This year’s One Day for UNK fundraising event had a record-breaking amount of 2,029 gifts received. These gifts came from 1,358 donors, and $289,568 were raised in support of campus organizations.
Lucas Dart, the vice president of alumni relations and development of the University of Nebraska Foundation, said the event fosters unification on campus.
“It’s an opportunity for campus to just unite in support,” Dart said. “It really is a chance to rally everybody. Students are involved, faculty are involved, staff is involved and we have volunteers who are alumni. We’ve got campaign committees and other people who are out there talking about ‘Hey One Day for UNK, let’s all unite on this one day and support UNK and sort of endorse what’s going on around campus.’”
The One Day for UNK donation window this year was from noon on Nov. 13 to noon on Nov. 14. The event is meant to bring in monetary support for different student organizations including athletics, sororities, fraternities and clubs. Support was received from 40 different states and six countries.
Donors can give on any day of the year, but this event is special because it gives students an opportunity to advocate for their organizations and show their community what they’re passionate about.
Dart said the wide range of support comes from UNK alumni, current students and community members, which proves that “a little bit of UNK is everywhere.”
One Day for UNK left students and faculty full of gratitude.
UNK junior Hidaya Mohamed is the president of the African Student Union organization, which hosts events for African students on campus to help them get in touch with their culture. Mohamed said she’s thankful for donors because the money raised helps them be able to host open campus events that allow for more students to experience their traditions.
“I would really like to thank the donors that put their time, money and effort into donating to our organization,” Mohamed said. “They’re changing a lot of student’s lives. College can be a little hard, and this is a space where students can participate, have fun, get to know each other and do something that’s more than academics. Without these donations, I don’t think our organization would run smoothly or we wouldn’t have the freedom to do as many events as we wanted to do.”
Psychobiology major Mariana Mosqueda is the GAMMA delegate for Lambda Theta Nu Sorority Inc., which advocates for higher education and helps share Hispanic culture with UNK. Mosqueda said donations help them put together the Latino Youth Leadership Conference and plan campus events.
“Some of our donors were actually Alpha Beta sisters from our chapter from past years, so I would like to thank them for continuing their involvement in our sorority,” Mosqueda said. “One of our donors was actually a founder of our sorority, so that was really sweet of her. She’s been really active in our sorority this year so it’s been really nice. I also would like to thank all the other people that donated for our cause.”
The Antelope was also involved in One Day for UNK and received a total of three gifts and $530 in donations.
Dart said the success wouldn’t be possible without the overwhelming support from the outside community.
“Without (the donors) it’s absolutely nothing,” Dart said. “People who would give up their treasure, their time and their influence to help make this successful – we couldn’t be more grateful. What we do on a daily basis is nothing without people who have a little bit of passion to give back to support people who maybe came on the same path that they were on years ago.”
