Giving Day Leaders Sparking Inspiration
The GiveGab team celebrated the inaugural Giving Day Spark Awards during the kick-off to the 2021 Giving Day Leaders Forum. Through a virtual award ceremony, six deserving partners were recognized for their commitment to their communities.
As the only Giving Day awards in the country, the Giving Day Spark Awards celebrate hardworking and innovative leaders, sparking community engagement and fundraising growth.
Recognized this year for their incredible efforts, we want to congratulate all our Giving Day Spark Awardees:
The Spark Award
The Amazing Give was honored with The Spark Award for sparking outstanding community engagement during their Giving Day. Hosted by the Community Foundation of North Central Florida, the Amazing Give team, led by Lesley Banis, continuously grows community buy-in year-over-year by training participating organizations, building an engaging prize pool, and pioneering new GiveGab features.
New Face of Giving Days
401Gives was nominated as the New Face of Giving Days for being an emerging leader in this space. In 2019, Jenn Remmes of the United Way of Rhode Island began preparing her team and community for their first Giving Day a full year in advance. When COVID struck in 2020, 401Gives was one of the first Giving Days to run during the height of the pandemic. This Giving Day resulted in Rhode Island nonprofits successfully receiving over $1.3 million in critical funding. Despite being a new Giving Day, Jenn helped other seasoned Giving Day leaders learn how to run their online fundraisers in the midst of COVID, setting up 401Gives to be a leader from the very beginning.
Renaissance Leader
The Founders Day Giving Challenge was recognized as the Renaissance Leader for being a highly effective and efficient Giving Day run with limited resources. Led by the incredible Karalee Harhaji of the Catholic University of America, she brings an attentive and energetic attitude to the table. She leads not just one, but two highly successful Giving Days per year. Her decisive personality and growth mindset helps her university achieve their fundraising goals year-after-year.
Spirit of Innovation
Give N Day received the Spirit of Innovation award for pushing the limits of their Giving Day and inspiring creativity. Nicholls State University is always drumming up exciting new strategies to engage donors during Give N Day. Each year they push themselves and the GiveGab team to work together to improve Giving Days of all kinds by recommending core platform updates. During their most recent Giving Day, the Nicholls State team created an in-person “peeling lucky” prize, which successfully engaged their students during an otherwise virtual fundraiser.
Partner’s Choice
Missoula Gives and CofC Day were nominated by their Giving Day peers for the Partner’s Choice award. Always happy to problem solve and strategize with other Giving Day leaders, Nikki Robb from Missoula Community Foundation and the College of Charleston team with CofC Day were nominated for the Partner’s Choice award by their peers. Their energetic presence and leadership has Giving Day partners in both the education and nonprofit space calling to learn from their successes.
Our industry-leading Giving Day platform wouldn’t be what it is today without some of the brightest minds and most forward-thinking fundraisers who host their Giving Day events alongside us.
Creativity and tenacity allowed development and marketing professionals to adopt and grow virtual engagement efforts during a challenging year, defined by a global pandemic. Our bold and determined partners inspired the Giving Day Spark Awards, as we sought to recognize their efforts and success.
Learn more about our Giving Day Spark Award winners:
- Check out the Amazing Give’s year-over-year growth in GiveGab’s Giving Day Data Report
- Read the 401Gives Deep Dive Report to learn about their Giving Day leadership during the pandemic
- Listen to the team from Give N Day talk about student participation in a recent podcast episode of Giving & Gabbing
- Hear from Michelle at the College of Charleston as she discusses Achieving Giving Day Buy-In from your Campus Network in a recent interview on the Giving & Gabbing podcast
- Learn more about how Missoula Gives implements live streaming into their Giving Day strategy with our Bee-hind the Scenes blog
