In the fall of 2015, the 125th birthday of Meredith College was approaching. Conversations about how to celebrate were swirling around Johnson Hall and down Main Campus Drive to the Mae Grimmer Alumnae House, where the Meredith Fund Office and the Office of Alumnae Relations are located.

“We knew we wanted to do something special, but we weren’t quite sure what that was,” said Erin Cleghorn, ʼ18 MBA, the former director of the Meredith Fund and current director of fundraising research. 

At a Board of Trustees meeting, Fran Teeter, ʼ83, a board member, asked Cleghorn to investigate the successful Day of Giving efforts at Elon University and Davidson College. “I went to meet with fundraisers at those institutions and just thought it would be the perfect thing for us to do,” said Cleghorn. “A great way to rally our alumnae and get them really excited about giving back to the College in honor of our 125th birthday.”

On Meredith’s first Giving Day, a goal of raising $125,000 was set. Cleghorn and her staff had no idea that 10 years later, the College would be raising over 10 times that original goal. The amount raised has grown each year, as have the competitions, the memories, and the fun. The excitement this day brings for the College and alumnae is immeasurable.  

At the end of each Giving Day, Meredith’s students and the campus community benefit from the dollars raised. These funds are designated to initiatives like Meredith’s Greatest Needs, scholarships, grounds, athletics, study abroad … the list goes on and on.

A Team Effort

From the first Giving Day to now, preparation for a successful Giving Day starts almost nine months in advance. The Meredith Fund office gathers a group to figure out how to energize alumnae/i to give back to Meredith and create a sense of pride for their alma mater. In the first year, Cleghorn gathered the Meredith Fund, Alumnae Relations, Advancement Services, and the Marketing teams to start strategizing. 

“What you have to remember, too, is 2016 was also an Alice in Wonderland year, and so we thought that we might bring in the rabbit and have a fun thing with the clock and time, which is where we came up with Make It Count for Meredith. We thought originally we would have the rabbit involved and have him running around with his clock and his timepiece. But great ideas don’t always come to fruition,” said Cleghorn.

Cleghorn wanted to set the goal at $25,000 for Meredith’s 125th birthday, but the Meredith Fund Advisory Board knew people who loved Meredith College could do better than that, so they asked for the goal to be $125,000.

Everyone in the Office of Institutional Advancement panicked!

So, let’s go back even further. Just five years before, the Meredith Fund was not even close to raising $1 million in a year. The thought of raising $125,000 in 24 hours seemed unachievable. 

“In my time at Meredith, I have watched the culture of philanthropy truly change,” said Lennie Barton, vice president of institutional advancement. “Our alumnae and donors understand that their gifts make an immediate impact, and through the years, we have seen how alumnae and donors want to give back. Giving Day has provided them a day to rally together and make a goal, meet a challenge, and give to a place that was important to them for four years and remains an investment to share with future students.”

Reflecting on the First Goal

By 11 a.m. on February 23, 2016, the College had exceeded the $125,000 goal, proving to Cleghorn and her team that Meredith alumnae love a good competition. 

“President Jo Allen came to my office and said, ‘I think we need to double it.’ The entire office went into another panic, but not only did we double the goal and make it, but we exceeded that second goal that year, raising $283,052,” said Cleghorn.

That accomplishment was the start of Make It Count for Meredith Giving Day, and it was a wonderful way to celebrate Meredith’s 125th birthday. 

“Hitting the $125,000 goal so early was such a powerful statement of support that I think we were all a bit giddy,” said Jo Allen, ’80, Meredith’s president for the first nine years of Giving Day. “What mattered to me was that everybody should have a chance to participate. So doubling the goal seemed perfectly reasonable to me, especially since so many people didn’t read non-work-related email and social media until they got home from work.”

The $250,000 goal was raised by 8 p.m. that evening. 

“I knew the excitement and generosity were just beginning. People still wanted to help – to be part of this wonderful event to Make It Count for Meredith. So hitting our goals was not only doable, it was inevitable,” said Allen.

