Marisol Chriesman, executive Director for Advancement Services, talks about Falcon Giving Day set for April 12. It is a day when people can donate to different university funds to support students. (Ruth Campbell|Odessa American)
The fourth annual Falcon Giving Day is coming up April 12.
“We started it in 2020 a month after the COVID shut down. We had decided to move forward with it because of all the planning we had had behind it. It was actually very successful that year. There was a lot of interest in supporting our students that we had still on campus, that weren’t able to get home and still in classes. Ever since then it’s been growing every year,” said Marisol Chriesman, executive Director for Advancement Services.
Giving Day kicks off at midnight April 12 through email solicitations and social media.
“Come 8 a.m. in the morning is when we will have a lot more activity … with radio station interviews; media interviews. We usually have a little get-together on the first floor where we have Freddy the Falcon, our mascot, greeting guests if anyone wants to drop off their donation. If students want to take pictures with him. That’s just more of a fun activity that we do and it will go all day long,” Chriesman said. “The following day is when we hope to have a close total of what we’ve reached.”
For the day, Chriesman said they highlight four funds and they focus on them every year.
“It is our general scholarship fund; our Student Emergency Fund; our UTPB Food Pantry; and Champions Fund, which is an athletic fund. But when donors go onto our giving page, they can click on ‘other’ and make a note to which department or program they would like the funds to go to,” Chriesman said.
Not only are those fund popular, but they are needed.
“They don’t have criteria, a lot of criteria behind how students can receive that funding. Especially for athletics, they don’t receive any scholarship funds so we had a lot of shortages there. The Emergency Fund was a new fund that … a donor created in late 2019. (The) timing was great, because we didn’t realize how many of those we were going to have four months later, so we’ve continued to stick with that one as well,” Chriesman noted.
The emergency fund is for whatever happens in students’ lives like their car breaks down, or they’re not able to pay a utility bill, for example.
“He wanted it to go for those type of incidents. Then we had March 2020 happen and we had a lot of those happening so that those funds … became very crucial for our students,” Chriesman said.
Last year, they received more than 300 gifts and around $360,000 was raised.
“It’s at least doubled from the very first year that we had it,” she said.
Chriesman added that they want to focus on this time of year every year because they have been consistent with it and want to grow it annually.
“It really was more because it’s at the end of the spring semester, and it helps prepare for the upcoming academic year to see what funding we have, or will have available for the upcoming academic year. It plays off of the fall when we now have our large scholarship ball and so we want to have a couple of large events for the university. We didn’t want to have them all at the same time,” she said.
Chriesman added that it hasn’t been too difficult to get donations.
“We have a really supportive community. … They appreciate the work that we’re doing to enhance our donor funds at the University for student support, programming and research. We have been fairly consistent over the last few years. Our donors and our communities are very generous,” she said.
Chriesman said they have seen trends where contributions slow down and pick up again.
“But we are definitely very blessed with a great community that they want to see the best for our students who are members of the community,” she added.
Donations are tax deductible. Donors will receive a tax acknowledgement letter by email and then regular mail a couple of days later.
The idea for Falcon Giving Day started in the summer of 2019 as annual giving days had been trending in higher education.
“We started the conversation then and everyone agreed that that sounded like a great idea. We’d looked at the calendar at that time and decided let’s do April, so that we can have the same date every year. That’s really how it started. There is a bigger trend now across the board with higher education for these large annual giving days and not necessarily that Giving Tuesday … so we don’t focus on that day either. We just focus on our Annual Giving Day,” Chriesman said.
She added that it helps bring students into the conversation because they want to hear more about it and find out how they can help.
“We have so many student organizations on campus, so they want to participate. It’s a good way for us on campus staff and faculty and students and then our alumni to come together for a common goal,” Chriesman said.
It also is a way to draw in future students.
“We have so much attention that week that day and we’re getting our name out there. We’re getting UTPB out there,” she added.
For more information and to donate, visit tinyurl.com/mmrzje9u.
