After seven years of ETSU’s Day of Giving, the event will be entering a new era and will now feature an entire week full of giving and honoring those who have donated to ETSU.
“It’s going to be called Forever ETSU: Week of Giving. So the intent in that is that we can do a better job of honoring the past of everyone that’s given before. The reason why we’re here and where we are is because of the donor support, our students and our alums that came before us,” explained Executive Director of Annual Giving Desmond Pierce. “So that’s the simple version of Forever ETSU — honor the past, empower the present and all of that leads to building a better future for ETSU.”
Forever ETSU will take place April 21-25. Each day of the week will have a different focus, but donors will be able to give a gift any day of the week.
Monday will be focused on faculty and staff and will have different challenges to help raise participation to start the week off strong.
“We want to make it fun, make it competitive, but because we’ve never tried it this way, there’s a lot of room for us to be able to get support from our faculty and staff and that shows our donors that our faculty and staff believe in what we’re doing and Forever ETSU,” said Pierce. “So whenever donors see that, whenever students see that, it all ties together.”
Tuesday will allow everyone in the community to make a gift. It will be what the Day of Giving has been in the past, but now as a part of the larger purpose of Forever ETSU.
Wednesday will be 4-2-3 Bucs Say Thanks Day. This day will be focused on saying thank you to the community, donors and local businesses.
“We’re going to have stations set up within multiple college departments for students to come by, record a thank you video to send to donors or write a personal message on a postcard that we’ll send to donors,” said Pierce. “Our goal is to have over a thousand handwritten student and faculty thank you cards that will go out to our donors. It’s important that we honor our community, everyone in the 423, but specifically Johnson City.”
Thursday will be focused on the students. From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., the D.P. Culp Student Center Cave will be filled with activity and some free items for students that come by.
“We’re going to have a hat bar led by our Student Foundation Ambassadors. We have 13 founding members and each of those members are going to be fundraising for a fund that they’re passionate about,” said Pierce. “All the money raised, up to $500, will be matched from our Foundation board members.”
The hat bar will offer navy hats with retro logos that students will receive upon making a donation of $25. For graduating students, they will be able to receive a gold cord upon giving a $25 gift.
The Alumni Association will also be holding a graduation celebration. They will have more free items and some giveaways for students who are graduating to show their appreciation and support.
Friday is still being planned out, but is intended to be a day of celebration on campus and amongst the community to celebrate a successful week of giving.
