The most successful program of its kind, Columbia Giving Day (October 26), is around the corner. Christina Sebastian, director for annual fund programs, and Allen Rosso, executive director for Columbia Causes, gave Campaign Countdown a preview of Columbia Giving Day 2016.

1. What’s new about Giving Day this year?

Christina: Check out our new Giving Day website, designed to make it easy to support the schools, programs, and causes that are most important to you. Individuals can have their own personalized fundraising page—designed specifically to raise dollars for the causes they care most deeply about. There’s something for everyone—demonstrating the many ways you can give through Columbia to change lives that change the world.

2. What’s happening with crowdfunding?

Allen: In addition to raising annual funds for schools and units, this year we’ll be featuring causes, including Health and Wellness, Climate Response, and Social Justice. Alumni and non-alumni alike will find projects appealing to their individual passions. For example, you can help digitize the archives of legendary radio producer Bob Fass, fund buoys tracking oceanic ice loss in Antarctica, or support the College Young Alumni Challenge. And all gifts made on the crowdfunding website count toward school and unit leaderboards.

3. What are you doing differently with data this year?

Christina: We’re collecting everything from Twitter handles to interests and affiliations—and it will be uploaded to Athena. We hope stories from the Giving Day community will be posted across social media channels and a variety of other platforms.

4. As staff members, how can we participate?

Allen: With project-based giving, there are even more opportunities for all of us to come together to help Columbia address the critical issues of our time. For more information about setting up a crowdfunding project, e-mail [email protected] by Wednesday, September 28. And, of course, join faculty, alumni, students, friends, and other staff members by giving to your favorite Columbia cause on October 26.

Christina: We hope everyone will be an active participant. Here are a few easy things to do:
Sign up to be a Giving Day Insider by texting CGD2016 to 444999 and be the first to get updates. Also, become a social ambassador and share exclusive content with your networks. Don’t forget to make a gift. We all want Columbia Giving Day 2016, our fifth, to be the best one yet.

For more on Columbia Giving Day 2016 and how you can participate, visit the Columbia Giving Day blog.

Discover three key insights learned from the CAA’s alumni feedback panel and learn how you might collaborate with Alumni Voices in year two. Read more in this exclusive blog post for Campaign Countdown.

Check out Columbia Magazine photos that will change the way you think of, and look at, scientific research. This picture, “Neuron Dance,” shows Zuckerman Institute neuroscientist Nate Sawtell’s research on how neurons assimilate sensory information.

Did you see, read, or learn anything campaign-related on your summer vacation (or staycation)? Maybe your beach read was about the brain, you witnessed the effects of climate change, or you volunteered somewhere to create a more just society. We’d love to hear from you!

Send your stories to [email protected] (pictures are a plus) by October 6. Winners will be contacted via e-mail.

Linda Ury Greenberg, director of marketing research, held two focus groups on ways we can improve Campaign Countdown and we are all ears. We are incorporating many of the suggested changes to ensure Campaign Countdown is relevant, timely, useful—and a little fun!

We did it!

Congratulations to all on raising a total of $726M in commitments in FY16—11% above FY15.

Furthermore, several units surpassed their three-year averages in total commitments by more than 50%. A special shout out to: Arts & Sciences (81%), Engineering (60%), GSAPP (56%), Journalism (116%), Mailman (85%), SIPA (64%), and School of the Arts (74%).

At Wednesday’s All-Staff Retreat, we explored the world of physics with Professor Brian Greene, reflected on leadership lessons from the late Bill Campbell, and drank the Columbia Kool-Aid with Athletics. See photos and watch videos of our core values hit songs.

Over the last five weeks, Amelia hosted Town Halls to discuss the campaign: where we are and where we’re going, what we most want to know. To follow up, we sat down with Amelia to ask her four questions…

Q: Are there particular topics that emerged from the Town Halls?

People have voiced that they want more information. There will be many ways to share material as we move toward public launch in the fall of 2017, including a new giving site and other digital platforms. We are planning to launch a campaign insiders’ app in the fall to provide up-to-date information on the campaign and the Big Ideas to staff and volunteers on their smartphones. And, of course, as I stressed at every Town Hall, Campaign Countdown will continue to provide the details.

Q: What was been most telling to you from the conversations?

Structural challenges remain. While we have become less siloed in our thinking, that’s not enough. For the new campaign to succeed, we need to encourage further collaboration and interdisciplinary work among staff, as well as among faculty, through concrete means to strengthen partnerships across traditional boundaries and reporting structures.

Q: What would you most like everyone to know?

In President Bollinger’s 2016 Commencement address he said, “[Columbia] can and should be more engaged than we are with the problems of the world, in the way that only one of the greatest universities in the world can.”

This is the biggest Big Idea for the campaign. The more specific Big Ideas are not merely themes, but reflect strategic directions underway at a University that now, more than ever, is geared for interdisciplinary work on solving the world’s problems.

Q: As an ambassador for this campaign, what do I need to know?

That Columbia is in one of the most exciting moments in our long history—more ready than ever to have an impact around the globe. As we continue to shape and define the campaign and related messaging, here are a few tools and key pieces of information to keep in mind:

• Timeline
  • Insiders’ launch: Fall 2016
  • Trustee approval of campaign dollar goal: Spring 2017
  • Public launch: Fall 2017
• Campaign Countdown (monthly newsletter) features ongoing campaign updates
• Members of the Campaign Executive Committee can be found here
• Big Idea descriptions are updated regularly and posted on Essentials here (log-in required)

Send your thoughts and suggestions to [email protected].

Interview conducted by Carolina Castro, program coordinator, Marketing and Communications. If you have comments or questions, please write to [email protected].