We have all heard the famous Gandhi quote reminding us to “be the change you wish to see in the world.” This past spring, students in the Philanthropy and Fundraising (NNGO) Nonprofit and NGO Studies course seized the opportunity to do exactly that.

Led by Michael Adzovic, senior director of operations and annual giving at the NIU Foundation, who taught the class last semester, and Alicia Schatteman, associate professor and director of Nonprofit and NGO Studies, students worked in teams to plan and execute month-long crowdfunding campaigns to support the initiatives of NIU’s Center for Nonprofit and NGO Studies.
Created to introduce students to the concepts of giving and philanthropy, both historically and currently, the course teaches them specific tools used in fundraising.
“This class, like many of our NNGO courses, has always had a hands-on component that included doing direct fundraising for local nonprofits,” Schatteman said. “In the past, our students worked on fundraisers like the “Change for Change” campaign to support Tails Humane Society or in writing grant proposals for local organizations.”
For this year’s project, the NIU Foundation had been in the early stages of developing its own crowdfunding program called “NIU Impact.” Adzovic researched how other universities facilitate crowdfunding campaigns, and he developed a model that could be implemented at NIU.

“I thought it would be great for this class to serve as the test group to see if the model could work at NIU,” he said. “Additionally, the NIU Foundation had acquired a crowdfunding platform created specifically for higher education called ScaleFunder, and I thought it would be a great opportunity for the students to test working in the platform.”
Students were broken up into eight groups and each group was given access to create a crowdfunding campaign within ScaleFunder. All eight groups were tasked with raising funds for the Center for Nonprofit and NGO Studies, but each group had to write its own “case for support,” with a campaign theme and a marketing plan describing how they would promote giving. Students were graded on three components—the group’s project plan, the campaign execution, and the final paper.
While some students were initially hesitant to reach out to their own social media circle and contacts, they quickly saw the value in the process. The class raised $3,000 in one week and nearly $5,300 in total over the month of April!
Daniele Leonard, a senior completing her degree in general studies with a certificate in nonprofit and NGO studies from Warrenville, Illinois, learned that there is no one way to raise funds for an important and worthy cause.
“You don’t have to graduate to make a difference! Change can be accomplished in-person, remotely, through social media and beyond. Fundraising takes a worthy cause and gives it a voice,” she said. “I can be the change I want to see. I don’t think I would have felt this confident about my future without both the crowdfunding campaign and the course instruction.”
Schatteman said, “I did not have an amount in mind that the students would raise, and the result certainly exceeded any realistic expectation I would have. They did an amazing job!”
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