Every year Ed Butler ’63 is the first volunteer to contact me for Giving Day! Here’s what he shared about this experience. You’re invited to join us, and many other volunteers, to make this Giving Day the best one yet. ~ Mindy Hillenbrand, Regional Programs
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Our Cornell Club has used Giving Day from GD’s beginning to help raise funds for our Scholarship which lowers the loans students carry when they graduate.
The GD team has improved tools and process for participants like us over the years. If you or your Cornell organization is considering using GD to raise funds, my advice is to “just do it”. You can tune your pitch from year to year. I should note that we send an email about GD and our scholarship to local alums 2 days prior to GD and another reminder on GD itself. The funds we raise from GD have increased each year. And we have managed to get donations from alums in the area whom we have never heard from before.
Our Scholarship fund raising has three parts:
-people can donate on Giving Day
-people can donate as part of Cornell’s Annual Fund
-we hold raffles at our events (but the pandemic has precluded this source, so online giving like Giving Day takes on more importance since we have no endowment to fall back on)
Our Scholarship is over 25 years old. The last couple years we have awarded between $2,500 and $4,000. The thank you notes from awardees are heartfelt. But for me, the best is to see a former awardee donate to our Scholarship on Giving Day!
Ed Butler ’63
Scholarship Chair
Cornell Club of Monmouth Ocean NJ