University Surpasses Fundraising Goals

Donors pour money into various departmentsSophie MattsonTHE SANTA CLARAApril 24, 2014[dropcap]O[/dropcap]ver 2,000 individuals donated to Santa Clara’s first ever one-day giving challenge on Wednesday, raising over $200,000 with more than 1,001 benefactors contributing gifts to the university in the first 150 minutes of the launch.The all-day online event, The Power of One Day: All in For SCU, gave Santa Clara 24 hours to collect a minimum of 1,001 monetary gifts in order to obtain a $100,000 donation. The gift comes from two alumni, Julie Robson ’83, and Mark Robson ’84, members of the Santa Clara University Board of Fellows.According to Mike Wallace, assistant vice president for development, the donation will fund scholarships and immersion trips. Hours after reaching the goal of obtaining 1,001 donors, alumni from the class of 1969 announced that they would donate an additional $100,000 if the university managed to obtain 2,002 donors by 8 a.m. this morning. The university reached its goal eight hours after the initial launch of the challenge. Individual donations could be given to any aspect of the university and still be counted toward the goal. “The theory of the day is to give (toward) your passion, so any gift to anywhere on campus will count toward this challenge,” Wallace said. “If someone makes a $5 gift, it counts the same as someone making a $5,000 gift.”The giving event was promoted in order to inspire people to pledge donations sooner rather than later. “There (are) so many things that go throughout one person’s life, and it is so easy to forget about the wonderful things that are going on at Santa Clara,” Wallace said. “Something like this will catch (alumni) attention and inspire someone to make their gift now rather than wait and do it later at some point during the year.”Aside from aiming to obtain the donation from the Robsons, the overarching goal of the challenge was to raise student awareness of the amount to which alumni assist them in maximizing their Santa Clara experience. “Even if (a student is) paying full tuition, they are still benefiting from the generosity of those that have come before them, and that is why people give to Santa Clara — because they love this place, and it has impacted them,” Wallace said.In a statement from Julie and Mark Robson regarding why they pledged to donate $100,000, they said, “We believe in the Santa Clara mission and the positive impact of the work that is being accomplished.” Contact Sophie Mattson at smattson@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.