How RGS Guildford's First-Ever Giving Day Was The Change Their Community Needed To Increase Giving

When Royal Grammar School (RGS) Guildford decided to run a Giving Day to increase awareness of their Twenty for 2020 Bursary Campaign, they knew that success wasn’t guaranteed. Up until this point, their community and events hadn’t been focused on fundraising, and so clear planning and strategy were going to be crucial to elicit change.

They decided to bring in Hubbub to tailor and support their Giving Day journey. The incredible impact their Giving Day had far exceeded expectations.

The Goal

Ultimately, RGS wanted to raise their profile across their entire community (parents, alumni and current staff) for their Twenty for 2020 Bursary Campaign. They needed a high-profile, professional event that was recognizably a ‘fundraising’ event for a community that had not, in the past, been philanthropically aware.

The Giving Day was stage two of a three-stage process to kick-start a regular giving programme. They hoped to gain new supporters, boost their prospect pipeline for their campaign, prepare the ground for their forthcoming telephone campaign and get their community excited about their long-term vision for RGS: to be needs-blind. It was also an incredible opportunity to reconnect their fantastic alumni with their institution.

The Result

The ambitions were realized and exceeded. Initially, the Giving Day was predominantly an awareness-raising exercise. To have raised over £130,000 and recruited 300 new donors exceeded expectations.

The Growth

Prior to running their Giving Day, RGS had loyal, regular donors, but the scale was on a much smaller level and over a long period of time:

• 350 regular donors (mostly parents) giving between £7pcm and £1200 per annum
• Around 50 campaign donors giving between £1509 and £19,000 per annum to their Bursary Campaign, pledged over seven years
• Between 10-30 one-off unsolicited gifts each year

The Buy-In

The response among key decision-makers and internal partners was unexpectedly positive and supportive. The School understood why they needed to raise their profile and were prepared for the necessary disruption in and around Giving Day to support that. In fact, they wanted to do more.

The Long-Term Benefit

There will be an increased understanding of the RGS Bursary Programme, what it does, why it matters, alongside their long-term ambitions for the School to be needs-blind. If there is an increased sense of ownership of this project across the whole community, that would be an incredible result. They showed that they can do something that is really precise and professional, which is not always how fundraising has been seen.

They’ve also shown why investment in fundraising matters, as this will be vital for the future of fundraising.

The Emotional Edge

Schools have an emotional edge: a personal connection that outstrips what universities have. That’s a real benefit and one schools need to play on. It’s about figuring out what makes them unique. What will alumni really remember? Use it. Make films. Tell a story that sparks a memory. Tap into that emotional connection. Those childhood memories are strong, far stronger and more important to most people than their university ones, but people need to be reminded.

In contrast, schools have very small numbers of potential supporters. If a normal Giving Day can expect a 1-2% response rate, that’s not super hopeful for schools. It was therefore even more important that their Giving Day was not just about fundraising but really utilized major gifts and donors.

The Top Tips

For others thinking of running a Giving Day, consider how you are going to resource it. This is not something you can just bring people in to do.

A partner like Hubbub is invaluable, but it takes man-hours and a real commitment to connect with your audience. The potential value is enormous and stretches much further than just the money raised, but you will have to work hard to get there.

Particularly for schools, Giving Days can play a very valuable role so long as each school understands the work, resources and investment required. It’s so important to fit a Giving Day into a wider programme of activities and take advantage of the opportunities available beyond fundraising.

The Partner

Georgie Grant Haworth had attended a Hubbub Giving Day seminar and was impressed with the knowledge and engagement of their presenters. She then met other members of the Hubbub team and felt very confident that they would work together as partners to make their first Giving Day a success.

A Giving Day is not something that just anyone can consult on. They take real understanding about how you can not only create a successful first Giving Day, but also how you can take that success and weave it into every part of your programme from there on out. Bringing in a partner like Hubbub is just as much about sustainability as it is about success.

The Extra Mile

The partnership aided the Giving Day success tremendously. The technology was spot on, but much more importantly, the team were with RGS every step of the way, properly engaged, working with them and taking them through it all step by step.

They were there to teach, guide, help them to effectively strategise, encourage them through any of the tougher times and, most importantly, celebrate the impressive end result. The team was properly invested in their success; RGS saw them as part of the team.

“I cannot praise Hubbub high enough. They were properly invested in our success; we saw them as part of the team.”

The Future

In addition to feeding into their telephone campaign, the Giving Day has given RGS excellent ammunition for their case to increase their fundraising resources and to target parents in their future fundraising. Previously, this was something the organization had been wary of.

The Giving Day response (nearly 60% of donors were parents) shows that parents are keen to be involved so they can go forward without fear. Led by the parents, they then have a greater opportunity to influence the next generation of alumni for fundraising in 20 years time.