BEST CAMPAIGN/PROGRAM IN SUPPORT OF AN OUTSIDE PHILANTHROPY

Kappa Delta Foundation

When Girl Scouts of the USA brought on a new CEO, who sought to elevate the Girl Scout Gold Award to provide a $5,000 scholarship to one Gold Award Girl Scout per council, or 112 Girl Scouts, KD Foundation was asked to increase its support, and answered the call. For more than a decade, the KD Foundation provided $50,000 annually to their philanthropic partner Girl Scouts of the USA; since 2023 they have donated $300,000 — $100,000 annually. 

Scholarships funded support Girl Scouts who collectively contributed about 300,000 hours toward creating long-term solutions to issues they’re passionate about, like combating food insecurity to preserving arts, culture, heritage and more. Over the last three years, their support has fully funded 60 scholarships.

BEST COMMUNICATIONS EFFORT

Beta Theta Pi Foundation

12 Days of Impact focused on sharing the impact the Foundation has on the lives of today’s young men. Throughout December 2024, Foundation impact content was shared via social media. The campaign concluded with the launch of an email and website, displaying all 12 points of impact in an advent calendar-style design. 

The primary focus was to inform and engage with constituents across mixed-media channels to tell the story of the Beta Foundation and its impact on the Beta experience. Online engagement results included more than 146,500 total impressions across social media channels, with a 14.3% engagement rate. Additionally, three hundred 300 clicks to learn more via email.

Kappa Delta Foundation

What began in 1925 continues today: 10,000 donors receive a sheet of seals (now known as stickers) to secure the envelopes of their holiday mail. Each year since 1928, KD has hosted a contest where the winning KD artist’s design is distributed to donors via the Seals Appeal.

This past year, KD launched the Century of Seals Bracket, a campaign inviting members to vote for their favorite seals from 16 historic designs. The contest was promoted through Kappa Delta’s magazine, e-newsletters, highly segmented and personalized emails, on their blog, social media, and through a dedicated landing page on their website. Strong visuals, consistent messaging and clear calls to action centered around a special piece of Foundation history inspired huge levels of engagement across all platforms. 

Honorable Mentions:

• Alpha Omicron Pi Foundation, Pi Day 2025
• Delta Gamma Foundation, Anchoring the Future: The Campaign for Delta Gamma

BEST DEVELOPMENT EFFORT IN AN ANNUAL CAMPAIGN

Tri Delta’s Foundation

In an effort to build a lifelong culture of philanthropy among members aged 33 and younger, Tri Delta’s Foundation established its Friendship Society to ensure the future sustainability of the Foundation’s life-changing programs.

The campaign aimed to increase awareness, participation and giving with specific benchmarks including growing the number of collegiate and young alumnae donors, increasing dollars raised and creating repeat engagement. Since 2022: collegiate donors have increased 970%, from 29 to 311; young alumnae donors increased from 87 donors to 204; and total donors under age 34 grew from 113 to 488, a 332% increase.  

In total, dollars raised from this group increased from just over 7,000 to more than 26,000 — a two-270% increase.

Honorable Mentions: 

• Alpha Gamma Delta Foundation, $1K in a Day
• Delta Tau Delta Educational Foundation, Delt Day of Giving

BEST MAJOR GIFTS DEVELOPMENT EFFORT

Pi Kappa Alpha Foundation

Their strategic Housing/Educational Facilities Grant program ultimately enabled the Pike Foundation to secure their largest-ever single donation of $9.04 million. In 2019, they proposed $1 million to launch a housing campaign for their University of Washington chapter, but a lead donor was uncertain about the remaining funds necessary to complete the build.  

Because of this, Pike Foundation developed their housing grant program to show the donor that through strategic grants and loans they could accept tax deductible donations towards the house at a much more significant level than they had previously proposed.  They worked with Fraternal Law Partners, Pennington and Company, Windfall and re:Members, to secure the donor’s gift, which came from 120,000 shares of Starbucks stock. 

Honorable Mention: 

• Delta Upsilon Educational Foundation, Ignite The Charge Campaign

BEST NEW DEVELOPMENT IDEA

Delta Tau Delta Educational Foundation

Launching the Hudson Stuck Giving Circle, their first-ever — named for Delt alumnus Hudson Stuck, who led the first successful ascent of Denali — this initiative honors Stuck’s legacy of leadership and perseverance. By fostering deep donor connections and pooling resources, this model broke from the traditional giving society structure and raised over $200,000 in just two months, securing the program’s launch.  

