Launching Give BIG Day

Background

TrueSense partnered with Baylor College of Medicine to launch Give BIG Day, the institution’s inaugural 24-hour fundraising event, held September 16, 2025. The goal was straightforward but significant: Create a giving day that would not only generate immediate revenue, but also establish a repeatable, high impact tradition that the entire Baylor community could rally around year after year.

Achieving that vision started well before any channel plan or creative asset — with a brainstorming session bringing together TrueSense creative team members, including several who did not regularly work on the Baylor account to bring a fresh perspective. The goal was a concept broad enough to resonate across Baylor's full community of medical school students and alumni, faculty and staff, patients and their families, and donors, as a genuine day of shared identity, not another fundraising ask.

Challenge

First, Baylor needed buy-in from leadership and departments across the organization. Persuading stakeholders to invest time, resources, and energy into an untested initiative required deliberate relationship-building and a compelling case for participation.

The concept also had to clear a naming hurdle unique to this client. Baylor University runs its own, unrelated "Baylor Giving Day," so Baylor College of Medicine needed a name and identity distinct enough to avoid donor confusion between the two institutions.

With no prior event awareness, the campaign had to capture the attention of a wide range of audiences simultaneously, including patients, alumni, friends, and faculty. Donors had no frame of reference for what Give BIG Day was or why it deserved their attention.

Securing matching funds, coordinating volunteers, and managing cross-departmental communication added significant complexity to an already ambitious undertaking. Every element had to be built, tested, and executed without the benefit of a prior year’s experience from which to draw.

The Plan

TrueSense developed a comprehensive, multi-stage strategy designed to build momentum before the event, maximize engagement during it, and sustain the relationship with donors after it concluded.

Stage 1: Pre-Event Lead-Up
Beginning in early August, TrueSense launched an awareness push to introduce Give BIG Day to Baylor’s donor base. A direct mail postcard served as a “save the date,” supported by a full suite of digital assets driving traffic to an informational landing page. The goal at this stage was simply to make sure donors knew something big was coming.

We also developed a comprehensive toolkit for internal Baylor stakeholders, providing fonts, logos, key messages, a recommended communication timeline, email samples, social post templates, and digital signage.

Stage 2: Giving Day Execution
On September 16, TrueSense deployed an intensive, coordinated, multichannel effort across every available touchpoint. Nine unique emails, five SMS messages, paid and organic social media content, website takeovers, animated countdown timers, and a “Power Hour” challenge all blended to create urgency and drive real-time donations.

A direct mail appeal package featuring a $25,000 matching gift to drive immediate action landed in homes just before the event.

The campaign’s creative was anchored by a single, unifying theme: “One BIG day. One BIG Baylor. One BIG Vision.” Every piece of communication reinforced Baylor’s fourfold mission of Breakthrough Research, Lifesaving Patient Care, Educating the Next Generation, and Community Impact to give donors a clear, compelling reason to give.

Stage 3: Post-Event Follow-Up
After the event closed, we shifted the focus to gratitude and stewardship. Communications thanked donors for their participation and highlighted the collective impact of their generosity, laying the groundwork for continued engagement in future years.

Results

Baylor set out to raise $125,000. That goal was met within hours. The team increased the target to $250,000, which was also surpassed. The campaign was extended to 48 hours and ultimately raised $398,913 from 659 donors, reaching 319% of the original goal. This campaign generated almost the entire fiscal year pro forma in a single effort.

New-donor acquisition stood out. The campaign brought in 174 first-time donors, 28% of all participants, generating more than $50,000. For a first-time effort, that level of engagement points to strong long-term value.

  • $74,669 in Direct Mail Revenue

  • $1,906 in Revenue Per 1,000 Emails Delivered

  • $10,000 in Text Messaging Revenue

  • 175 New Donors

campaign creative from Baylor College of Medicine's Give Big Day campaign

Key Takeaways

  • Treat a giving day like a special event, not another appeal. A giving day works only when the entire organization treats it as something distinct and worth celebrating. Stakeholder buy-in at every level, from leadership to individual departments, is what separates a giving day that generates excitement from one that gets lost in the noise.

  • Build momentum before the day arrives. The pre-event phase is not optional. Awareness campaigns, save-the-date communications, and early engagement set the stage for everything that follows. Donors who know the event is coming are far more likely to participate when it arrives.

  • Multichannel execution is nonnegotiable. No single channel carried this campaign. Direct mail, email, SMS, social media, and website assets all contributed meaningfully to the final result. Reaching donors across multiple touchpoints, in the formats they prefer, is what drives the kind of broad participation that makes a giving day successful.

  • Matching gifts and challenges create urgency that converts. The $25,000 matching gift in the direct mail appeal and the “Power Hour” challenge during the giving day were conversion tools. Donors respond to time-sensitive opportunities to multiply their impact, and building those moments into the campaign architecture drives real-time action.

  • Empower your internal community to amplify the message. The toolkit that TrueSense developed for Baylor’s internal stakeholders was a force multiplier. When departments across the organization can participate without friction, the campaign’s reach extends far beyond what any single communications team can achieve on its own.

 

In 2026, Baylor College of Medicine's Day of Giving Campaign won a Gold DMAW Maxi Award and a Bronze DMFA in the multichannel category. Check out more of TrueSense Marketing's award-winning creative here.