Members of Cal State Fullerton’s Division of University Advancement won several awards at the recent CASE District VII Conference. The district covers Arizona, California, Guam, Hawaii, Nevada, Northern Mariana Islands and Utah.
Gold medal-winning entries were the CSUF “Presidential Rap” in the category of general information videos and the inaugural Founding Titans Reception & Convocation for programming for special constituencies. Alumni Engagement also won a silver award in programming for special constituencies, and a bronze award was received for the university’s Giving Tuesday fundraising campaign.
Alumni Engagement planned and coordinated a Founding Titans event that brought 73 founding Titans back to campus for a special reception prior to CSUF’s 2017 Convocation. The participants, many of whom hadn’t been back to campus in decades, were offered campus tours and “Founding Titans” lapel pins. Since the event, many of these alumni have reconnected with their alma mater.
At the 2018 Convocation, President Fram Virjee and alumna Rachel Herzog shared many of CSUF’s points of pride in the form of a rap. The duet, recorded earlier, was a hit on social media, garnering more than 100,000 views on Facebook, Instagram and Facebook. The Presidential Rap video was developed and written by Matt Olson, deputy chief of staff and director of executive communications in the president’s office. Eraj Shadaram, director of Titan Communications, the university’s digital media center and hands-on classroom for communications students, filmed and produced the video, and the Department of Strategic Communications and Brand Management promoted it through its various social media platforms and web portals.
The silver-award winning, Inside Look, offered exclusive events to Titans with a $500 legacy lifetime membership. Special privileges included a backstage tour of the College of Arts’ performance of “The Little Mermaid,” a talk-back session with student filmmakers and more.
In addition, 20 selected lifetime members were invited to Cal State Fullerton Night at Angel Stadium and received a 90-minute guided tour of the stadium.
A bronze award was won for the 2017 Giving Tuesday campaign, organized by Annual Campaigns and Stewardship and Strategic Communications. The annual event is a global day of giving, fueled, in large part, by social media. Cal State Fullerton’s efforts were made to solicit donations to Project SAFE, a program providing emergency support to students experiencing insecurity related to food, housing and transportation. Promoted to more than 362,000 followers on the university’s official social media channels, as well a promotional campaign that reached more than 1.2 million people, these efforts increased donations by 905 percent, yielding almost $50,000 in donations, more than $50,000 in value-provided student housing and 4,000 student meals.