BU Giving Day 2019—the last held in person before the COVID-19 pandemic struck—featured photo shoots with playful props and other activities. Photo by Dan Watkins

BU Giving Day Returns Live to Campus Today, April 6

This year’s one-day fundraising campaign focuses on building community

The eighth annual BU Giving Day, a one-day online fundraising and participation drive, is today, Wednesday, April 6. All gifts—of any amount—made from midnight EDT to midnight PDT will count toward the day’s total.

The theme this year, drawn from the BU Strategic Plan, is “Community, Big Yet Small.” In that spirit, donors to many of the communities within the larger BU community are offering bonus funds to inspire further donations.

“Giving Day is a chance for the entire BU community to unite for 24 hours and celebrate the things they care about at BU,” says Scott Graham, executive director of Annual Giving. “When alumni, parents, students, faculty and staff, and friends come together on Giving Day, our combined support has an even bigger impact for the causes we care about.”

The Annual Giving team is highlighting five funds that help ensure that the BU experience is open and available for all students. Gifts to these areas will be matched, dollar for dollar, on Giving Day:

• BU Diversity & Inclusion: Provides leadership, vision, management, and strategic direction for initiatives that promote diversity and inclusion for individuals, groups, and communities across BU’s campuses.
• General Scholarship Fund: Helps give scholarships to as many deserving students as possible.
• The Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground: Real conversations, shared experiences, individuals coming together to solve problems—all are central to the mission of the Howard Thurman Center at BU.
• The Newbury Center: Supports students who are the first in their family to attend college or graduate school, with aid in academic advising, mentoring, access to resources, and more.
• The Student Life Emergency Fund: Helps offset financial obstacles and ensure that all students can focus on making the most of their BU student experience.

Challenges boost a gift’s impact

Thanks to a group of generous BU donors, more than 50 challenges will increase the impact of gifts made on Giving Day. Here are a few:

• Clubs & Orgs Challenge: The 14 student groups with the most Giving Day donors will each collect a bonus—and the top winner will earn an extra $1,000.

• Student Lunch Rush: Between 11 am and 1 pm, the fund with the most student donors will win an additional $1,000.

• General Scholarship Fund Social Media Challenge: $10 a share will be donated to the General Scholarship Fund for the first 100 shares of the General Scholarship post on our Instagram account.

In addition, varsity teams will compete head-to-head for bonus funds, and all 17 BU schools and colleges have set up their own challenges. A complete list of challenges, many with dollar-for-dollar matches, is available on the Giving Day “Challenges” page.

On-campus events

Several spots around campus will feature food trucks and other snacks for those who stop by to make a gift. The GSU Plaza, for instance, will feature free ice cream, and the Pardee School of Global Studies has a taco truck. The Giving Day events page lists the times and locations for all the events.

With or without tacos, Giving Day gifts support hundreds of causes and programs on all three BU campuses and beyond—more than 400 in 2021 alone. That support came from more than 8,000 donors making gifts of less than $100, which added up to nearly $3 million. And every penny of that went to the causes the donors chose, just as all gifts do on every Giving Day.

The 2021 Giving Day took place entirely online because of pandemic restrictions. This year, you can expect to see a bit more activity around campus. The simplest way to see everything that’s going on, including live leaderboards tracking the challenges, and to get involved or to make a gift is to visit bu.edu/givingday.