Funding 7-day Outward Bound leadership excursions for undergraduates, like sailing off the Maine Coast or backpacking in the Moab Desert, without cost to participants, these hands-on experiences replace long-retired flagship programs, filling a critical gap in their educational model.

Donors receive curated engagement experiences, including a virtual town hall with participants, a copy of Stuck’s biography, and access to an ongoing learning community.

Honorable Mentions: 

• Delta Sigma Phi Foundation, Raise the Fez Initiative
• Kappa Alpha Theta Foundation, Theta for Good

BEST OPERATIONS IMPROVEMENT EFFORT

Kappa Alpha Theta Foundation

The Theta for Good program enhanced operations and giving processes for its collegiate giving program, which has allowed staff to better capture the philanthropic impact their chapters have on both the Foundation and outside organizations that support child health and welfare efforts. 

Before the creation of Theta for Good, the Foundation was unaware of the overall impact their chapters were making, as they were only fully tracking funds donated to the Theta Foundation. Theta for Good enabled them to measure their collegiate giving more effectively and made it easier and more efficient for their undergraduate members.  

In just the last year, Theta’s collegiate chapters have raised $284,424 more than in the previous year, surpassing $1 million for the second consecutive year. In just three academic years, 97.8% of all Theta college chapters have participated in the Theta for Good program.

Honorable Mention:

• Lambda Chi Alpha Educational Foundation, GivaGrant & Tremendous.com Utlization for Scholarships

BEST PLANNED GIVING EFFORT

Pi Kappa Alpha Foundation

Partnering with FreeWill, the Pike Foundation provided donors with a free, accessible tool to create or update their estate plans and consider a legacy gift to the Foundation. To ensure accessibility and awareness, Pike promoted the tool through four digital campaigns — New Year’s Resolutions, Spring Bequest, Make-A-Will Month, and Estate Planning Awareness Week — each supported by email and social media, as well as print media through their magazine and annual tax letters. 

Before this partnership, their strategy was limited to two direct mail pieces each year with minimal engagement, yielding only three new planned gifts in the year prior. Within the 18 months of this effort, they received over 60 new documented wills — an increase of more than 40% over their previous total.

BEST STEWARDSHIP EFFORT

Phi Kappa Psi Foundation

The biannual Organizational Webinar series provides enterprise-wide updates from Fraternity and Foundation leadership, highlights investment performance, and showcases mission-aligned outcomes. They give donors and brothers direct insight into how their gifts are transforming lives, while also promoting planned giving and chapter support. 

The format fosters trust, increases engagement and makes stewardship personal and accessible. With minimal cost and increased registration and attendance year over year, the webinars have become a strategic tool for advancing transparency and reinforcing the long-term value of donor contributions to Phi Kappa Psi’s mission. By spotlighting key outcomes — like over $490,000 awarded in scholarships and robust investment returns — this initiative ensures their donor community remains informed, engaged, and inspired. 

Honorable Mentions:

• Beta Theta Pi Foundation, Personalized Messaging to Donor Alumni and Friends of Beta
• Kappa Delta Foundation, Annual Report Postcard

BEST USE OF A FOUNDATION GRANT

Phi Mu Foundation

Phi Mu Foundation used Amplifying Sorority’s State of Sorority Women’s Mental Health Study, combined with responses from their own Collegiate Member Engagement Survey, to ultimately help fund a critical membership program developed by the JED Foundation: Brave Talk.

Investing in a program like Brave Talk equips their members with the tools and resources they need to protect their emotional health and help them navigate challenging times. The Brave Talk program enhances the overall member experience and furthers Phi Mu Foundation’s mission to invest in the lifetime development of women. 

This $15,000 grant covered costs associated with the first year of the multi-year program and has the potential to reach 14,600 Phi Mu collegians. 

Delta Sigma Phi Foundation

A three-day immersive experience, Career Accelerator offers practical skill-building, personal feedback, and networking opportunities, as well as a résumé and cover letter lab, a LinkedIn workshop with professional headshots, and small-group discussions to strengthen communication skills. The program concludes with an alumni panel and networking reception, providing real-world insights and opportunities for relationship-building. 

The $105,000 grant funded the pilot year of the program for 70 members. The grant covered hotel space and accommodations, food and beverage costs, participant and facilitator airfare and travel, a professional photographer for headshots, and of course some Delta Sig swag for participants. They are looking forward to funding the program in future years after a wonderful pilot program. 

