Every year, thousands of advancement professionals show up and do the work. And then there are the ones who quietly rewrite the playbook.
The 2026 EverTrue Innovators are 15* teams and individuals who didn’t just hit their goals, they challenged the assumptions behind them. They built predictive models from scratch. They handed creative control to students. They used data to find the donors everyone else had written off.
How Winners Were Chosen
Nominations came from across the EverTrue community, submitted by our own team and the advancement professionals who use our products every day. From there, we selected 15 winners based on creative use of technology, measurable impact, and the potential to inspire others across the field. We looked for stories that span the full EverTrue suite and prioritized the ones where the work speaks for itself. The goal isn’t a trophy. It’s a conversation. Every winner here agreed to share their process, their numbers, and the moment things clicked, so the rest of the field can learn from what worked.
What Innovation Looks Like in 2025
1,517%
ROI on a single direct mail campaign
West Chester University Foundation used DonorSearch to architect their entire annual giving segmentation strategy and the math did the rest.
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169%
Revenue increase in one year
Boca Raton Regional Hospital Foundation applied DonorSearch AI acquisition modeling to their year-end appeal. The result: $1.94M in new revenue, 59% more donors, and a 69% jump in average gift size.
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68.6%
Video open rate (nearly double the industry average!)
Indiana University of Pennsylvania handed the creative reins to student workers. The result was an Office-style spoof that made donors actually want to open their email.
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- Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Best Video Stewardship Campaign Award
ThankView
- Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT)
Thank-YOU-ary Stewardship Award
ThankView
- Musical Instrument Museum
Predictive Modeling & Data Science Award
DonorSearch
- Chicago Theological Seminary
Best Contrarian Campaign Award
Pledgemine
- University of Delaware
Best Donor-Centric Solicitation Award
Pledgemine
- West Chester University Foundation
Best Data-Driven Direct Mail Strategy Award
Pledgemine + DonorSearch
- Boca Raton Regional Hospital Foundation, part of Baptist Health South Florida
Best Healthcare Fundraising Transformation Award
DonorSearch AI
- CSU Chico
Endowment Reporting Champion Award
Impact + Balance
- The Citadel Foundation
Full-Suite Power User Award
ThankView + Pledgemine + Signal
- Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania
Giving Day Reinvention Award
ThankView + Signal
- Ladue Education Foundation
Solo Fundraiser Impact Award
DonorSearch
- U.S. Naval Academy Foundation
Field Fundraising Innovation Award
Signal
- University of North Dakota
Student-Powered Stewardship Award
ThankView
- Western Kentucky University
Alumni Engagement Excellence Award
Signal
- University of Arkansas
The Donor Experience Excellence Award
ThankView + Signal
Meet the 2026 Innovators
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Best Video Stewardship Campaign Award
Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT)
Thank-YOU-ary Stewardship Award
Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) turned donor gratitude into a campus wide celebration with Thankuary, a month-long stewardship campaign focused entirely on appreciation, storytelling, and impact. Instead of moving straight into the next ask, SAIT paused to simply say thank you and donors noticed.
Using ThankView by EverTrue, the team delivered personalized videos to alumni, staff, milestone donors, and broader donor groups, while social storytelling and student thank you card events brought the entire campus into the experience.
The campaign drove strong engagement, very low unsubscribe rates, and video completion rates as high as 98 percent. More importantly, it created genuine excitement and a stewardship model SAIT is excited to continue growing.
Musical Instrument Museum
Predictive Modeling & Data Science Award
Chicago Theological Seminary
Best Contrarian Campaign Award
Chicago Theological Seminary rethought what annual fund direct mail could be. Instead of relying on short, transactional messaging, the fundraising team shifted to longer form, mission driven storytelling designed to educate, connect, and reflect the seminary’s core commitments.
Using Pledgemine by EverTrue to support execution, the team moved toward fewer, more substantive communications aligned with its work in racial justice, LGBTQ and gender equity, and interreligious collaboration.
