UMD Raises Over $2M On Sixth Annual Giving Day

The University of Maryland community raised over $2 million on its sixth annual Giving Day. Held on March 6, the 24-hour giving challenge raised money to support student scholarships, academic programs, and campus initiatives. The university received 8,649 total gifts from students and parents, faculty and staff, campus organizations, and alumni.

Donors were able to give to a wide variety of funds or programs dedicated towards schools and colleges, athletics, libraries, performing arts, and Greek and student organizations. Donors also had the option to support one of the many University funds, including the Keep Me Maryland Fund and the Veterans Scholarship Fund.

Athletics led donations with a fundraising total of close to $190,000, followed by the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences and the Office of Undergraduate Studies with totals of close to $113,000 and $72,000 respectively. The Office of Undergraduate Studies received over 1,000 gifts, the highest number of gifts given to a specific unit.

“We are extremely proud of the success of this year’s Giving Day,” said Brian Logue, Executive Director of Annual Giving at UMD, “It’s amazing to see the entire campus community come together to support our institution and show Maryland pride.”

Throughout the day there were several opportunities for donors to have their donations matched. When donors gave to the Clark Challenge for the Maryland Promise, a need-based scholarship program for undergraduate students from underserved populations in the state of Maryland and the District of Columbia, gifts were matched dollar for dollar by the A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation and the University of Maryland. Similarly, the Clarvit Family helped match gifts from students, recent graduates, and first time alumni donors as well as donations made towards emergency scholarship funds.

In addition to matching opportunities and leaderboard challenges, this year the Testudo Selfie Challenge encouraged the UMD community to take a selfie with Testudo to help raise money for the fund of their choice. By posting a selfie on Facebook or Twitter with a printable version of Testudo and using the hashtag #UMDGivingDay, participants entered the fund they support for one of ten prizes. Winners of these prizes included the Robert H. Smith School of Business, Hillel, Gamer Symphony Orchestra Support Fund, UMD Student Crisis Fund, Clark School's Alumni Network Scholarship Fund, Philip Merrill College of Journalism, the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center Fund, the Friends of the Center for Young Children Endowment, Student Entertainment Events (SEE) Scholarship Fund, and Libraries.

Since its launch in 2013, UMD Giving Day has raised more than $6.5 million from the UMD community.