Honorable Mention:

• Zeta Tau Alpha, Amplifying Sorority Investment & Resource Output

BEST CAMPAIGN/PROGRAM IN SUPPORT OF AN OUTSIDE PHILANTHROPY

Alpha Omicron Pi Foundation

In the past fiscal year alone, AOII donated $1 million to their philanthropic partner. Their gift to the Arthritis Foundation has touched over 7,000 individuals and channeled more than $350,000 into groundbreaking research initiatives. 

Beyond financial contributions, sisters are commonly referred to as the “Panda People” to the Arthritis Foundation and involved families. Through their beloved panda mascot, they bring joy to children and facilitate hands-on learning at the Panda Clinic hosted at each Juvenile Arthritis Family Summit. Additionally, Alpha Omicron Pi raises awareness at the national and local level encouraging members and supporters to get involved with initiatives like AOII Goes Blue, aligning with the arthritis awareness ribbon color. 

BEST COMMUNICATIONS EFFORT

Kappa Delta Foundation

From September 2023 to April 2024, Kappa Delta offered a three-part, virtual speaker series called “Confident Conversations: Healthy Minds, Strong Sisters”. To promote this Foundation-funded program and generate excitement among members, the Sorority and Foundation teams worked together to develop a comprehensive marketing and communications effort, including digital and print assets across social media, a microsite (kappadelta.org/confident-conversations), in Kappa Delta’s magazine and more. 

This year there were 4,409 registrants with 2,368 attendees across the three virtual sessions, more than doubling the number of members who attended the 2022-2023 series.

Honorable Mentions:

• The Educational Foundation of Alpha Gamma Rho, 1904 Collegiate Society Campaign
• Delta Gamma Foundation, Anchoring the Future: The Campaign for Delta Gamma Launch

BEST DEVELOPMENT EFFORT IN AN ANNUAL CAMPAIGN

Sigma Alpha Epsilon Foundation

SAE’s 6th annual March to the Madness is a multi-week, bracket-style fundraising campaign, modeled after and taking place at the same time as the NCAA March Madness Tournament. This campaign supporting their Annual Loyalty Fund encourages SAE chapters to compete to see who can raise the most money each round. 

Successfully exceeding their goal of raising more in 2024 compared to 2023, $149,017 was raised, a 7.85% increase year-over-year. In total, 447 donors contributed with 84 of those being new donors. 

Honorable Mentions: 

• Beta Theta Pi Foundation, “Catch the Spark” Video Campaign
• Kappa Alpha Theta Foundation, Theta for Good

BEST MAJOR GIFTS DEVELOPMENT EFFORT

Lambda Chi Alpha Educational Foundation

Lambda Chi’s Seed Capital Campaign — through which $5.5 million in new major gifts were secured — aimed to reposition how young men grow, serve and lead. This effort reversed a five-year, seventeen 17% year-over-year membership decline with an average of five insurance claims per year by reorienting programming and creating a compelling launch point for further Series A funding.  
 
In total, more than 6,000 members directly benefitted from programs funded by the $13.5 million raised through Seed Capital Campaign.

BEST NEW DEVELOPMENT IDEA

Delta Upsilon Educational Foundation

To close a gap in Ignite the Charge Campaign funding, Delta Upsilon secured a $300,000 gift and launched a matching challenge, the terms of which being that each dollar would be matched for any one-time contribution to the Annual Loyalty Fund, and all five-year pledges would be matched three-to-one! Meaning a $2,500 gift over five years would equate to a $7,500 match. 

As of May 15, 2024, 592 donors made one-time gifts totaling $172,152. Another 78 donors made five-year commitments totaling $308,465. In total, this innovative initiative secured at least $780,617, including the challenge gift, ensuring the Campaign’s $6 million goal was exceeded by $4.35 million.   

Honorable Mentions: 

• Alpha Chi Omega Foundation, Mid-level Giving Program
• Alpha Omicron Pi Foundation, 10 for 10 Initiative

BEST OPERATIONS IMPROVEMENT EFFORT

Delta Tau Delta Educational Foundation

Previously operating on separate CRMs, Delta Tau Delta’s transition to a single Salesforce database ensures all staff have access to the same membership information across all enterprise entities. 

