Claremont, Calif. (February 8, 2017) — The Pitzer College Office of Advancement won a CASE District VII Gold Award for Best Practices in Fundraising Campaigns for its 2016 “One Week. One Pitzer.” campaign. The campaign was selected from more than 600 entries in the CASE competition.
“One Week. One Pitzer.” was a community-wide, week-long campaign created to increase awareness about philanthropy within the Pitzer community, and raise dollars and donors for the College’s fundraising priorities—specifically the Pitzer Fund. All members of the Pitzer community were included: alumni, parents, friends, trustees, faculty, staff and students.
The week-long campaign, under the leadership of Valerie Mrotek, director of annual and leadership giving, began on April 18, 2016, and incorporated many campus events, including a blood drive, a session for writing thank you notes to donors, and the annual Kohoutek Music and Arts Festival, and culminated with Alumni Weekend. The campaign utilized various solicitation strategies, including a PITZfunder campaign and video, a Board of Trustees matching gift challenge, alumni and parent micro-challenges, the Senior Class Gift Campaign and Faculty & Staff Gift Campaign, Reunion Giving and the 26-for-26 Challenge in which then-Interim President Thomas Poon completed 26 laps around Pitzer’s campus in exchange for donor support.
Two hundred and thirty-eight alumni, parents, faculty, staff and students donated a total of $148,370 to Pitzer during the one-week campaign period. The Board of Trustees contributed a matching gift of $63,000 to the Pitzer Fund, bringing the campaign total to $211,370.
The Pitzer Fund supports every student, program, field group and professor on campus. These unrestricted gifts can be used for any of the College’s current priorities, providing the flexibility to respond rapidly and take advantage of unexpected opportunities.
The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) provides networking, recognition and continuing education for more than 64,000 advancement professionals at more than 3,400 colleges, universities and independent elementary and secondary schools in more than 70 countries.
As a gold-award winner, Pitzer College will be eligible for a Grand Gold award at the CASE District VII Awards of Excellence ceremony on March 10 in San Diego, CA.
