Students who donate $1 can contribute to the chance to win a $1,000 scholarship.
The second annual All for One, All for Mavs fundraiser has been underway for the past few weeks, and is expected to run until Colorado Mesa University’s (CMU) Day of Giving around CMU’s birthday on April 10.
“Last year, the idea was we try to encourage the students, our alumni […] and the community and friends to donate and it all leads up to the Day of Giving,” Coordinator of Alumni and Campus Engagement Emma Leenerman said.
Students can donate any amount of money $1 or more to the scholarship which is then matched by donations from any of CMU’s 45,000 alumni, student organizations, faculty and the Alumni Association. Half of the money goes towards scholarships for the current year and the other half goes to sustaining the fund for the next year.
“The idea is that if we got every student to just donate $1, the Alumni Association and our alumni will match all of the student donations plus some. Last year, we ended up with about $27,000 and we had a couple of large matches from alumni and […] some other donors,” Leenerman said.
The $27,000 raised last year was from a $25,000 goal, with donations from around 300 students and large contributions from CMU’s Associated Student Government and alumni. This year, the goal of the drive is $40,000. Over $9,000 has been raised so far.
CMU is hoping to raise the number of students donating for this year’s scholarship drive.
“What we’re really looking for is not so much the dollar amount, but that a lot of people are getting involved,” Leenerman said.
The first year of the fundraiser, ten students were randomly selected to receive a $1,000 scholarship. Depending on the amount of money raised, both the number of students and the dollar amount could change.
Around 200 alumni have donated for the current fundraiser so far. Four scholarships have already been given out for this donation cycle, in a previous event in February.
“The Alumni Association has what we call the Alumni Association Scholarship Endowment, and every year that endowment has grown quite a bit. We’ve been able to award more and more scholarships each year to students. […] The more money that we can put into that account, the more that it grows, and the more that we can award out each year. It really does help the students and that’s a big motivation of our alumni board. They want to see that number growing and the number of students that we can award and that’s their main fundraising focus,” Leenerman said.
Any student is eligible to win the scholarship; even as a part-time student, as long as they are enrolled in six or more credit hours. If their student balance has already been paid off, the winner would get a refund. However, students not enrolled in classes for the next semester will not be eligible.
“We know college students don’t have all the means to be giving donations all the time, but $1 can be $1,000 for another student, or you,” Leenerman said.
