Give Day “Challenge Gifts” Maximize Student Impact

Trees on campus are starting to bloom, and that means Give Day is approaching! The 29-hour online fundraising event, this year on April 22-23, overlaps with Picnic Day on Saturday, April 23. This will be the first time since 2019 that this fun all-campus celebration is taking place in person—a real treat for families, especially those who have only experienced UC Davis under COVID-19 conditions.

But regardless of whether you attend Picnic Day, you can participate in Give Day from the comfort of your couch. As our biggest fundraising event of the year, Give Day benefits teaching, research, scholarships and services from all disciplines across UC Davis campuses and facilities.

A certain kind of giving fuels Give Day: Challenge gifts, which make contributions of any size go further by “unlocking” larger amounts put forth by community donors. About two-thirds of Give Day gifts come in through challenges. Last year there were 237 challenge gifts to choose from.

And UC Davis parents—current and former—are very much involved as donors, generally working to strengthen programs and services that help students in particular. From donors I am working with, I can offer a few examples:

• Aggie Compass Basic Needs Center—A challenge gift of $5,000 will be donated if met by 25 gifts of any size.
• Aggie Launch Excellence Fund—Unlock this $3,000 challenge gift with 25 gifts of any size.
• Parents Fund—A $3,000 challenge gift unlocks with 25 gifts of any size.

You can find all challenge gifts by visiting the Give Day site when it goes live—giveday.ucdavis.edu—and then clicking the “Challenges” button in the upper right navigation bar. Through challenges, gifts of $10 or $25 can have an enormous impact!

Or perhaps you might consider establishing a challenge gift, either by yourself or with a team of parents or friends. The minimum amount of a challenge gift is $2,500, and the deadline for submission is Thursday, March 31. Please feel free to get in touch with me with any questions or ideas!

The theme of this year’s Give Day is “Greater Than Ever.” This is certainly true of UC Davis as a top-tier public research university. And it’s true of our incredible donors, especially when we harness the power of challenge gifts.

For more about Give Day, visit giveday.ucdavis.edu. You can click here to learn more about Picnic Day.

For more information about how parent giving makes a difference in students’ lives, contact Cari DuBois-Wright, Associate Director of Development in Parent Giving, at caduboiswright@ucdavis.edu, 510-388-3605. You can visit our Parents Fund website here as well as learn more about our Family Fellows.