A Year in Review: A Look Back at 2023 for the GiveCampus Community

As we embark on a new year, let’s take a moment to reflect on all that GiveCampus and its growing Partner community has accomplished in 2023. 

This last year marked the 9th year GiveCampus helped empower schools to raise money and ultimately expand access to education. Our platform was designed specifically with this mission in mind, serving educational fundraisers exclusively. We’ve evolved a lot over the last few years, but as we approach a decade in business our core values remain the same. We’re committed to providing the solutions and resources schools need to raise more money from more donors with less effort.

Let’s take a quick look at what the GiveCampus community achieved in 2023. 

Fundraising Achievements

GiveCampus facilitated more than $767 million in philanthropic giving in 2023—a 19% increase from the previous year. This highlights the immense success of the campaigns and other fundraising efforts of our Partners. We saw over 1.5 million unique donations last year, showing the widespread engagement of constituents across Partner schools. GivingTuesday 2023 alone saw 78,000 unique donors make over 83,000 gifts on the GiveCampus platform.

While GiveCampus has expanded our solutions over the years, online giving and social fundraising have always been at the forefront of how Partners leverage our platform. GC Social Fundraising hosted just shy of 5,000 unique campaigns in 2023 that generated at least one donation and Partners created more than 4,000 unique Giving Forms.

Community Growth

Last year was a big year of growth—in more ways than one. A pivotal moment in the GiveCampus story unfolded in June with the acquisition of Community Funded—a leading provider of giving day and crowdfunding technology. This union fortified our position in the industry and helped expand the reach of social fundraising to even more schools and their causes. 

We also welcomed 24 talented new GiveCampers to the team who will help generate growth and innovation across their various departments. Beyond our GiveCampus team, we were thrilled to bring 269 new Partner schools into the GiveCampus community—from small but mighty fundraising shops to extensive advancement departments that span multiple institutions. 

Platform Evolution 

The GiveCampus platform itself underwent an evolution over the last year, with the launch of five new solutions. Our product and engineering teams were also able to complete a dozen major feature updates and over 500 smaller—but impactful—feature improvements. The majority of these updates were based on direct feedback from our users about what was most important to them. 

We kicked off the year with the introduction of GC Texting and GC Events, making what were formerly the two most common Partner solution requests, a reality. GC Texting enables schools and their volunteers to send outbound text message solicitations directly from the GiveCampus platform—helping streamline workflows and foster volunteer engagement.

We built GC Events to provide an event registration and ticketing solution to address the unique needs of educational fundraisers. It enables schools to easily create donor-centric events that put giving opportunities front and center. GC Events Pro—a more robust version of this solution—was launched in June to provide additional capabilities for schools that host more complex events with multiple days, participation levels, and tracks.

This last fall, artificial intelligence (AI) took center stage at GiveCampus with the debut of a variety of free AI-powered utilities for fundraisers. Partner schools and non-partners alike were invited to incorporate generative AI into their daily tasks, whether they were using Donor Outreach AI to help craft compelling outreach or employing Contact Reports AI to generate polished contact reports in just minutes. These two new utilities provided a glimpse into our commitment at GiveCampus to continue finding ways to leverage AI to simplify workflows, and empower fundraisers to spend their time on more important work.

Looking Ahead 

With so much to be proud of over this last year, GiveCampus is poised for another year of growth and innovation in 2024. One standout achievement already underway is the development of GC Gift Officer—an AI-powered solution built by and for major gift officers and their managers. GiveCampus developed GC Gift Officer last year alongside our design Partners and continues to carefully craft and refine our latest solution using the invaluable input these schools provide daily. This collaborative approach not only ensures GC Gift Officer meets the unique needs of frontline fundraisers but also highlights our continued commitment to working hand-in-hand with the community we serve. Building on the momentum of 2023, we’re excited to fully roll out GC Gift Officer to all fundraisers in the new year. 

In addition to this exciting launch, GiveCampus remains dedicated to building and improving a comprehensive, fully integrated platform for fundraisers. Our commitment extends beyond merely meeting the needs of fundraisers today. We’re rapidly developing technology that anticipates the needs of fundraisers tomorrow. Over the next year, we look forward to continuing to find ways to empower educational fundraisers to focus on what matters most—making a lasting positive impact on the communities they serve. Happy New Year and happy fundraising!