14: Striving for 100% Participation, Laura Day

Laura Day, Director of Annual Giving at Williams College, joins Brent Grinna on this episode of the RAISE podcast. Williams boasts one of the highest participation rates in the US. Six years into her tenure, Laura is constantly asking how to improve and is striving for 100% participation. She is an active participant in the Schuler initiative to increase young alumni engagement, and she will share the impact of that work. Laura is also a member of EverTrue’s inaugural 40 under 40 class.About LauraLaura Day is director of annual giving for Williams College, where she leads a team of ten staff members and 1,600 volunteers to run the college’s Alumni Fund. After graduating from Williams in 2004, Laura moved to New York and began working in arts administration. In 2010, she completed her MBA from Fordham University and decided to gain some practical fundraising experience in order to advance her career even further, and so she began volunteering for Williams as a class agent in her spare time.That decision turned out to have been a pretty good one. In 2012, Laura returned to Williams in a professional capacity, working with the 30 oldest classes on their annual campaigns. In the fall of 2013, she became director of annual giving. Under Laura’s leadership, the Williams Alumni Fund has introduced multiple new initiatives around engagement and giving, and the fund itself has grown from $10M to over $13M while sustaining ~55% participation.Want to hear more? Hear Laura share tips for managing Volunteer programs with Millbrook School.