Give 4 Garnet 2019 Will Honor President Pastides with Celebratory Campaign
Staff Report From South Carolina CEO
Friday, April 5th, 2019
The University of South Carolina’s second annual giving day, Give 4 Garnet: A Day of Giving, is set for Wednesday, April 10, with plans for a special campaign dedicated to retiring president Harris Pastides.
Among the 22 different Give 4 Garnet campaigns that donors can support is one that will pay tribute to Dr. Pastides’ longtime leadership by naming the university Alumni Center in his honor. An anonymous donor has agreed to match up to $1 million in donations to this campaign.
Overall, the focus of this year’s giving day is donor participation. The one-day event, from 5:59 a.m. to midnight, aims to spur 6,500 donors to make gifts.
Give 4 Garnet unites South Carolina alumni, parents, students, faculty, staff members and supporters in a collective online giving event. With the tagline “Every little piece makes a big impact,” Give 4 Garnet showcases the combined power of every gift and every donor in making an impact on the university’s future.
In its first year, Give 4 Garnet drew more than 4,200 donors from across the globe, with an average online gift of $126, raising more than $3.7 million for an array of university programs in just 18 hours and one minute. Promoted largely on social media, the system-wide event garnered more than 17 million social media impressions.
“Give 4 Garnet is a great illustration of how smaller gifts can make a difference for a big institution,” said Jancy Houck, South Carolina vice president for development. “Last year, we were thrilled to see how those gifts turned ideas into realities—like our new Social Media Insights Lab at the College of Information and Communications. We look forward to even more participation this year.”
Among the projects funded by Give 4 Garnet last year, more than $200,000 was raised to outfit CIC’s new social media monitoring and analytics classroom and research lab. The cutting-edge space is now hosting the UofSC Insights Initiative, which is using social data to generate reports on issues that are key in the 2020 presidential race.
Give 4 Garnet campaigns for the university’s schools, colleges and programs seek funding for a variety of needs, including student scholarships, career-building internships, research opportunities and special learning initiatives, as well as university projects that meet needs in the community and state. Details are on the Give 4 Garnet website, Give4Garnet.sc.edu, where donors can choose to direct their gifts to the university programs that mean the most to them.
The giving day time span of 18 hours and one minute is a reference to South Carolina’s founding in 1801.
On campus, Give 4 Garnet will feature activities from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in front of Russell House University Union on Greene Street. Attractions will include a life-size confetti globe for selfies, games, food, giveaway items and opportunities for photos with university celebrities, including this year’s Give 4 Garnet co-chairs, South Carolina director of player development Marcus Lattimore and Nephron Pharmaceuticals CEO Lou Kennedy. Gamecock Pantry and Carolina Closet will be accepting donations of canned goods and clothing.