By Avery Russ, Gaylord College Class of 2025
Thank you everyone, for your engagement and involvement during Giving Day. Thanks to you, we were able to bring in $92,990 and 160 gifts to enhance the learning environment for students here at Gaylord.
Although Giving Day 2023 has come to an end, the Gaylord community is forever grateful for your donations. OU Giving Day is our annual 24-hour fundraising event that supports students, departments, programs and groundbreaking research across all three campuses. The OU Foundation organizes and facilitates philanthropic gifts to support the university.
The OU Foundation held hourly social media challenges, where the winner of each challenge is awarded money. The challenges held were: early challenges, mega challenges and hourly challenges. There was also “first gift of the hour” and all-day challenges. The money that supports these social media challenges was made possible by the OU Foundation, Trustees and President’s Associates.
Gaylord won three of these challenges, placing second for largest online gift between 6 and 7 a.m., favorite place on campus and also won third place for most gifts at 10 p.m. These successes were made possible by students, faculty, alumni and the OU community. Those achievements would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of the students and faculty in the Gaylord Media Practicum. The students put together graphics, videos, and informative content across our social media platforms for the hourly challenges.
Donations impact the OU and Gaylord communities in multiple ways. When you give to OU, you have a powerful opportunity to shape the lives of students, enhance their collegiate experience and preserve our history for years to come. Your donations strengthen OU’s mission of developing critical thinkers, doers and explorers through innovative, engaging instruction in an inclusive and supportive learning community.
The four different funds available for Gaylord donors were the Gaylord College Student Support Fund that helps assist Gaylord students facing emergencies, the Graduate Research Scholarship that funds the Gaylord research facilities, the Lindsey + Asp Next Decade Fund that focuses on providing for Lindsey + Asp for all the years to follow and lastly, the Undergraduate Scholarship given to undergrad students with the most need.
The success of Giving Day demonstrates the power of collective action and the impact every contribution can make. By coming together as a community, we raised an incredible amount of money to support the Gaylord College. Not only did we surpass our fundraising goal as a university, but we also had fun and engaged with one another through the hourly challenges and social media activities. These challenges provided an opportunity for us to showcase our pride and passion for Gaylord and the University of Oklahoma. We are honored to be a part of such a supportive and generous community and look forward to continuing to make a positive difference in the lives of our students. Thank you again to everyone who participated in Giving Day 2023. Your contributions make a real difference and are deeply appreciated by the entire Gaylord community.
