A Strong Fundraising Foundation Needed a More Connected Giving Day 

Sasha Russell, director of annual giving, stewardship, and family engagement at Cheshire Academy, leads Cheshire Gives with support from the academy’s advancement and marketing teams. The campaign begins at 6 p.m. and runs until 11:54 p.m. the following day, a 1,794-minute format inspired by the academy’s founding year. 

The team relies on Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge NXT for constituent data and fundraising insights. But its previous alumni engagement platform didn’t provide the connection the team wanted between Giving Day activity and Raiser’s Edge NXT. Cheshire Academy wanted to bring those pieces closer together so the team could better understand which donor groups were participating and where additional outreach could make a difference. 

“We really wanted more of that solid integration with Raiser’s Edge NXT,” Russell said. “We wanted to start streamlining all of our data.” 

Gifts submitted through Almabase flowed into Raiser’s Edge NXT, allowing the team to use its established constituent data and reporting structure to monitor the campaign and respond to requests for updates. 

Donor Choice Turned Affinity into Participation 

Cheshire Academy designed Cheshire Gives around the communities and causes its supporters already cared about, turning donor affinity into participation. With a music theme tying the campaign together, the academy created targeted challenges for young alumni, first-year parents, past faculty and staff, and town scholars connected to its local sponsorship program. Each challenge exceeded its participation goal: The Gold Record Challenge reached 30 donors against a goal of 20, the Rising Stars Challenge reached 41 against a goal of 25, and the Employee Encore Challenge reached 33 against a goal of 20. 

Donors could direct their gifts to schoolwide priorities, including financial aid, academics, athletics, the arts, faculty development, student life, and greatest needs, as well as designated athletic teams. That flexibility reflected what the academy was hearing from supporters. “People want to know what their impact is,” Russell said. 

Donors ultimately contributed across 26 funds, directing budget-relieving support to priorities throughout the school. The breadth of participation exceeded the team’s expectations. “We weren’t sure if every fund was going to get a gift,” Russell said, “and every single fund got a gift. Even e-sports, which started last year.” 

Connected Campaign Data Helped the Team Decide What to Do Next 

As Cheshire Gives unfolded, connected campaign activity and constituent data helped the advancement team see which audiences were responding and where momentum had slowed. The team used those insights to adjust outreach and celebrate donor groups as they reached campaign milestones. The visibility gave the team a stronger basis for making campaign decisions. 

“It allowed us to really experiment and make decisions based on data versus just, I feel like it should be this or I feel like it should be that,” Russell said. 

Geographic data also showed concentrations of support in Connecticut, New England, and New York. Those insights prompted the team to consider future opportunities to engage West Coast donors, including a possible regional challenge. 

Almabase complemented the academy’s Raiser’s Edge NXT foundation by supporting matching challenges and time-based power hours designed to encourage participation during slower periods. Together, the solutions helped Cheshire Academy connect the donor-facing campaign experience with the data its advancement team used to understand campaign performance. 

Cheshire Academy Is Building on What Worked 

With its first Blackbaud and Almabase-supported Giving Day complete, Cheshire Academy plans to build on the campaign by expanding its use of leaderboards, email workflows, and subpages. These tools could make affinity-based giving easier to share while encouraging friendly competition among donor groups. 

The academy is also exploring Blackbaud Development Agent as it considers new ways to engage alumni at scale. For Cheshire Academy, the next step is to build on the connected data and campaign insights already supporting its fundraising strategy. 

Today, Cheshire Academy has a Giving Day model it can continue to strengthen by connecting donor affinity with targeted engagement, flexible giving opportunities, and timely campaign insights. With more than $222,000 raised, 354 donors engaged, 72 new donors acquired, and parent donor participation up 91% year over year, Cheshire Gives demonstrated what can happen when supporters have more ways to participate in the areas and communities they care about.