Challenge
Illinois Wesleyan University’s Giving Day, called “All in for Wesleyan,” is a tradition more than a decade old, with 2026’s Giving Day in April marking the institution’s fourteenth. Like many higher education institutions, Illinois Wesleyan strives to improve each subsequent event, including surpassing the previous year’s total. But the tool the university used for previous Giving Days had some limitations: it often didn’t make early giving available until the night before, there tended to be technical issues on the day of, and a lack of available automations meant the advancement staff spent Giving Day doing a lot of time-consuming manual work.
Solution
Illinois Wesleyan needed a better way to manage Giving Days, and ScaleFunder delivered. The platform solved many of the challenges with the previous system: the team was ready for early giving, the platform functioned reliably and well on the day of the event, and automated processes saved staff significant time. The team opened the portal a week in advance for early giving, and advancement staff were able to attend events happening around campus that day and engage with donors in order to keep the energy going, rather than working on manual data entry or dealing with technical malfunctions. The implementation of ScaleFunder benefited donors as well. The process on the donor side was much more seamless — donors could see their name added to the donor wall instantly and see what match or challenge their gift qualified for, which made it exciting and fun for them to stay engaged throughout the day.
ScaleFunder
