Chico State raises over $500K through Giving Day
CHICO >> In its fourth year of the event, Chico State raised a new record high in both dollars raised as well as donors contributing on its March 3 Giving Day. The university received $539,672 from 2,539 donors across 41 different states.
Donors came in the form of alumni (1,281), parents (372), friends of the university (635), students (126), faculty and staff (105) and other organizations (11).
Chico State broke the 88 participating organizations into seven different categories, which Chico State Vice President of University Advancement Ahmad Boura supplied the final dollars raised for each category.
• The community engagement category raised $42,446
• Equity, diversity and inclusion raised $16,191
• Scholarships and awards raised over $20,000
• Athletics and sport clubs raised over $188,000
• Student and program support raised over $52,000
• Sustainability and environment raised $5,000
• And the Chico State fund, which supplies money for the greatest needs on Chico State’s campus, raised over $95,000
Boura said the money will help different organizations around Chico State’s campus improve their programs. For athletics and sports clubs, Boura said the money may be used towards recruitment, travel and buying equipment. For programs such as the engineering department money may go towards research projects.
For the Chico State fund, the money goes towards what Chico State administration determine to be the greatest needs on campus, Boura said. In 2021 funds from the Chico State fund have been used to buy laptops and cameras for students who did not have them available. Money from the Chico State fund has also been used to help upgrade the WiFi on Chico State’s campus in the last year.
“Part of the work that we do is we ask people to give us money and when they make a contribution, the next job is what can we do after the gift is to acknowledge the donor and thank the donor,” Boura said. “We send them a confirmation letter that their gift is going to go exactly to the program that they picked.”
Boura said following the letters staff follows up donors throughout the year specifically sharing how their contribution helped a certain program.
In the first year of the event, 2018, Chico State raised $300,000. In the following year $320,000 was raised, and in 2020, $330,000 was raised. In the fiscal year, which lasts from July 1, 2020 until June 30, 2021, Chico State has raised over $12 million through its philanthropic campaigns.
“I think it’s a variety of things,” Boura said when asked about the reason for this year’s success. “No. 1 is that I think a lot of people want to help. In general people respond to a good cause, and if you can articulate why your gift is going to make an impact, people are going to participate.”
In the next five years Boura said he hopes Chico State will be able to surpass the $1 million mark on the annual Giving Day. Boura said he thinks the number is possible as long as Chico State continues to share how the donations make an impact.
“A lot of the students who came to Chico and they got a good education, they know tuition back in the ’80s and ’70s was different than it is now,” Boura said. “Now we tell them that our students, they need more resources, and so that’s why they create a scholarship or support awards so we can help as many students as possible.”