Sam Dunaway | News Editor
In a time of rising tuition rates and unpredictable government funding for higher education, several departments on Western’s campus rely on donations from outside sources. Western’s Giving Day on March 6 played an important role in fundraising over $40,000 for Western students and programs.
Giving Day is an annual event sponsored by WOU Foundation that aims to collect donations from Western alumni, donors, staff and students. The donation goal set by Annual Giving Coordinator Emily Swart was $34,500, mirroring Western’s address at 345 N Monmouth Ave. This was nearly $13,000 more than was raised in 2017, but Swart was confident that the campus-wide event would be a success.
“We had donors out there that wanted to support Western, we just needed to reach them in the right way,” she explained.
WOU Foundation set out to achieve this goal by reaching out to alumni as well as individuals that had supported Western in the past. Additionally, activities such as Java Match — where staff and students we asked to match the price of their coffee from The Press — and Giving Day Happy Hour — where the Alumni Board increased all donations by $18.56 — promoted the philanthropic nature of the day.
Giving Day donations were gifted to a multitude of different departments, from Abby’s House to Athletics. Swart expressed excitement that many individuals donated to unrestricted scholarships. This allows Western to award scholarships to a wide range of students without academic restrictions. She emphasized that every dollar donated on Giving Day is going back to students.
Swart’s passion and excitement for Giving Day was instrumental in making it more successful this year than ever before, but she attributes the achievement to each individual that came forward to enrich student life at Western.
“I have this feeling that faculty, staff, students – we walked a little taller that day and we were a little prouder of our university,” said Swart. “At the end of the day, it was all about Western Oregon students.”
Contact the author at journalnews@wou.edu
Photo by: Paul F. Davis
