We’re greater together on Give Day
By Cari DuBois-Wright
Give Day, UC Davis’ biggest annual fundraiser, is only weeks away. The 29-hour event on April 16-17 offers us all a chance to support the things we love about UC Davis. Your $10 gifts—or your $5 gifts!—are as welcome and appreciated as donations that add zeros to those numbers. Please rest assured that students, faculty, staff and leadership across our Davis and Sacramento campuses and beyond are very grateful for your support!
One thing I love about Give Day is that, while everybody’s gifts make UC Davis stronger, each gift is also personal. If you love walking in the Arboretum, give to the Arb. If you love animals, choose from an array of worthy programs at our School of Veterinary Medicine. If your student is excited about volunteering at the Student Farm, inventing things at the Engineering Student Design Center, or pursuing global learning domestically or abroad, consider gifts to those programs your family values.
And, as I discussed in last month’s column, consider giving to challenge gifts, which make contributions of any size go further by “unlocking” larger amounts put forth by community donors. For example, for our Family Fellows challenge, a donation of $5,000 unlocks upon receipt of 50 gifts of any size from UC Davis parents to any college or program they wish to support.
I urge all of you to take a moment and think about which UC Davis programs mean the most to you. As inspiration, I’m sharing a video in which UC Davis parents Steve McAdams and Hilarie Koplow discuss why they give to particular programs. Their daughter plays water polo, which motivates them to give to Aggie EVO, a professional development program helping student-athletes. They also, as believers in higher education opening opportunities, support programs assisting first-generation college students.
While not focusing on Give Day per se, Steve and Hilarie speak to the bigger questions of why parents give, including the greater impact of their donations. You may target some or all of your gifts to benefit programs enjoyed by your own student, but they also benefit many other UC Davis students—often hundreds or thousands of them.
The theme of this year’s Give Day is “Greater together.” No matter where you give, or in what amount, by participating in Give Day you make UC Davis stronger—and yes, greater as a university and a force for good here at home and around the world.
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.