Sept. 19, the annual North Texas Giving Day was a “great day to make a gift to the University of Dallas,” said Director of Major Gifts Ellen Rossini from the Office of Advancement.
According to its official website, North Texas Giving Day is an “event that helps bring awareness and support for nonprofits.” Powered by the Communities Foundation of North Texas, the event raised over $50 million dollars this year for nonprofits in North Texas.
Although the 18-hour fundraising event is driven by online donations, a table was set up in the Cap Bar from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. During the afternoon, the table was manned by Rossini and Teresa Gahan, an intern in the Office of Advancement.
Rossini described “the spirit of the day” as giving everyone a chance to support all the charities they wish to at one time.
Before standing next to the board tallying the donations for a picture, Rossini checked the donations statistics on her phone, pointing out excitedly how the numbers were climbing.
Rossini said that in past years UD had the greatest amount of “participating donors” compared to the other non-profits involved. This year, the UD community did not disappoint. It remains the top recipient of individual gifts for the seventh year in a row.
Although it did not receive as much as 2017’s $240,833 or 2018’s $156,222, UD exceeded its goal of $100,000, raising $101,512 from 431 donors.
This year’s North Texas Giving Day had a special significance, being the first under Pres. Dr. Thomas Hibbs.
“My contribution was mainly having a bunch of videos made of me walking around,” said Hibbs in an interview. “I walked up to students and said ‘pretend like we’re talking about something important’…That’s what you do.”
Hibbs stated that the donations received from the event would go into the university’s endowment. The donations will be used to help students with the financial cost of attending the university and additional activities, such as the Rome program. Hibbs also mentioned that in addition to its other uses, the donations will go towards supporting lab research.
“Let’s fundraise to give students additional opportunities. We fundraise to help defray the cost of going to Rome,” said Hibbs. “We have summer research opportunities for students, we have faculty mentoring that goes on. Let’s find ways to support the work of our faculty as well.”
The faculty are a source of life to UD, according to Hibbs.
“I think every alum understands the need and appreciates the focus on students and on faculty,” said Hibbs. “So that was my message for North Texas Giving Day. That’s basically the message that I have. We’ll eventually talk about more specific things that we want to raise money for, but I think our day-to-day message is we need money to support the really wonderful things that are going on in the interaction between students and faculty inside and outside the classroom.”
