The Georgia College Alumni Giving Challenge embodies the spirit of philanthropy and community engagement, inviting graduates to unite in support of their alma mater. This annual initiative serves as a rallying cry for alumni to demonstrate their commitment to the institution that shaped their academic journey and beyond.
“The Alumni Giving Challenge is a revamped version of the GC Giving Challenge Campaign, which has been held every spring semester since 2020,” said Michelle Aquino, the director of annual giving and digital engagement. “The GC Giving Challenge was initially created to provide a platform for GCSU alumni, parents, students, faculty, staff and friends to unite and make a collective impact.”
This year, specifically, GC is highlighting areas of student experience, such as intramurals, GCSU Helping Hands and The Heritage Fund. You have three avenues to support the Alumni Giving Challenge.
“It supported the growth of one program or project from each of the five colleges,” said Aquino. “It also spotlighted the GCSU Heritage Fund, the university’s annual fund and most impactful fund on campus. With success over the last four years, we believed this year was ideal for rebranding the campaign, aiming to expand its reach and increase its financial impact across more areas of campus.”
From April 10-12, alumni were invited to participate in the challenge. During these 72 hours, GC urged all alumni to reflect on their time on campus and contribute to their alma mater by supporting a meaningful cause.
“I am very thankful for the ways in which GCSU alumni support the advancement of our beloved alma mater,” said Nadirah Mayweather, the director of alumni engagement. “They make a positive impact through the ways in which they give of their time, resources, expertise and by the way they share information with others in their own communities and spheres of influence about GCSU. This year, we challenged them to raise the bar in their giving efforts, and we are pleased that many of them accepted and then challenged others to do the same.”
The staff and faculty acknowledge that students may have long-standing connections with alumni. They rallied for their support to achieve a record-breaking goal of at least 600 alumni donors for this campaign.
“I am very thankful for the ways in which GCSU alumni support the advancement of our beloved alma mater,” said Nadirah Mayweather, the director of alumni engagement. “They make a positive impact through the ways in which they give of their time, resources, expertise and by the way they share information with others in their own communities and spheres of influence about GCSU. This year, we challenged them to raise the bar in their giving efforts, and we are pleased that many of them accepted and then challenged others to do the same.”
Last year, less than 2% of alumni were able to donate back to GC. This year, they are encouraging more alumni to participate in change for the better. The 72-hour Giving Challenge has a direct goal: to improve the statistics. It introduced an innovative online giving platform, which facilitated easy sharing of the campaign across various networks and enabled engagement with colleagues. Additionally, it motivated students to leverage their social media presence to connect with alumni from their respective departments, schools or colleges.
“The campaign would not have been successful without the leadership and guidance of our Vice President for Advancement, Seth Walker, as well as the collaboration, creativity and support of Nadirah Mayweather, director of alumni engagement, and the hard work, organization and dedication of MacKenzie Michels, digital engagement coordinator,” Aquino said. “Additionally, University Communications, the entire University Advancement department, development officers, stewardship coordinators, the alumni engagement team, student workers, and the advancement services team all played pivotal roles in ensuring the campaign’s success for the university. We’d also like to thank all the Deans of the colleges — Dr. Stratton, Dr. Newsome, Dr. Evans, Dr. Peters and Dr. Tenbus — along with Amy Whatley [director of student care and outreach] and Drew Burton [director of Wellness & Recreation] for supporting the campaign within each of their departments. Lastly, we’d like to thank President Cathy Cox for her support of the campaign and for assisting our team in marketing the campaign. It was a campus-wide effort, and we are very grateful for all the support.”
The GC Alumni Giving Challenge went extremely well. The Honors College surpassed its goal and raised over $4,000 for its upcoming trip to New Orleans, Louisiana. For the first time, intramurals joined the challenge and raised over $3,200 from almost 60 donors. Overall, the campaign yielded over $60,000 from 370 donors. This was a very successful challenge that will be completed again.
