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Giving Tuesday raises more than $1 million

Bradley University raised $1,668,574 this week during its Giving Tuesday event, receiving donations from over 2,171 individuals – up significantly from last year’s $576,460 and 1,692 donors.

Giving Tuesday is an international event aimed at celebrating gratitude and raising awareness for nonprofit organizations and philanthropies. At Bradley, students, faculty, staff and alumni are encouraged to “give back” to their institution.

“I think it kind of creates a synergy between alumni and fundraising, and it can have a lot of positives to it,” Shelly Smith, senior director of the Bradley Fund, said. “People look at you like, ‘Oh, what do you do? You raise money and ask for money?’ But this is fun, it lets us tell donor stories, and it really lets us reach all generations.”

This year’s Giving Tuesday was paired with the addition of Student Giving Week, a new week-long event geared toward educating students on where their donations go and why they’re important.

“[We wanted to] give students the opportunity to start the tradition of their own philanthropy,” said Jocelyn McDowell, director of constituent relations, said. “Unless a [donor] specified otherwise, [the money] goes to the general student scholarship fund because it was in the general spirit of students helping students.”

To prepare for Student Giving Week, McDowell and a number of students notified the Bradley community with social media posts, emails and lawn signs. However, she said they tried to avoid “overwhelming” students because of the reactions they received during Giving Tuesday last year.

“There was so much strong feedback last year, like, oh my god, so many emails,” McDowell said.

Bradley development directors and students on the Bradley Fund worked in a “hub” on Giving Tuesday, making calls and collecting donations, according to Smith.

“We thought it [was] important … to make it a fun and energetic kind of place,” she said.

Katelyn Schalk, senior psychology major and member of the Bradley Fund, worked to organize this year’s Student Giving Week and Giving Tuesday events.

“[These events] remind us how much a school like Bradley relies on donations in order to provide students with the best opportunities,” she said. “Philanthropy education … reminds us [what] Bradley provides as students and allows us to start thinking about how we can pay the opportunity forward to future students when we graduate.”

Schalk raised awareness and participated in philanthropy education during Student Giving Week, and on Giving Tuesday, she made calls and collected donations in the hub.

“I participated in Giving Tuesday by encouraging alumni to donate or share the event with their friends so that they can pay it forward for something that Bradley has given them, whether they give in honor of a professor, a program, or an opportunity that Bradley has given them,” Schalk said.

And when Student Giving Week and Giving Tuesday ended, McDowell said the money raised made all of the hard work worth it.

“[It feels] amazing,” McDowell said. “We’re all pretty excited.”

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