On Tuesday, Dec. 3, Carnegie Mellon celebrated its 10th annual Giving CMU Day. This event is hosted in honor of the “Giving Tuesday” movement — the Tuesday after Thanksgiving when people are encouraged to donate and give back to their community.
Giving CMU Day was a collaborative effort led by the Annual Giving Team, with support from Advancement Communications and Marketing, SLICE, and the Student Philanthropy Advocates.
The 24-hour event consisted of donation challenges for individual donors and student organizations. The main event was Plaid Palooza, which took place in Kirr Commons from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
During Plaid Palooza, any member of a student organization attending the event could make a donation of $10 or more to be entered into a raffle. Five students would then be selected to receive an additional $500 for their organization. There were also free giveaways and pizza served to students.
Daniella Staudacher, the Associate Director for Carnegie Mellon’s Annual Giving Initiatives, said that 30 organizations were represented at the Plaid Palooza event and over 100 participated in Giving CMU Day in some capacity.
The Plaid Palooza event generated 93 donations, and student winners represented the organizations C#, Interfellowship Association, Carnegie Mellon Racing, and the Women’s Ultimate Frisbee Club.
On the Giving CMU Day website, donors could find challenges centered around specific groups, sports teams, or academic colleges. One example was the SCS Challenge, in which two anonymous donors promised to give $12,500 to the SCS Innovation Fund if 650 donors gave a gift of $10 or more.
A competition was also hosted for the top three student organizations with the greatest number of individual donors. Many organizations took to social media to describe the purpose and impact of their club and to ask for donations.
The winner of the competition, Carnegie Mellon Racing, had 302 donors and raised $21,719. In an Instagram post on Dec 2, the organization said that the money will go towards helping them to “design, optimize, and implement a better aerodynamics package than ever before.”
The second-place winner was Camp Kesem, which had 218 donors and raised $18,813. The organization hosted several events throughout Giving Tuesday, including Crafting with Kesem from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. at the UC, a Game-a-Thon from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., and a Jazz Club Benefit Concert from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. The funds will support Camp Kesem’s mission of providing free summer camp experiences to children whose parents have cancer.
The Women’s Ultimate Frisbee Team won third place with 204 donors, raising $18,813 in total.
Other events of the day included Scotty Scavenger Hunt, where students were challenged to be the first to find one of 10 Scotty plushies hidden around campus. If they find a plushie and donate $10 or more, students would be eligible for $250 for a fund of their choosing.
There was also a “Power Hour” challenge where if 100 donors per hour make a gift of $10 or more to any Carnegie Mellon fund, a $5000 gift would be given by an anonymous donor to the Carnegie Mellon Student Experience fund, which “helps to enrich and improve all facets of the CMU experience.” Once that goal was reached, the reward was shifted to be an additional $5000 to the General Scholarship Fund, which would go towards assisting students with financial need.
Overall, the day resulted in 7,000 donors, $2.3 million in donations, and $960,000 in donation matches and challenges.
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