For the first time, University of Texas Permian Basin’s Falcon Giving Day is set to occur on Valentine’s Day.
Previously, it had been held in April.
“The decision was made to change it because we’re doing a play on have a heart for UTPB and also Dr. (Sandra) Woodley’s birthday is on Valentine’s Day,” Director of Strategic Communications Alexa Dunson said.
The featured challenges this year are:
President Woodley’s Birthday Challenge
In honor of President Woodley’s Birthday, there will be a $25,000 challenge prize that will go to the college, unit, or athletics. The prize will go to whichever area that ends Giving Day counting with the highest level of donor participation.
Scholarship Support Challenge
Jumburrito has provided a challenge of $10,000 to be unlocked when they reach the first 100 donors to student scholarships at UTPB.
Athletics Challenge
The Sewell Family of Companies has provided a challenge of $50,000 to be unlocked when they reach the first 50 donors to Athletics.
Building the Future Match
An anonymous donor has provided a $50,000 dollar-for-dollar match for all gifts made to any building or beautification funds.
In addition to these areas, there are others people can give to like the biology department. There will also be a box on the website for “other” if you would like to help a student organization, for example, Dunson said.
There will also be Valentine’s Day hearts hidden around the campus. The hearts are being 3-D printed in the university’s MakerSpace.
“Part of that will be like a little scavenger hunt. Whoever finds them will get a small prize and we’ll have a few bigger prizes for special hearts that are being made,” Director of Annual Giving Jorge Payen said.
Dunson said they will tie instructions on there to tell students what to do when they find a heart and they will share it on social media. There will be a form to fill out so they can enter to win more prizes.
Payen said the hearts will be hidden on the Odessa and Midland campuses.
Dunson said they will be putting out some social media advertising on this as well.
The event will start at noon on Valentine’s Day and it will run until noon Feb. 15. A UTPB graduate, Payen has been at the university for five years, but just took over the director of annual giving role a few weeks ago.
“Our biggest thing is we’re just trying to get as many people to participate. Everyone thinks fundraising is trying to get the high dollar, but we’re trying to get more donors from the community to see what we’re doing here at the university. It doesn’t matter if it’s $5 or $500. We’re just trying to get the word out there and get engagement from the community,” Payen said.
An ambassador program is being started this year as part of Falcon Giving Day, as well. The softball team has indicated they are interested in helping out. Payen said they hope to have a sign up available before Feb. 1.
“Anyone from students, faculty, staff, even friends of students or alumni can sign up to be Ambassadors for the university and promote Falcon Giving Day. They can advocate for their own interests. They get a unique link that they can click on and it will actually be live tracked the entire time. One of our selling points on it is that it’s going to be somewhat of a competition because they can go online and they can see where they’re ranking against other Ambassadors of how many donors they’ve been able to bring in, just to drive that competitive edge,” Payen said.
As part of a secondary program called You Plus Two, they are asking Ambassadors to give a minimum of $5 and to encourage other people to donate, as well.
“With that we’re giving them a little bit of UTPB merchandise to thank them for their efforts and give that incentive,” Payne said.
Being a UTPB graduate, he said, does help when getting people involved in Falcon Day because he can draw on his experiences as an undergraduate and graduate student.
“It really does help out telling them how great UTPB is, how much it’s grown since I’ve been here and I’m also an Odessa native, so I’ve seen it grow since the day it was just this building right here, the Mesa Building,” Payen said.
The main idea of Falcon Giving Day is not just to raise money; it’s to get as many people contributing as possible.
“Obviously, we want a good dollar amount … but we really just want to engage more people in on our Falcon community, on our campus, to engage you know, people in our community, students and faculty; alumni is a big one. I think the big thing is you can give $5 and that will go a long way,” Dunson said.
Payen said there will be a kickoff party from noon to 2:30 p.m. on the first floor with food and a pop up call center to get students engaged in calling a few donors. It will be in the first-floor conference room of the Mesa Building.
“So it’s a high-traffic area so hopefully as students pass by, they’ll see that and hopefully want to sign up and be a part of it, too,” he added.
While they would like to raise $100,000, Payen said they are mainly dedicated to attracting lots of donor participation and it doesn’t matter whether you give $5 or $500.
“It really doesn’t matter because any little thing that we can get here, it goes a long way and creates a big impact for our students,” he added.
Being an alumni and being involved in Giving Day is amazing, Payen said.
“Actually, that was one of the selling points whenever I (applied) for this position was I was going to be able to assist students more in this position. I used to work in financial aid, actually, and one of the things that I missed about it was being able to assist students with their financial aid … so now being in a role where I can help bring in more dollars to be able to help more students to come and attend this fabulous university is amazing. It’s a great opportunity,” he added.
