On Tuesday, Nov. 28 Augustana College and Camp Kesem took part in a global day of giving called Giving Tuesday.
This year was Augustana College’s second year participating in Giving Tuesday. According to Cameron Hall, Director of Annual Giving, the day is “really just about overall philanthropy… Giving Tuesday in and of itself is a day about volunteering [and] about giving back financially…[which] is needed by nonprofit organizations. So, as a nonprofit, we felt that it was a good opportunity for us to show that we are in that space too and that we have a need.”
In preparation for the day, the college sent out postcards at the beginning of the month to let potential donors know to save the date. Then emails were then sent leading up to Giving Tuesday and also throughout the day to encourage donations. Another effort made on campus to reach out to donors was made through the student call center on campus, who made phone calls starting at 10 a.m. on Giving Tuesday until 9 p.m. that night. In addition, volunteers helped advertise the cause—specifically the More than I Imagined alumni, who acted as social media ambassadors.
Serving as an incentive to donate last year during the event, Augustana College socks were made. These socks were reintroduced for this year’s event, and the first 75 donors who donated $60 or more to the Augustana fund received a pair.
This year, the college’s goal was to have 500 donors. However, Samantha Panozzo, the Assistant Director of Annual Giving, said that an alumnus from the graduating class of 1962 “said he would give $15,000 to the college if we got 500 donors for the day,” which the college exceeded at 512.
Donations could be made to any fund the donor wished, from Augustana’s general fund to scholarship funds to athletics, to Bergendoff Hall of Fine Arts. Donations were even made towards and the enhancement of the slough path. Overall, close to $58,000 was raised.
Though Giving Tuesday is over, people can still donate to the college through the Augustana website by logging on to augustana.edu/makeagift or by texting “Augie” to 56512 where donors can make a gift of any amount.
Camp Kesem, a college student run organization providing a free, week long summer camp for kids who have been impacted by a parent’s cancer, was also actively involved in Giving Tuesday.
According to the director, senior Allison Brinker, “Giving Tuesday is a day where we can really encourage our counselors to go out and get a big chunk of their individual fundraising done. This year, we were working on getting 15% percent of our overall fundraising goal in one day.”
In order to get attention for the event, counselors took to posting on Facebook, sending emails to/calling family members, and posting their donation link on Snapchat. “Some of our counselors chose to do dares, where for each certain level of donation they would do a certain dare like dance in the library. Or, if they raised a certain amount of money, one of our members said they’d get a tattoo of something representing Camp Kesem,” Brinker said. “We tried to do something where our three lowest fundraisers would get sundaed. It really encouraged people to fundraise because if they didn’t, then they were gonna get chocolate syrup, whip cream, and sprinkles all over them.”
This year, Camp Kesem had a goal of raising $10,000 and surpassed it by raising close to $13,000. Now, people are still able to donate by visiting the online link or by writing a check to Camp Kesem at Augustana.
Along with Giving Tuesday, another way that people can give this season is by making a donation to the Reading/Writing Center’s annual holiday book drive.
The drive has been conducted for several years and was created by the center’s previous director, Virginia Johnson. Every year during the month of December, the center collects donations from students, faculty, and staff of either new or like new books through the sixth grade reading level which they then donate to Longfellow School.
According to the center’s current director, Lucas Street, the books are then dropped off at Longfellow once winter break begins and they use them “as classroom incentives, so kids who perform well can have a free book. Last year we collected so many books that every student at Longfellow got to keep a book of their own.”
During the academic year of 2014-2015, the center collected 418 books, where last year, 346 books were collected. Ideally, the center would like to beat their 2014-2015 collection, and donations can be made up through noon on Friday, Dec. 15.