How texting helped Booth’s Giving Day reach its highest number of alumni donors ever.
Chicago Booth used Hustle P2P Texting to text more than 11,000 contacts on their Giving Day in spring 2023. The day brought the school’s highest number of alumni donors ever, with 1,300 individual donations totaling more than $800,000.
Last updated November 2026.
“Texting is a consistent and essential component of our Annual Fund and Giving Day outreach. Since we started sending texts for Giving Day three years ago, we’ve been able to cut through crowded email inboxes.”
By the numbers
| Result | What it means |
|---|---|
| 11,000+ | Contacts reached by text on Giving Day alone |
| 1,300 | Individual donations on Giving Day |
| $800,000+ | Total raised from those donations |
| 500 | More alumni donors than the previous year, the highest number ever |
Who is Chicago Booth?
The University of Chicago Booth School of Business is a global business school with a strong, collaborative, and impactful network of more than 57,000 alumni. As a division of the University of Chicago, Chicago Booth conducts its own alumni engagement and advancement efforts.
One of their most successful fundraising campaigns happens during Giving Day, an annual 24-hour, university-wide event that many higher-education institutions have established to celebrate their communities and recognize the importance of philanthropy.
What problem was Chicago Booth solving?
Since Giving Days are a popular way for universities to raise funds, they pose different challenges than campaigns that may be specific to one school or alumni group throughout the rest of the year. Hustle clients like the Chicago Booth School of Business use texting to solve these unique barriers to reach their goals.
How did Chicago Booth use texting on its Giving Day?
Chicago Booth needed to engage alumni and supporters faster, so in spring 2023, they worked with Hustle to reach more than 11,000 contacts on their Giving Day alone. As they crafted their text campaigns, they employed a few key strategies:
- Included an animated GIF of the Giving Day logo to capture attention.
- Segmented their outreach by donor type, based on the data they pulled from the previous year, and by classes with an upcoming reunion.
- Supplemented their texting campaigns with email, social posts, postcards, and in-person connections with campus posters and an installation on the day itself.
What results did Chicago Booth see?
By honing in on practices that see higher engagement, Chicago Booth’s Giving Day saw the highest number of alumni donors ever (500 more than the previous year!). In the end, there were 1,300 individual donations totaling more than $800,000.
Similar to Chicago Booth’s Giving Day campaigns with Hustle, the school now nearly always includes an image with their text messages, particularly when they’re offering a limited-time incentive item to give their audience a better sense of what they’ll receive as a thank-you for their donations. The learnings from their text campaigns have lasting results on the school’s fundraising efforts.
Which Hustle products did Chicago Booth use?
Chicago Booth sent its Giving Day texts with Hustle P2P Texting, Hustle’s peer-to-peer texting product.
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