The spirit of giving has reached Cal State Long Beach as the campus will debut its first-ever Giving Day Thursday, March 15.
The fundraiser will be held over the course of 27 hours from midnight eastern time to midnight pacific time, during which students, faculty and off-campus residents are invited to donate monetary contributions to four initiatives: Basic Needs, General Scholarships, Beach Fund and Study Abroad.
Kelsey Crane, assistant director of Annual Giving, said the event was inspired by Giving Tuesday, the movement in which people gave back through gifts or donations the Tuesday after Thanksgiving.
“We thought about participating in Giving Tuesday, but we really felt that Long Beach State deserves their own day,” Crane said. “We just want it to be a place where alumni, faculty, staff, students, friends, our entire Beach community can come together and give back.”
Crane also hopes those donating will share the event through social media using the hashtag “#LBGivingDay” to spread the word across the nation.
In addition to the 27-hour online fundraiser, there will be the Philanthropy Fair held on the North Quad next to Peterson Hall from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The fair will host different on-campus groups to discuss the importance of funding and how the money donated will help students as well as faculty members.
“[Participating groups] will share with students how philanthropy impacts the campus,” Crane said. “[They will discuss] how does private support the programs that they utilize every single day here on campus.”
Private support comes from off-campus organizations or individuals who extend a philanthropic hand through financial donations.
Groups scheduled to speak include Shark Lab, the CalFresh program and the University Police Department, who will attend with detection dog, Avery. Though the off-campus donors and alumni have received emails notifying them of the fair, Crane is unsure how many people will attend.
These groups will be set up at tables around the quad. At each table, students will be handed a raffle ticket they can turn in for potential prizes at the event’s main tent.
“Some of the prizes we’ve gotten [include] some Cal State Long Beach swag from the 49er Shop, from sweatshirts to t-shirts to water bottles,” Crane said. “We’ve also secured some gifts from places like Hangar 18 for memberships…and gift cards from places like Tutti Frutti and Frostbite as well.”
Crane credited the fair’s inception to the desire to celebrate the first Giving Day event, as well as to drum up some excitement from those on campus.
“It came about, ‘Well, we really want to start creating a culture of philanthropy on campus, so how can we do that during our day of giving?’” Crane said. “We thought it would be really cool to bring different areas on campus together to show students how private support impacts the programs that they utilize every day.”
Christina Salvador, assistant director of Prospect Research and Prospect Management, assisted in organizing the event. Salvador said she hopes students will realize how these donations “improve” education and learning on campus.
“I think a lot of our students don’t realize how much we get in donor support and how it really benefits the different programs,” Salvador said. “State funding can only go so far, so donor funding helps to make those programs more vital and thriving.”
Giving Day, in its first year of being an annual tradition, began its planning under a year ago, according to Crane, with the “bulk” of the arrangements being made in the last six months.
Students, faculty and other potential donors can give by mailing their gifts to the campus by March 15, calling the hotline at 562-985-5294 or by texting “LBSU” to 51-555.