Inaugural Duquesne Day of Giving a Success

More than 1,000 gifts from donors and a total of $109,122 raised made the inaugural Duquesne Day of Giving a success.

“We were very pleased to see the response of our alumni, staff, parents and friends to the Day of Giving on February 16,” said Sarah Sperry, executive director of alumni relations and annual giving. “As part of the overall annual giving strategy, the Day of Giving was a fun way to obtain new donors while rallying others around areas of campus that are important to them.”

As part of the Duquesne Day of Giving, donors were able to make an unrestricted gift to support the areas of greatest need or designate their gift to a specific school, organization, program or sports team at the University. All donations were made online.

By utilizing the online crowdfunding platform Spirit, donors and friends were able to watch donations being made in real time throughout the Day of Giving. Donors, members of the Duquesne community and friends of the University were also asked to help spread awareness of the Day of Giving on social media by using the hashtag #DUQDayofGiving.

“I could feel the momentum building on social media and on campus during the weeks leading up to the Day of Giving,” said David Jakielo, assistant director of annual giving and project manager for the event. “The week before the event, I was getting e-mails from people with photos of them holding Duquesne Day of Giving signs all over campus and in locations like Colombia, Dublin, Rome and Times Square in New York City, so I started to think, ‘Hey, we are really onto something here.’”

Other highlights from the Duquesne Day of Giving include:

  • 75 organizations, sports teams and schools were among the donor-designated areas
  • $20,000 in challenge gifts were unlocked
  • There were 579 #DUQDayofGiving posts
  • 35 states donated on the Duquesne Day of Giving.

The Palumbo-Donahue School of Business met Day of Giving challenges by exceeding the 100-donor target accompanying the $10,000 challenge to their school with 142 donors. The business school also received $5,000 as the school with the highest number of donors. Overall, the school received more than $25,000 on the Day of Giving.

The Gamma Phi fraternity achieved their $5,000 matching gift challenge. Including the challenge gift, Gamma Phi raised $15,953.32 for their 100th Anniversary Scholarship Fund.

“It was so inspiring to see how much Duquesne University means to so many people around the world,” said Jakielo. “Our 1,000th gift came in from Boulogne, France, and gift 1,001 was from Rome, Italy.”

Next year’s Duquesne Day of Giving is scheduled for Feb. 7, 2017. For more information, including how to get involved in the event, contact jakielod@duq.edu.