On Wednesday, the Office of Annual Giving and Students for University Advancement will be sponsoring Student Giving Day. After the success of the event in 2017, organizers chose to bring back the event to encourage more students to give back to organizations on campus that have made an impact on them.
Student Giving Day celebrates student donors and promotes philanthropy at NC State. The goal for the event is for each student to donate $20.18 that would go to causes across campus that enhance scholarship.
According to the Office of Annual Giving at NC State, four percent of undergraduate students participated in last year’s event and this year’s goal is that more students give back to areas on campus they have been involved in.
“There are 70,000 different funds where you are able to give back,” said Kara Mulligan, assistant director of the Office of Annual Giving. “We encourage students to give to their passion, so whether that’s your college or you can give to the libraries, you can give to a lot of the student organizations. There’s just lots of different places that you can give to. We tell students [to] think about somewhere that they love or somewhere that has impacted them. Wherever has impacted you the most, we encourage students to invest there.”
Kyle Kusterer, an associate director of the Office of Annual Giving, said that is the reason why there will be so many featured items such as food and t-shirts at the event.
“One thing that we want to communicate to students is that being a financial contributor to NC State does not have to be a one-way relationship,” Kusterer said. “That whether they are a student or whether they are a retired from an executive position, giving to NC State can be fun and we can celebrate it in a way that is not a drag.”
Students for University Advancement is a new organization on campus that has been working with the Office of Annual Giving to spread the message of philanthropy education to students. According to Mulligan, the organization is a key player in the initiative to get students to become active donors.
“I think it’s important for peers to really be telling their peers about philanthropy and so I was able to put together a student organization, Students for University Advancement, this year,” Mulligan said. “They have really been the drivers of this day because I think that peer-to-peer fundraising is so much more impactful than somebody from the university being the one to share this message.”
Caleb Parker, a third-year studying sociology and president of Students for University Advancement, discussed why he thinks tomorrow’s event is the best way to reach students and get involved in giving early on before they become alumni.
“I feel like definitely getting out into the main center of campus is a plus,” Parker said. “Stafford Commons is where a lot of times people meet up and hang out. … It’s just a good way to get to the campus because you’re right there in the center, right by Talley. We’re trying to not teach it to them in a way that typically we’re taught lessons to at NC State in the classroom, but teach it to them in a way where it can also be fun and enjoyable.”
Mulligan said that she feels that it is important to start promoting philanthropy education now through the University because it gives future students the opportunity to succeed at the caliber current students.
“I think that it’s important for them to know that they can always ask questions,” Mulligan said. “This is an ongoing conversation that we want students to have, but we also want students to know that someone gave back to impact their experience that they are having when they’re here, so it’s really important that they also give back so that they can impact the students of two and three years down the road.”
Student Giving Day will take place in Stafford Commons from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday. Students can find out more information about the event on the Office of Annual Giving’s website.
