being engineers, entrepreneurs and more—but, they sing, “we need your help.” Filmed on campus, the video features students, faculty and staff—plus a cameo from Harper College President Ken Ender.
Songwriter Kevin Prchal, digital content specialist at Harper and Chicago musician, says he appreciates being able to shine a light on how the college helps transform students’ lives.
“It’s been kind of surreal to have my life outside of work intersect with my life at Harper, but I really think ‘Believe’ captures the heart of this place,” says Prchal. “It’s a snapshot of what we’re all about and what we’re doing here.”
Giving Tuesday, this year on Nov. 28, 2017, falls on the Tuesday after the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. Since its inception in 2012, the day of giving has grown significantly: In 2016, Giving Tuesday drew a record $168 million in charitable donations, a 44 percent increase from 2015.
Is your institution taking a creative approach to Giving Tuesday? Share it in the comments.
CASE Blog 
The University of Montana Foundation has found great success with GivingTuesday. This year we began with sending emails leading up to the event and then on the day of providing information and opportunities to give… We utilized the University and Foundation social media channels (Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter) for a variety of purposes and that resulted in ~30,000 social media impressions… Our board was very informed and excited about Giving Tuesday, and many of them directed their year-end giving specifically for that day…We placed collateral pieces throughout campus – and the communication teams of each unit helped promote the event…We also had several donors willing to incentivize giving by providing a match day-of.
Ultimately Resulting in beating our goal of $150,000, raising over $180,000.