Fundraising Campaign Tomorrow’s Heroes in a League of its Own
With a result of 6.2 million euro Arcada’s 2018 fundraising campaign surpassed all expectations and all set goals. Arcadas share of the 28 million euro raised by all the universities of applied sciences in the country was 22 percent. In relation to the number of students per school, Arcada was in a league of its own.
"The largest donations came from foundations and associations. Many companies wanted to support Arcada, which makes us truly proud, and of course we had many private donors. We had more private donors than any other school, over 56% of all private donations on a national scale went to Arcada”, says Susanna Grönblom, fundraising manager at Arcada.
Strengthened Basic Capital
The government had reserved 24 million euro as counter-financing for the donations raised by the end of 2018. These funds were allocated in proportion to how much each school raised, with a ceiling of 4 million per university of applied sciences. In Arcada’s case this meant that the campaign funds along with those from the counter-financing came to a sum total of 10.2 million euro. The returns will be used to continue the long-term development of both education and research at Arcada.
A Successful Concept
The government granted universities of applied sciences authorization for fundraising in 2017. Arcada reacted swiftly to the new challenge and Susanna Grönblom was recruited as fundraising manager to head the campaign. The campaign has been a joint effort including Arcada’s rector, a steering group and an external campaign committee with valuable contacts to the corporate world and various foundations. Susanna Grönblom believes that the key to the success of the campaign lies in launching it as a concrete concept “Tomorrow’s Heroes – Made by Arcada”.
"The campaign was all about highlighting the experts that Arcada educates and needs financial support for so that they in turn can strengthen society when they have graduated. This was a unique concept and we really worked at launching it in social media and in our advertising campaign.”
Boosting Our Image
Alongside the financial goals, the campaign has also sought to strengthen Arcada’s image.
"Although Arcada has existed in its present form for over 20 years, there are still many who don’t realise the breadth of what Arcada does. The campaign gave us a fantastic opportunity to tell people what we do and to raise our profile. The third aim of the campaign was to get as many donors as possible on board and show that Arcada enjoys considerable support", Susanna Grönblom explains.
The third aim of the campaign was to get as many donors as possible on board and show that Arcada enjoys considerable support.
"Today Arcada is one of two Swedish-language UAS’s in Finland. There is a clear call for satisfying the existing demand for education in Swedish and internationally, she continues.
To Be Continued
New legislation has now made it possible to incorporate the fundraising that started as a campaign with Arcada’s basic activity.
"In the future, external financing will become more important as the financial perspectives become more restricted”, says Susanna Grönblom.
The goal for the campaign Tomorrow’s Heroes was to strengthen Arcada’s basic capital; in the future Arcada will be looking for funding for more specific projects.