More people than ever before donated to support students as part of California State University, Bakersfield’s virtual Giving Day fundraiser earlier this month.
Raising for `Runners Giving Day — which ran from noon on April 8 to noon on April 9 — brought in $168,000 from nearly 1,000 donors, topping the university’s previous record of 891 donors last year. Over 600 were new donors to CSUB this year.
The university received over 1,100 gifts as part of the event, which brought the community together to make a lasting impact on students' lives. Donations came in from across the nation as well as a few from other countries, including Sweden, Australia and New Zealand.
“I would like to express my deep gratitude to our Roadrunner community for supporting Kern County’s University in a meaningful way,” said Director of Annual Giving and Stewardship Eric Weis. “Even in times when finances are tight, the outpouring of generosity and commitment prevails. I look forward to continuing to build partnerships with our amazing donors who deeply care about CSUB.”
Raising for `Runners Giving Day featured several challenges that engaged faculty, staff, alumni, students and the community. The President’s Associates Challenge unlocked $25,000 for the Student Research Scholars program — which supports research projects by student-faculty teams — when the 500th gift was given to the university.
Other notable donations include a $10,000 gift from Dr. Jackie Kegley to support the Kegley Institute of Ethics and a $5,000 matching gift from Professor Dahna Stowe as part of the Gonzalo Santos Public Sociology Scholarship Challenge.
The fundraiser encouraged donors to give to areas of the university they are most passionate about. The Wrestling Excellence Fund received the most donations from alumni and the women’s golf team also won the Rowdy Challenge.
The Rowdy Challenge was created to promote friendly competition amongst athletics teams where the winner would be declared based on the highest participation percentage to an athletics excellence fund after the 24-hour giving marathon.
The College of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering Dean’s Strategic Fund received the most donations from faculty and staff while the College of Arts and Humanities won the Battle of the Colleges Challenge for the fifth year in a row. This challenge is based on the number of unique donors that give to a respective college.
Alumni from the classes of 2010 through 2019 won the Rowdy Through the Eras Challenge and will be recognized on the Alumni Association giving page and at next year’s Alumni Hall of Fame event.
CSUB student Carl Allen was a first-time Giving Day donor this year who supported the university’s nursing program. Allen, who is graduating with his bachelor’s degree this spring, was excited for the opportunity to give back to a program that has meant so much to him.
“I gave on Giving Day because CSUB’s nursing program didn’t just teach me how to become a nurse — it invited me into a world of service, not only through service-learning courses but through Global Nursing Outreach,” he said. “I’m a huge believer in paying it forward whenever possible so others might have the chance to have what I was fortunate to be given.”
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