Since switching to Salesforce, Delt has taken advantage of powerful automation, reduced tedious tasks, and allowed staff to focus on more impactful items. Data visualization via Salesforce dashboards has been helpful for fundraising efforts, as they can view giving data through many lenses quickly. This includes year-over-year comparisons, summary information by fund, specific portfolios for each fundraiser and more. 

Honorable Mention:

• Kappa Delta Foundation, KDHQ Organization Structure & Collaboration

BEST PLANNED GIVING EFFORT

Alpha Chi Omega Foundation

Feeling it was important to present donors with options, the AXO Foundation included the following asks in their “Common Bond. Uncommon Impact.” campaign proposals: an annual gift, an “over-and-above” gift to a campaign priority, and a legacy gift to sustain the organization’s future. 

To help reach their planned giving goal of $5 million, the Foundation increased their direct mail outreach to targeted planned giving audiences focusing on IRA-qualified charitable distributions, charitable gift annuities and bequests, driving donors to their planned giving microsite alphachiplanmygiving.org. Additionally, they partnered with the National Gift Annuity Foundation to provide charitable gift annuities and charitable remainder trusts.

BEST STEWARDSHIP EFFORT

Alpha Omicron Pi Foundation

Inviting donors whose unrestricted gifts total a minimum of $1,897 in honor of AOII’s founding year, or whose lifetime giving exceeds $15,000, the foundation hosted 50 donors for a sisterhood retreat including a welcome reception, dinner, confidence workshop, and brunch. 

While the event focused on stewardship, $29,000 was secured in sponsorship and $50,000 in revenue was generated for the Foundation through donor commitments made during the weekend. 100% of attendees rated the overall event a 4 or 5 out of 5 and 79% strongly indicated they felt a greater sense of belonging to the Foundation.

Kappa Alpha Theta Foundation

The impetus behind this Theta’s Scholarship Directory came from a desire to collect and preserve the inspiration — the “why” — behind the many Theta scholarships offered. 

Housed on their website, the digital space has been created and is now live with over 40 scholarships showcased of the more than 200 distinct scholarships offered. Through this effort, they have been able to connect (and re-connect) with donors outside of an ask that reminds them that their story and gift are incredibly special to the Foundation and their scholarship recipients. 

Honorable Mention: 

• Pi Beta Phi Foundation, With Gratitude Annual Impact Report

BEST USE OF A FOUNDATION GRANT

The Educational Foundation of Alpha Gamma Rho

After four years of planning and piloting, AGR raised more than $15 million through their Local Chapter Excellence Capital Campaign to underwrite the fraternity’s newest program, Top Leaders Institute. Top Leaders Institute serves as a beacon of leadership excellence within AGR, empowering participants to embrace their potential and make meaningful contributions to their chapters, campuses, and communities.  

Because of gifts to the campaign and the Educational Foundation’s grant, a total of $312,012 was awarded to 529 undergraduate members, breaking down to approximately $590 per person. While this grant was solely for 2023, the Educational Foundation has a long-range plan to continue and expand this initiative. 

Honorable Mention:

• Kappa Delta Foundation, Confident Conversations

BEST COMMUNICATIONS EFFORT

Alpha Chi Omega Foundation

Ahead of their Common Bond. Uncommon Impact. campaign launch, 200 customized influencer boxes were filled with branded goodies and social shareables and distributed to select donors. Serving as campaign influencers, these donors were tasked with building excitement and engagement for the in-person and virtual campaign launch events at their convention. 

Amazingly, the effort resulted in more than two hundred social media posts using the hashtag #AXOuncommon to promote the campaign launch. When the campaign launch email was finally sent to 76,000 individuals, there were 52,000 total opens and 15,471 forwards. At convention, when it came time for the virtual launch, 745 individuals had registered and 237 attended the live broadcast. 

BEST DEVELOPMENT EFFORT IN AN ANNUAL CAMPAIGN

Lambda Chi Alpha Educational Foundation

Held from November 2-3 annually, their Founders’ Day Challenge celebrates their brotherhood and raises annual and unrestricted dollars, respectively named the “We Believe” Fund and “Seed Capital” Fund. 

Based on the previous year’s results of nearly $750,000 raised, they set their 2022 goal at $1 million dollars and 1,909 donors. To reach their goal, they leveraged a matching gift challenge and included peer-to-peer ambassadors providing them an online toolkit, personal fundraiser page options, and inviting members and friends of Lambda Chi to donate to the challenge as part of a chapter team or on their own. And, thanks to their generous match donor, their effort raised $2.1 million dollars! 

