Essence Boyd—Copy Editor
In one day, students, alumni and university members surpassed their goal of raising $125,000 for the annual Giving Day campaign by taking in $205,853.
“Our goal is to get students aware that it’s important to give back, to give to students in need, to give to student scholarships, you know to help people get an education,” said Office of Annual Giving Graduate Assistant Emily Carbone.
The campaign also broke last year’s earnings of $54,000.
The money earned from the campaign will go to funds such as Save Our Students, or the SOS Fund, to help those in need complete their education.
Giving Day was created to raise money for students, but Integrated Communications and Marketing Assistant Director of social media Allison O’Leary said that was not the only goal when creating the event.
“Its two parts, one is to raise money for students, everything goes back to students. The second part is to just raise community awareness that Southern is a great place to live, to learn, to work. We are a community,” said O’Leary.
Director of Annual Giving and alumna Kaitlin Ingerick and the department of Institutional Advancement, put together the event.
However, clubs hosted events encouraging students to donate in order to enjoy the games, snacks and contests that were held.
“The nice thing about an event like this is it’s such a campus wide initiative, it’s not just, like, one office doing it. Everyone understands the importance of giving back to the university and providing money for student scholarships,” said Office of Student Involvement Associate Director Eric LaCharity.
According to Carbone, planning for the event started almost a year ago as there were many parts and roles that had to be filled in order to put on the event.
Along with the quad activities, students were given the opportunity to take pictures with a pair of hand sketched wings that were created by Graphic Design Professor Alex Girard inside of the Hilton C. Buley Library.
“Our thought process was how can we create some visual content so people would want to share the word about Giving Day on social media and let more people know,” said O’Leary.
Students and staff were urged to donate to their favorite club or organizations, as not only would they hold the number one spot on the 2019 Giving Day Designation Leaderboard, but they would also receive a reward of $800 that would go back into their fundraising account.
“An incentive we’d come up with in [Student Government Association] is we decided which ever organization, whether it was by themselves or for an organization; whoever raises the most over $500 their incentive is they would win $800 put in back into their fundraising account, “said Student Involvement and Leadership Development Graduate Intern Jenna Dunn. “Second place would get $600; third place would get $400.”
Donors were given one last opportunity to donate at local restaurant Wood n’ Tap in Hamden, which partnered with the university in hosting a cocktail hour. 20% of each bill was added to the campaign.
Although the 2019 Giving Day campaign is finished, Ingerick said students, staff and alumni can donate to the Southern Fund daily. When donating to the fund, 20% of all earnings goes toward scholarships.
“We want students to be able to succeed and we understand that sometimes that takes money in order to do that. The reason we are here is to make sure that you have a wonderful experience and get a great education, so that you can go out and lead the world, “said Ingerick.
An unnamed donor is also said to be matching the campaign earnings. When asked who the identity of the donor is, Ignerick did not disclose.
Photo Credit: Essence Boyd
