Sewanee: The University of the South. How Sewanee streamlined giving through DonateStock
At Sewanee liberal arts college, there are 13,000 acres of opportunity to observe, grow, preserve, measure, manage, and restore the many natural resources of this living laboratory called the Domain.
Financing energy efficiency projects that generate cost-savings is a natural progression in Sewanee’s quest for carbon neutrality.
Allison Cardwell, Sewanee’s Director of Gift Planning, set off on a course to make giving easy for donors in the wake of the financial challenges the pandemic has imposed. She was looking for a tool that could make it easier for people to donate stock online, a process that had previously been cumbersome for both donors and nonprofits.
“That’s what usually stops people,” she said, “so if we can streamline the process, it makes it easier for them to be able to complete their gift.”
For nonprofits such as Sewanee, working with DonateStock not only made the donation process simpler, but it also simplified reconciling and reporting.
“It makes things easier for us to match up the gift with the donor now that we’re using DonateStock,” Cardwell said. “Now the opportunity lies in educating more donors, she said, so they know that giving stock is an option. The easy-to-use donor educational materials DonateStock provides — including marketing collateral and copy for donor emails, web pages and social outreach — helps a lot.”
Sewanee has seen a great response in donations and the donor experience since their partnership. Education about donating appreciated stock has increased their charitable gifts and given them new fundraising opportunities.