University of South Carolina Dance Marathon Receives 2023 Alumni Engagement Award
Miracle Network Dance Marathon recognized top performing Dance Marathon programs at the Dance Marathon Leadership Conference held in St. Louis, MO from August 3-6.
This year, the University of South Carolina Dance Marathon celebrated their 25th anniversary, and with such a momentous milestone they sought to re-engage Alumni in new and exciting ways!
Knowing that there is a strong and vast network of USCDM (University of South Carolina Dance Marathon) Alumni – they implemented new communication tactics to connect with their target audience. With the creation of an alumni-specific social media account (@uscdmalumni) the program was able to target alumni-specific communication to their followers on major push days and milestones. They also hosted an Alumni specific giveaway on the account to increase engagement and followers – offering a hotel voucher for a local Columbia hotel as the prize. With a strategic choice of incentive, knowing Alumni often need to pay for hotels while in town, they saw great engagement with this post.
Another area of focus for this year was bridging the gap between life in college and life post-graduation. Through the creation of a USCDM LinkedIn page, members were able to post job opportunities, and this will remain a place for career connections for all USCDM Alumni for years to come. The program also featured “Where are They Now Wednesdays” on LinkedIn which highlighted program Alumni and how their involvement with USCDM created opportunities and impacted their current career experiences.
To increase financial support of the program, they hosted specific donation challenges and calls to action surrounding their 25th anniversary to re-ignite support from both recent and founding alumni. Finally, the program implemented two new awards this year – an Alumni Board Spirit Award and the William E. Busbee award, which honored a founding executive board member who tragically passed away soon after their graduation. With a goal of honoring the program’s history and celebrating those who continue to embody the passion of Dance Marathon, they further built connection between current program members and their network of Alumni. Congratulations, University of South Carolina!
The University of South Carolina presented a session on Alumni Engagement at DMLC 2023. You can view a recording of that presentation here: https://youtu.be/BzkeMNT0GPw.
Miracle Network Dance Marathon is an international movement, involving over 400 colleges, universities and K-12 schools across the United States and Canada that fundraise for their local member hospital of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. These students work tirelessly throughout the year to raise funds one dollar at a time by making the ask to family and friends. Their hard work culminates in a celebration on campus or virtually, where participants can rally together as a community for their local member hospital of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Students involved in Dance Marathon gain valuable skills in fundraising, peer management, delegation, and philanthropy. Miracle Network Dance Marathon programs have collectively raised more than $350 million since 1991.