Key Elements
- CCS facilitated visioning sessions with UF’s Office of Development and college deans to identify big idea fundraising opportunities for transformational investment.
- Additional infrastructure – including writing, research, executive support – was created to propel focused efforts around high 8-figure giving.
- UF launched a second campaign, Go Greater, with a goal of $3 billion. With this campaign, UF celebrated its first lifetime donor of over $100 million.
The Challenge
In the fall of 2012, the University of Florida (UF) celebrated the successful close of one of the largest public university campaigns in history. Over the course of seven years, the institution attracted more than $1.76 billion in private support to fund scholarships, research, campus improvements, and other programs. Following the success of this campaign, with the ambitions of doubling its fundraising production in the next five years, University leaders set their sights on the next – even bigger – philanthropic effort. Accomplishing this goal would mean managing staffing growth, capacity investments, and cultural changes.
The Solution
CCS was tapped to complete a full-scale assessment of the University of Florida’s record-breaking Florida Tomorrow campaign. To evaluate campaign performance and identify future growth opportunities, CCS conducted more than 50 face-to-face interviews with University leaders, staff, volunteers and donors, completed benchmarking research on the University’s peer and aspirational institutions, and performed rigorous analysis of its prospective donor base, staffing, campaign proposal activities, and fundraising results.
The Impact
CCS’s Florida Tomorrow Assessment provided UF with the data-driven insights and fresh perspective it needed to elevate its fundraising operation even further. With the help of CCS’s framework, UF has reimagined its regional pipeline as well as its mega giving and donor engagement strategies. This has set the stage for its next comprehensive effort, Go Greater, which publicly launched in October 2017 with a goal of $3 billion. In the painstaking process of preparing the development division for this campaign, UF closed the largest private gifts in the institution’s history, including a naming gift for its College of Engineering, and celebrated its first lifetime donor of over $100 million.
EXPLORE MORE CASE STUDIES
Alfred State College
Northeast US
Alfred State College has launched the largest campaign in its history, already raising over $33 million toward a new $40 million goal with ten $1+ million gifts and historic fundraising success.
West Virginia State University
Mid-Atlantic and Southeast US
West Virginia State University (WVSU) raised over 85% of its goal within just two years of a planned five-year campaign, and CCS supported WVSU in preparation for its public launch.