Students for University Advancement is an organization at NC State with a mission to inform students about the importance of giving back to the community. The group was founded earlier this semester.

“This organization is focused on educating students about the philanthropic impact students can have on the university,” said Kara Mulligan, the assistant director of the NC State Annual Fund and the group’s advisor. “Giving back to your university is so important as a student, but also when you become an alumni.”

Caleb Parker, a third-year studying sociology and the group’s president, is also an advocate for giving back to the university, particularly as alumni.

“We’re trying to promote and educate students about annual giving,” Parker said. “Typically, gifts given to the university are given by alumni, and they’re not usually alumni that are young; we’re talking about people who graduated ten or more years ago. So what we’re trying to do is foster a community of giving within the student population so that when they graduate from NC State as a young alumni, they’ll be more accustomed to giving to the university, because they have already been giving to the university as a student.”

The group has already been active at several events across campus, including Student Giving Day on Stafford Commons on March 28.

“We hosted the Student Giving Day, that was pretty much us celebrating the donors,” Parker said. “Now that it’s getting warm outside, and the spring weather’s so nice, it’s just a good time to try to give back to those who have given to the university. We were also accepting gifts that day from students, and we’re trying to spread awareness about annual giving in a fun manner while also educating people as to why giving back to the university is important.”

At the event, student donors were put in the spotlight, and were celebrated for their generosity.

“We were out on Stafford Commons all day celebrating current student donors as well as students who had the opportunity to come out to make a gift, and just celebrated it with NC State swag, food and music,” Mulligan said.

The group was also present at a table at this year’s Grad Fair to encourage fourth-years to give a gift of $20.18, representative of the year in which they will graduate.

Between events, Students for University Advancement has also been working to gather new members from across the student body.

“At this point, we’ve gotten some students through word of mouth, but also with working with the Annual Giving officers has identified some students who kind of fit what we’re looking for,” Mulligan said.

Organization members have been working to make themselves and their goals more well-known across campus.

“For this semester, we’ve been trying to spread information about ourselves,” Parker said. “We’re always open to talk about Students for University Advancement, and we always welcome for others to come and help us.”

The group, while making themselves more visible, also hope to encourage students to contribute to not only the university, but also to other student organizations across campus.

“I’d love to see some more visibility on campus for the group, and just partnering with other organizations on campus,” Mulligan said. “What a lot of students don’t know is that you can give to a lot of the student organizations, so I think just being able to share that message with other organizations is something I’d love to see.”

For more information on the group’s plans and future events, contact Kara Mulligan at klmullig@ncsu.edu.