BEST STEWARDSHIP EFFORT

Pi Kappa Alpha Foundation

Working in tandem with their PC Dashboard, a tracking document identifying all members and their expiration dates, staff reviews President’s Council membership information monthly to see who will lapse soon and proactively schedules a meeting to secure next year’s gift or renewal. Additionally, a part-time staff member hosts virtual meetings with donors to save staff time and resources while still continuing the stewardship touchpoints. 

Since they view stewardship as part of the moves management and solicitation cycle, all of these stewardship efforts, coupled with their proactive development efforts, led to an all-time high PC membership in 2022!  Growing from 448 to 504 members — inclusive of 108 new members and representing an 89% renewal rate.

BEST USE OF A FOUNDATION GRANT

Gamma Phi Beta Foundation

A $66,100 grant was awarded to their sorority counterparts providing funding for the Belonging, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Summit — which is dedicated solely to creating a more just, equitable and inclusive Gamma Phi Beta. The grant was used to fund the keynote speakers, curriculum development, supporting staff and the technology to deliver this program to members.  

This grant impacts a significant portion of their membership, including every collegiate chapter with alumnae, collegians and staff and invited to participate in the half-day virtual summit. After reviewing established goals and outcomes, 98% of attendees report they strongly agreed or agreed they had achieved the intended outcome. 

BEST PLANNED GIVING EFFORT

Delta Tau Delta Educational Foundation

With more than 70 individual donors and nearly $12,000,000 in new planned gifts since the launch of their Forging the Future Campaign, the Delt Foundation used a strategic omnichannel approach that included face-to-face solicitation, email, direct mail, social media, web, and print media, their audience receives consistent messaging across every Delt platform.  

At the outset of the campaign they set an initial planned gift goal of $5,000,000 million dollars based on the results feasibility study. Due to the overwhelming response, however, they soon realized that this goal would be surpassed. Incredibly, their planned gift effort resulted in the single largest documented planned gift in the Delt Foundation history at five point three $5.3M dollars.

BEST MAJOR GIFTS DEVELOPMENT EFFORT

Delta Tau Delta Educational Foundation

The Forging the Future Campaign is the largest comprehensive effort in Delt fundraising history resulting in gift commitments of more than $26,000,000 dollars and counting.  

With major gifts, defined as donations of $10,000+ dollars, these gifts account for more than $9.3M dollars of total cash commitments to date from 285 unique gifts. Also incredibly impressive, the average major cash gift size comes in at $32,631 dollars. 

BEST NEW DEVELOPMENT IDEA

Pi Kappa Alpha Foundation, Sigma Alpha Epsilon Foundation & Sigma Chi Foundation

The Interfraternal Giving Tuesday Challenge is a fun, friendly competition between fraternity foundations to see which organization can raise the most money for its unrestricted annual fund on Giving Tuesday. In 2022, each participating organization had a record-breaking Giving Tuesday.   

Cumulatively the three groups raise $517,993.40, of which, $383,584.91 were unrestricted gifts. 

BEST CAMPAIGN/PROGRAM IN SUPPORT OF AN OUTSIDE PHILANTHROPY

Alpha Gamma Delta Foundation

Providing grants to 106 unique Fighting Hunger organizations across the United States and Canada, including seven new organizations this year alone, they have helped hunger-relief organizations provide meals to 2,015,916 individuals. And over the last five years, their support has helped organizations engage 258,985 volunteers. 

Additionally, the AGD Foundation has engaged 19 volunteers through their Fighting Hunger Grant Committee between 2017 and 2023, and as the program has grown, the number of applications received has increased, escalating the need for Fighting Hunger Committee volunteers. 

BEST OPERATIONS IMPROVEMENT EFFORT

Alpha Chi Omega Foundation

Created as a tool to assist volunteers in their fundraising responsibilities, the Volunteer Manager Portal provides real-time fundraising information — including recent gift information — for volunteers’ assigned donors and projects and allows them to enter donor contacts. The portal is directly linked to the Foundation’s CRM, with access and security governed by existing volunteer committees in the CRM.

The goals of the project were to provide volunteers with real-time information to more effectively perform their fundraising and stewardship responsibilities; reduce staff time required to provide updates; and allow volunteer fundraisers to enter their own moves management activities into the database for improved visibility and collaborative donor support. Eliminating the need for weekly and monthly reports previously distributed by email, volunteers love having access to fundraising information without having to wait for reports that consumed much of the staff’s time.