Advocates & Champions

Crowdfunding is driven as much by social media strategy as it is by fundraising, and Advocates and Champions are an essential part of a campaign’s success. These can be faculty, staff, students, alumni, or donors who are already engaged either through financial support (Champions) or via social media channels (Advocates). By collaborating with your marketing colleagues and connecting with these key stakeholders before your campaign launches, you can secure matching and challenge gifts and plan a social media strategy that will set you up for success! 

Advocates can help by sending personal emails or texts on your behalf, sharing your social media posts to their own accounts, or even making their own posts to share on social media. They serve as a “grassroots” voice asking others to join the cause and expand your reach.  

Champions position your campaign for success by providing matching or challenge gifts to encourage additional gifts from your community. Before the campaign begins, aim to lock in 2-3 champions towards a participation goal, or 25-50% of a monetary goal via your champions. OVCIA is also available to reach out to potential Champions on your behalf. 

Timeline 

• By December 
  • Identify potential Advocates and Champions prior to submitting your campaign 
  • Discuss on your team who is responsible for creating social media copy (MarCom?), who will contact Advocates (SDR?), and who will make asks of Champions (MGO?) 
• January 
  • If requested, meet with OVCIA to discuss Champion match/challenge asks 
• February 
  • Reach out to Advocates 
    • Provide info on campaign, social media copy, images, etc. 
  • Reach out to Champions 
    • Provide info on campaign, ask for match/challenge gifts 

Important Links

Advocates: Social Media Engagement  

Campaign Advocates allow you to expand your reach beyond your existing social media followers and email lists. By sharing the impact Illinois has had on their lives and why they give, Advocates also let your story be told in different ways and by different voices. 

You can support your advocates by providing social media copy and resources, as well as by sharing the strategy guide webpage.

Champions: Matching & Challenge Gifts 

Matching and challenge gifts from campaign Champions are a great way to build excitement around your campaign and to get even more donors to give. Our crowdfunding platform makes it easy for your donors to set up their own gifts to have an even greater impact as a match or challenge. We encourage units to secure 2-3 champions for campaigns with a participation goal—or 25-50% of monetary goals—via matching/challenge gifts before Orange & Blue Days begin. 

You should have an idea of who your Champions might be before submitting your project for inclusion in Orange & Blue Days. Look for donors who are consistently engaged at the leadership annual giving or major giving level. In January and February, plan to reach out personally to these donors to make an ask in support of Orange & Blue Days via a match or challenge. This is a great opportunity to reinforce how important their support is and how much we appreciate their impact on our community! 

OVCIA is also available to contact potential Champions on your behalf during the months leading up to Orange & Blue Days. Let us know in your submission if this is support you’d like to use, and we’ll set up a meeting in January to learn more about your campaign and donors.   

Online Setup 

Donors may set up matching or challenge gifts directly through your crowdfunding campaign page.  

Once they click on one of the buttons, the Give Campus platform will walk them through the steps to set up their match or challenge. For more information, please view: Matches and Challenges – Basic Overview from Give Campus.docx 

Offline Setup

If a donor wants to set up a match or challenge gift, but doesn’t want to go through the process online, you can reach out to Rachel Hull rhull3@illinois.edu and to have it set up as an offline match or challenge.  

Please provide the following information:  

• Matching Gift: 
  • Total $ amount donor will match 
  • Structure:
    • [Donor Name] will give $___ per donor or per dollar.  
  • Yes/No: If the match is not completely met, donor will still give the full amount.  
  • Match will apply to: (choose 1) 
    • All donors for Orange and Blue Week 2025 
    • Donors for this specific fund designation: 
    • Donors with this specific affiliation:  
  • Matching gift dollars will be applied to: (choose 1) 
    • A single designation:  
    • Follow the fund designation of each triggering donation 
  • Match Title (limit 60 characters) 
    • Optional: Description (limit 300 characters) 
  • Donor Information:
    • Name  
    • Yes/No: Hide donor name from lists and leaderboards? 
    • Donor email address 
    • Country 
    • Zip code (used for donor map data) 
  • Optional: Affiliation
    • Marching Illini Section Challenge! 

• Challenge Gift: 
  • Challenge gift $ amount: 
  • Structure:
    • [Donor Name] will give $___  if the campaign gets another ___ Donors or Dollars.  
    • Yes/No: If the match is not completely met, donor will still give the full amount.  
  • Challenge will apply to: (choose 1) 
    • All donors for Orange and Blue Week 2025 
    • Donors for this specific fund designation: 
    • Donors with this specific affiliation:  
  • Challenge gift will be designated to this fund:  
  • Challenge Title (limit 60 characters) 
    • Optional: Description (limit 300 characters) 
  • Donor Information:
    • Name  
    • Yes/No: Hide donor name from lists and leaderboards? 
    • Donor email address 
    • Country 
    • Zip code (used for donor map data) 
  • Optional: Affiliation
    • Marching Illini Section Challenge!

Questions?

Reach out to OVCIA’s Associate Director of Strategic Engagement, Rachel Hull, at rhull3@illinois.edu.