Consider Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pa. The small liberal arts school of approximately 1,600 students boosted the percentage of alumni who give from 29 percent in 2009 to 31 percent this year. A two-minute, tongue-in-cheek video called "I Give a Latte" undoubtedly helped in the fundraising effort. The video, which proposes that each graduate donate the cost of a cup of coffee ($5) to the school, shows Juniata president Thomas R. Kepple Jr. slowly being buried under a mountain of coffee cups. The "ask" (philanthropy-speak for the request for a donation) comes at the end of the video when provost Jim Lakso pops his head into the frame and says, "People, it was just a metaphor."
The "Latte" video was released just before the end of fiscal year 2010. In the four days that followed, Juniata received $84,000 in gifts, according to Gabriel Welsch, vice president of advancement and marketing. "We can attribute with confidence $25,000 or $26,000 of that to the video," he says. Impressive numbers, he adds, considering the college's overall annual giving hovers around $1 million.
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