How UNF Beat Its Giving Day Donor Target by 1,134 Donors

Q: How did UNF use texting on Giving Day?

UNF’s Annual Giving team uploaded more than 30 segmented lists, each with a message tailored to the donor’s giving history and college or program affiliation, and sent more than 40,000 texts. It finished with 5,884 donors against a target of 4,750.

Q: How did UNF keep opt-outs low?

By staying disciplined about who gets which message. On Giving Day, UNF sent more than 40,000 texts and saw fewer than 1,000 opt-outs. Olivia Newsome says that when a message is specific to someone, they know you’re paying attention.

Q: Does donor engagement texting drive larger gifts?

At UNF, nearly half of the Giving Day gifts tracked through text links were $100 or more.

Q: Can advancement teams send both mass texts and one-off messages?

Yes. UNF’s staff can text a single constituent without building a list or campaign first, and run a 40,000-text Giving Day from the same platform.

Q: How do Alumni Engagement and Athletics fit in?

UNF gave Alumni Engagement and Athletics their own inboxes, so each audience hears from a consistent, recognizable number while every team follows shared messaging standards.

University advancement team members working at laptops in a collaborative office setting

TL;DR

Donors give, and stay subscribed, when a text is clearly about the thing they care about. The University of North Florida’s Annual Giving team turned Mongoose from a lightly used tool into a segmented, year-round donor engagement texting program. For Giving Day it built more than 30 audience lists with tailored messages, sent more than 40,000 texts, and finished with 5,884 donors against a target of 4,750, with fewer than 1,000 opt-outs. Nearly half of text-tracked gifts were $100 or more.

5,884 donors, 1,134 over target
Nearly half of text gifts $100+
Under 1,000 opt-outs on 40,000+ texts
30+ segmented Giving Day lists

Download the Full Case Study

Download

On its most recent Giving Day, the University of North Florida’s Annual Giving team sent more than 40,000 texts, and no one got a generic message. Donors who had given to a specific college heard about that college. UNF finished with 5,884 donors against a target of 4,750, its strongest Giving Day yet.

“I was not sending the same message to everyone. If someone previously donated to Giving Day for a specific college, they received messaging for that college. I love that we can truly personalize messages with Mongoose.”

Jean Lipsky, Assistant Director for Annual Giving, University of North Florida

UNF, a public university in Jacksonville, Florida, already had Mongoose in place, but it was lightly used. Today it supports Annual Giving, Alumni Engagement, Athletics, and other campus partners, on Giving Day and all year.

Why Relevance Was the Real Challenge

Mongoose gave the Annual Giving team a strong foundation, and there was room to use it more consistently and strategically. When Jean Lipsky took responsibility for the platform, the question wasn’t how to reach more people. It was how to reach tens of thousands of constituents in ways that felt personal, while protecting response rates and long-term relationships.

How UNF Built Audience-First Donor Engagement Texting

The team built every campaign around the audience. Messages were tailored to each constituent’s interests, giving history, and college or program affiliation. For Giving Day, that meant uploading more than 30 segmented lists, each with its own message.

Smart Messages gave the team built-in performance insight and kept two-way conversations manageable without overwhelming staff. UNF also gave Alumni Engagement and Athletics their own inboxes, so each audience hears from a consistent, recognizable number while every team follows shared messaging standards.

A Record-Breaking Giving Day

UNF set a target of 4,750 donors and finished with 5,884, more than 1,000 over. Among gifts tracked directly through text links, nearly half were $100 or more.

“The results exceeded our expectations. Among the gifts we were able to track through text, nearly half were $100 or more, demonstrating that thoughtful, targeted text outreach can drive both participation and meaningful giving.”

Olivia Newsome, Director for Annual Giving, University of North Florida

Segmentation That Protects Relationships

Staying disciplined about who gets which message, and why, kept opt-outs low. On Giving Day, the team sent more than 40,000 texts and saw fewer than 1,000 opt-outs.

“Being very particular about your audience means people are less likely to opt out. If it’s specific to them, they know you’re paying attention.”

Olivia Newsome

Texting All Year, Not Just on Giving Day

UNF also texts for event invitations, fiscal year-end campaigns, Giving Tuesday, stewardship follow-ups, and one-off touchpoints. A 652-person Giving Tuesday campaign earned a 4 percent reply rate. The team uses the sent message view to pull follow-up lists, like everyone who said yes to an event invitation, and sends them reminders, bag policy links, or logistics.

Big Sends and One-Offs From the Same Place

When UNF looked at other platforms, flexibility decided it. Other tools could handle large campaigns but not day-to-day donor engagement. In Mongoose, staff can text one constituent without building a list or a campaign first.

“Many platforms required you to upload a list just to send a message, which limited how responsive you could be. With Mongoose, we can engage individuals just as easily as large audiences, and that made a big difference for our team.”

Jean Lipsky

“In Mongoose, it’s easy to do big things, and it’s easy to do small things. Once you understand how it works, it’s very straightforward, and that’s helped us bring others into the process successfully.”

Olivia Newsome

Hours Saved With a CSM

The team was manually comparing Giving Day lists to keep people from getting overlapping messages. A conversation with their Customer Success Manager turned up built-in prioritization that deduplicates automatically, saving hours of staff time.

“A quick conversation with our Mongoose CSM completely changed our process and saved an incredible amount of time. It felt like a true partnership with someone who understood our goals and helped us work smarter.”

Jean Lipsky

What Other Advancement Teams Can Take From UNF

Segment before you send, and write a different message for each segment. That discipline is what let UNF send 40,000 texts on one day and keep opt-outs under 1,000. Smart Messages help, too; across Mongoose’s 2026 data, they earn three times the reply rate of standard advancement outreach. Look past opens to the engagement signals that matter, and see these FAQs and best practices for advancement teams for more.

Other advancement teams have seen strong Giving Day results by text. Presbyterian College raised $27,751 from a single Giving Day text, and Duke Health grew Giving Tuesday donors 85 percent with two-way texting.

Looking Ahead

UNF is exploring how texting can support portfolio outreach, like a text after a missed phone call to keep a conversation going. The team also wants deeper link-click and engagement tracking, to see how texts influence giving through other channels even when no one replies.

“Whether someone clicks the link right away or not, the message is there in front of them, at the right moment. That visibility has real value for our overall engagement strategy.”

Jean Lipsky