Everyone Works Together

Not only do alumnae within classes work together to make this day a success year after year, but the offices of Institutional Advancement and Marketing work behind the scenes each year to strategize, create, and implement all that you see on Giving Day. Emily Parker, director of advancement and strategic communications, is the liaison between the teams and keeps everyone on track, creating and implementing a marketing plan for the day.

It starts with the design. Each year has a distinct look created by designers in the Marketing Department. For the past five years, Katie Bryant, ʼ07, assistant director of visual communications, has led this effort, and for months, the Meredith Fund and Marketing teams have refined the look before revealing it to alumnae and donors on a postcard they receive in the mail. The design is also used for t-shirts, social media graphics, giveaways, thank you cards, videos, and other materials.

The Giving Day process has grown each year. What started as an event celebrated only on Facebook and Meredith’s website has expanded to coverage on Instagram and LinkedIn, and there are more posts, videos, and pictures than there were in 2016. Again, that is because alumnae are so involved and invested in Giving Day. They submit a lot of photos and videos to share on the Meredith social media accounts.

Many photos and videos are taken in advance of Giving Day by Charlotte McKinney, assistant director of visual communication-multimedia. McKinney has seen how the event has grown visually. In the first year, she took almost every photo and video for social media, and back then, there was no Facebook Live. Videos had to be filmed and edited before they were posted on Facebook. Also, the creation of the promotional video for the day has been led by McKinney each year with input from the Meredith Fund staff. 

The Marketing staff coordinates and writes all the social media posts for the day and collaborates with the Meredith Fund to schedule the day’s challenges. These challenges have been a great way to keep the momentum going throughout the day. This year was the first year the College advertised what time challenges would occur and what fund the challenge donor was supporting. Of course, when donors give during those challenge times they can designate their gifts to whatever they wish. It is a win-win for everyone involved. 

“Many of our Giving Day donors become challenge donors because they have been a part of past Giving Days and want to ignite the generosity and participation of other donors,” said Jean Gambrill, ʼ19 MBA, current director of the Meredith Fund. “Giving Day challenges and matches highlight the many ways our donors support Meredith, and they create fun and impactful giving opportunities to make it the best day possible for Meredith.”

In 2024, Marketing hired Anna Blount to serve as its first social media strategist and content producer. Her expertise led to a reimagining of Giving Day’s social media strategy. The College’s social media channels saw a jump this year in all of the analytics. There were 249,212 views with over 5,000 interactions from February 25-27. Published content included 36 videos, 78 photos, 26 stories, and five Facebook Lives.

How Giving Day Has Grown

After doubling the goal in 2016, the thought was how the College was going to top this. What was the Meredith Fund going to do when Giving Day did not fall on a milestone birthday? The concept of honoring a strong woman emerged. The Beyond Strong capital campaign was in full swing, and the Going Strong brand that Marketing created had really spoken to alumnae, and they were on board. 

“We wanted to capitalize on the strong brand. Meredith is full of strong women, and we wanted to have a chance for people to make their gifts in honor of strong women who had supported them,” said Cleghorn.

The theme has continued through the last nine years. 

Donors give in honor of former roommates, friends, mothers, daughters, aunts, faculty, staff, and people who have made an impact on their lives. It is wonderful to see the people who post on social media sharing who they honored with a Giving Day sign or a photo. The tributes on Giving Day drive a lot of the gifts on that day. Donors want to honor those they care about.

The growth of Giving Day has been a steady rise. Each year, the College has met the goal, so the next year the goal is raised. Year after year, alumnae and donors show they are up for the challenge. The opportunity to give to the fund that is most important to them and for them to know that their gift is being used for the betterment of the students gives donors the confidence to contribute year after year.

Meredith alumnae have also proven they love a competition on Giving Day.

“It’s fun and in good spirit to see the classes compete for most donors or most dollars raised as well as our Odd and Even alumnae to compete for most donors for the day,” said Hilary Allen,  ʼ01, director of alumnae relations. “Similarly, it is wonderful to see classes take part in class challenges or make their gifts during one of their classmates’ individual class challenges. Meredith alumnae have such a sense of pride and ownership in their alma mater, and this is evidenced by the overwhelming support on our Day of Giving.”