Featuring swag and matching funds, University of Texas Permian Basin’s Falcon Giving Day is coming up April 13.
Falcon Giving Day is a 24-hour campaign that aims to inspire “Falcons everywhere to come together, show pride for UTPB, and provide essential funding to support current and future students,” the UTPB website said.
Kimberly Luna is the annual giving coordinator and Kamryn Wesson is the associate annual giving coordinator. Donations go to scholarships, the food pantry and the Student Emergency Fund, for example.
“It’s all online giving,” Luna said.
The website to visit is www.utpb.edu/givingday, Wesson said.
“Donors can go on that website. There’s a section where they can fill out the amount they want to give and they can choose where they want their money to go. If they want it to go to the Student Emergency Fund, or if they want it to go towards a certain scholarship, our food pantry. They can choose wherever it goes,” Luna said. “If they are alumni; they graduated from one of our colleges, they can use their donation for the College of Business or biology … wherever they want it to go.”
Luna said the funds go toward student interests.
An example is the Student Emergency Fund.
“… If there’s a reason why a student can’t continue their education, if there’s a hindrance in their personal life — anything like that. They can’t afford the gas to get to the university, then that’s where we step in. They can apply for the Student Emergency Fund and we can help them with that. That way they can continue their education and not have to worry about how am I going to get there? How am I going to pay for gas; things like that …,” Luna said.
Contributors can choose to give to scholarship funds.
“… Everything is donors’ choice. With our scholarships, we have a general scholarship fund where there are no specific criteria to get that scholarship. Everybody can apply. It’s open to everyone. Then, of course, we have some of our scholarships that are directed toward students of business or nursing where, they have to be in that program to get the scholarship. But … we have a lot of scholarship opportunities at the university and we … want to help fund those, so we can continue” helping students get an education without having to worry about funding, Luna added.
This is the third year for Falcon Giving Day.
“Last year, we had a total of 271 donors and we got a total of about $270,000, so that really helped a lot of students. This year, we want to raise that and have 300 donors. That’s our goal,” Luna said.
“We’re not going to have a monetary goal. We want to have a donor goal because we want to get the community involved. We want to get alumni involved, even if it’s $5 or $5,000; whatever an individual can give we’d be happy to accept that. We just … want to get that involvement,” she added.
Luna said there will be giveaways throughout the day for donations.
“If you donate within a certain timeframe, or if you share one of our posts on social media — because we are going to be very active on social media that day — then we’ll put you down in a drawing and you can win UTPB swag — T-shirts, coffee mugs, just different kinds of things. It will be fun. We will be going live on Facebook that day and Instagram. … Downstairs we’re going to have a little area where students can come in. We’ll have some kind of treats for them. We’ll also have a balloon art so they can have a picture opportunity. When they come in, if they take a picture, share it on social media then they will be included in a drawing as well,” Luna said.
Wesson said people can find them on social media at @UTPBalumnni and they are on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Luna said LinkedIn is how they reach out to a lot of alumni.
“If we want to reach out to someone, a lot of times they’ll respond on LinkedIn the quickest,” she added.
Luna said she and Wesson have been preparing for Falcon Giving Day since at least December.
“That’s when I started, but usually it takes a long time,” Luna said.
She added that it is an all hands on deck day where people are making phone calls and reaching out to anyone who might be interested in giving.
Luna said it’s also a way to raise awareness among students that this is something the university does annually so when they graduate, and they are able, they will know about Falcon Giving Day and be more inclined to contribute.
Plus, they’ll have an idea of where the funds are going because many students have benefited from the scholarships, Luna said.
Wesson said there will be opportunities that day for students to sign up to volunteer in the community.
“We’re going to ask different organizations in the community to come out (and) have a sign up sheet, so that way the students can give back to the community … We’re just going to have them come in and sign up for hours, different organizations,” Luna said.
It’s also a chance for students to network, which could lead to internships, she added.
Falcon Giving Day has had a big response from the start.
“The first year, I believe, was the first year when COVID hit. … They still went on with having it because it was planned and everything. They had a really good response that year and it’s just continued to grow since then. Last year, we were able to help more than 1,100 students with our Falcon Giving Day — alone … ,” Luna said.
Luna is a two-time graduate of UTPB with a bachelor’s in sociology and a master’s in business administration. She added that she has seen firsthand the importance of the scholarships with fellow students and herself.
“… I know a lot of times without these scholarships, the food pantry, the emergency funds a lot of these students wouldn’t be able to continue with their education. I feel it’s really important for everybody, like we said, even if it’s just $5 because it adds up. Any amount adds up. So it would be really great if people could find it in their hearts just to give anything,” Luna said.
She added that whatever amount donors can give is “great.”
“… All of it goes toward the students; any amount helps,” Luna said.
Wesson said if anyone wants to give between now and April 13, it will go toward Falcon Giving Day.
Luna said that will count toward the final total.
Matching funds will also be offered. Luna said they will be announcing it throughout the day.
She added that there are faithful donors and people that match every year. Some are graduates and others see the importance of the university.
Many of UTPB’s students are from the Permian Basin, so after they earn their degree they tend to stay local.
If anyone wants to call instead of donating online, the advancement office may be reached at 432-552-2800.
“If they don’t want to get out, we’ll gladly go pick up a check … So there are always many ways to give,” Luna said.
