Last month, the volunteer leaders of Lives That Speak: The Campaign for Haverford issued a challenge to the entire Haverford community: when 1,500 donors made a gift to Haverford during a 1,833-minute window (chosen in honor of the year the College was founded), they would collectively donate $500,000 themselves.

Lives That Speak: The 1,833-Minute Challenge began at noon Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday, February 23. Less than 24 hours later, the 1,500 donor goal had been met, and the $500,000 given. But, there were still six-and-a-half hours to go, so a new goal—1,833 donors—was set. And then that number was exceeded, too. By the end of the Challenge, at 6:33 p.m. on the 24th of February, 2,280 alumni, parents, faculty, staff, students, and friends had given more than $792,000.

The majority of donors made their gifts online, via a special website that tracked gifts and class participation in real time. Offline gifts, received by telephone or at one of three tables set up on campus, were added manually to the site in batches. “Right out of the gate, gifts started coming in at a faster pace than we anticipated,” said Director of Annual Giving Craig Waltman. “It didn’t really slow down until close to midnight on the first day.” But, this being a college campus, a wave of offline gifts came in overnight thanks to the “Midnight Dessert” event that kicked off the annual Senior Class Gift campaign. Fifty percent of seniors made a gift during the Challenge, toward a class goal of 75% by commencement. Underclassmen also rose to the occasion, most giving to the College for the very first time. In total, 17% of donors during the Challenge were students.

Non-alumni parents of current students accounted for just over 10% of all donors. More than a third of parents had never given before or had not made a gift in the past year or longer. “Although our budget is tight, we wanted to respond in some way,” Kay Brizzolara P’18 wrote to the College when she made a gift. “Haverford is the soil in which our daughter has bloomed. We'd like to do our part, however small, to care for that soil which will nurture others.” Nearly half of parents and alumni were already donors this year but made second gifts in support of the Challenge.

Alumni participation overall was higher than anticipated across all decades. Scarlet Sages President Dan Fascione ’53 said he “was gratified by the extent to which our older alums responded to this unique campaign challenge.” In addition to making gifts, alums took to social media to spread the word using the #LivesThatSpeak1833 hashtag, some of them pledging to match gifts from their classmates to encourage them to give. Katherine Dopulos ’13 generated 22 gifts through peer-to-peer advocacy because, she says, “Haverford College is what it is because of donors before me, and I want to continue to help it to improve for those who come after me. I opted to match gifts because I felt it was an effective way to help young alums understand how a small gift can make a big impact.”

As with parents, many alumni reactivated their support after some period of time. “We had donors who hadn’t given in a year, which we expected, but we also had donors who hadn’t given in more than a decade. That was really heartening to see,” said Waltman. “Of course, now the real work begins of ensuring that we keep all donors engaged and eager to support the mission of the College, whether they are members of the Sharpless Society [those who have given for five for more consecutive years] or freshmen students.”

—Emily Weisgrau