Second Ironclad Giving Day Raises $903,850 From 3,206 Donors

The second Ironclad Giving Day closed at 7:33 a.m. Wednesday with $903,850 raised from 3,206 donors. The first, last April, raised $611,200 from 2,390 donors, so this year’s total is up 48 percent. The campaign runs for 1,893 minutes, one for each year since the Porter Manual Training School opened. It began at midnight Tuesday.

Donors could give to any of 104 funds. The student emergency fund, which pays for sudden costs like a car repair or a lost paycheck, drew 871 individual gifts, more than any other fund. Last year that distinction went to general scholarships. The largest dollar total, $148,300, went to the simulation hospital equipment fund. That money closes most of the remaining gap on the Health Sciences Center project now under construction, and $50,000 of it came from a challenge gift by nursing graduates of the 1990s, who matched every nursing gift made between 6 and 9 p.m.

Where the money went:

• Scholarships: $296,400 across 37 named and general funds
• Labs and equipment, led by the simulation hospital: $221,750
• Student support (emergency fund, food pantry, First-Generation Student Center): $139,200
• Athletics and club sports: $162,900
• Unrestricted and other: $83,600

Eighteen student volunteers ran a phone and text bank from the Welcome Center through the night. The cross-country team ran a lap of campus every time the total crossed another $50,000. Starting from midnight, that came to 18 laps, the last at 6:51 a.m. by three runners the team describes as “the ones who were awake.”

“Last year we were not sure anyone would notice a giving day. This year 488 people gave to Porter for the first time in their lives, and most of them graduated in the last ten years. I will take that over any single big check.”

— Hollis Vang, Director of Advancement & Alumni Relations

Gifts are receipted within ten business days. Donors who want to change a fund designation can call the UW–Porter Falls Foundation at (715) 555–0177. Current priorities are on the giving priorities page, and the give page is open the other 364 days of the year.

Contact: Office of University Communications, news@uwporterfalls.edu