How Gordon College’s Peer-to-Peer Fundraiser Raised $40k Above Its Stretch Goal

Mission

To equip students with the skills to thrive in an uncertain and changing world and to prepare young Christians to make a difference with hope and confidence.

Challenge

Finding a peer-to-peer fundraising tool that supports Gordon College’s yearly student-athlete fundraising competition

Solution

Classy’s peer-to-peer fundraising solution offered all of the tools the student athletes needed to succeed

“It’s a collaborative effort between athletics and Advancement. So we all help to get the student-athletes set up with their Classy page and give them all the tools to succeed for their individual fundraisers.”

– Joe Iriana, Associate Director of Advancement Data Services

Clash of the Tartans 2022 Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Results:

$40k

raised above the stretch goal

$97.90

average donation size

2,538

transactions on Classy

Gordon College is a religiously-affiliated liberal arts school with a sprawling 485-acre campus outside of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1889 as a missionary training school, Gordon now has over 1,300 undergraduate students, and over 400 graduate students, and offers 33 majors.

Finding the Best Peer-to-Peer Tool

The Gordon Advancement team was searching for the right tool to facilitate its peer-to-peer programs, and one non-negotiable criterion was compatibility with multiple payment options.

In early 2022, Classy was part of a Request for Proposal (RFP) for Gordon College, meaning Gordon College accepted a proposal from Classy, among other fundraising platforms, outlining how its comprehensive toolset would best support their goals.

In the end, Classy won out with its unparalleled peer-to-peer fundraising tool and Classy Pay payment solution.

A Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Competition

In 2017, Gordon first challenged its athletic teams to a peer-to-peer fundraising competition named Clash of the Tartans—a play on the Scottish tartan and “Clash of the Titans”. Since then it has grown and evolved into a tradition, with every sporting team involved in the fundraising extravaganza. Clash continues to be the main peer-to-peer fundraiser for the college more than six years after its inception.

For a group of people who are by nature competitive, we wanted to take advantage of that competitiveness, with each team working toward a mutually beneficial goal.
Joe Iriana
Associate Director of Advancement Data Services

In essence, Clash is a competitive fundraising event amongst or within athletic teams to see who can fundraise the most. Each sport creates a team page, and then the student-athletes create their own Classy peer-to-peer fundraising pages. The coaches are heavily involved in motivating their teams and making sure each student-athlete has the necessary resources to set up their fundraising page.

Apart from raising money throughout the 30-hour-long competition, students can also compete for smaller awards like the best social media post or the most $5 donations during power hour.

Over the course of a few hours during the pinnacle of Clash, all student-athlete fundraisers gather in the athletics center where they call, text, and email every potential donor in their networks.

2022 Clash Fundraising Results

Last year’s Clash took place from October 27-28. Here are some of the incredibly impressive results:

17 teams were formed, with every sporting team getting involved
271 students created individual fundraising pages on Classy
The average number of gifts per page was 8.2
The average donation amount was $97.90
There were 2,538 transactions on Classy

In the end, $240k was raised, which was $40k above the stretch goal. All funds raised go directly back into athletics.

New Year, New Clash, New Targets

The kickoff for this year’s Clash will start with a brainstorming session sometime over the summer. Once everyone is back on campus, each individual sports team will start plotting its fundraising strategy.

Donations typically start trickling in during the Homecoming celebration, which falls just before Clash. This early momentum is critical knowing that the campaign’s fundraising goal increases each year and everyone is set on meeting (or surpassing) it.

To continue growing its fundraising strategy, the Gordon Advancement team is also looking to implement more donation opportunities on the Gordon College website. Embedded donation forms are another Classy feature their team is considering implementing to increase their overall conversion rate and make the donation process faster and easier for supporters.