The shift led to a 12 percent response rate, increased online giving following direct mail drops, and strong donor feedback tied directly to the content itself. Chicago Theological Seminary’s approach shows how mission aligned storytelling can deepen engagement and strengthen annual fund giving.
University of Delaware
Best Donor-Centric Solicitation Award
West Chester University Foundation
Best Data-Driven Direct Mail Strategy Award
West Chester University Foundation is proving that data driven fundraising can still feel deeply personal.
By focusing on thoughtful donor segmentation instead of broad outreach lists, the team created a more intentional year round engagement strategy tailored to where supporters are in their giving journey.
Using EverTrue tools like Pledgemine and ThankView, the foundation paired direct mail with creative storytelling and personalized video outreach.
The results included cyclical donor re-engagement growing from about 8 percent to 12 percent, a stronger second ask segment, and an additional $80,000 generated through a refreshed year end strategy.
Their work reflects the power of combining strategy with genuine donor connection.
Boca Raton Regional Hospital Foundation, part of Baptist Health South Florida
Best Healthcare Fundraising Transformation Award
CSU Chico
Endowment Reporting Champion Award
California State University, Chico transformed a highly manual endowment reporting process into a more streamlined and collaborative experience powered by Impact and Balance by EverTrue.
What once involved extensive coordination, manual matching, and long production timelines has become a more efficient workflow with greater visibility and confidence across teams.
Beyond saving time, the university also elevated the donor experience by turning static financial reports into more engaging, story driven communications.
USC Chico’s work highlights how operational improvements can create stronger donor relationships and a more sustainable process for staff.
The Citadel Foundation
Full-Suite Power User Award
Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania
Giving Day Reinvention Award
The Bloomsburg University Foundation reimagined its ALL IN Giving Day to solve a simple but critical challenge: how to move beyond consistent but limited participation and build true campus-wide engagement.
By shifting to a competition-based model that strengthened buy-in across athletics, academic departments, and student organizations, the team turned Giving Day into a shared campus effort where every group had a reason to rally support.
The impact was immediate and sustained. With Signal and ThankView by EverTrue, their donor participation grew from roughly 500 donors to 2,813 in a single year, followed by more than 2,500 donors the next year, along with increased overall fundraising totals.
The result is a Giving Day that has become part of campus culture, powered by friendly competition, deeper collaboration, and a scalable model for long-term annual fund growth.
Ladue Education Foundation
Solo Fundraiser Impact Award
U.S. Naval Academy Foundation
Field Fundraising Innovation Award
The U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association and Foundation strengthened donor engagement by building a more consistent and data informed fundraising operation across growing portfolios and multiple giving programs.
Using Signal by EverTrue to support portfolio visibility and engagement insights, the team improved coordination across frontline fundraising while maintaining relationship driven engagement at scale.
That disciplined approach helped drive the Foundation’s first ever $100M fundraising year, supported by two eight figure gifts and a $15M gift built through long term stewardship and consistent engagement. Leadership annual giving officers also managed portfolios of approximately 250 donors each while raising around $1M per officer in their first year.
The Foundation’s work shows how consistency, structured follow up, and data informed engagement can strengthen fundraising performance while keeping donor relationships personal and mission focused.
University of North Dakota
Student-Powered Stewardship Award
Western Kentucky University
Alumni Engagement Excellence Award
Western Kentucky University is finding thoughtful new ways to help alumni feel seen, valued, and celebrated. While using ThankView by EverTrue alongside career move data, the team created personalized outreach recognizing promotions, new roles, and retirements in near real time.
Behind the scenes, close collaboration across advancement and data teams helped make the process scalable and sustainable.
In a single cycle, the program recognized more than 800 career milestones while keeping outreach timely, personal, and authentic. WKU’s work shows how meaningful connections can grow from everyday moments.
Listen to their podcast interview here!
