Give SJU Day a national, global success

From Collegeville to California to Kenya:

Everywhere you looked alumni, parents, faculty, staff, students and other supporters of Saint John’s University were showing their generosity as part of Give SJU Day Wednesday, easily blowing past goals for money raised and geographical location of donors.

A total of 1,548 donors contributed $647,981 during the 24-hour period. The money raised will be used to fund student scholarships at SJU.

The total is up from the $575,533 raised on Give SJU Day last year, and marked the school’s best giving day ever in terms of dollars raised.

The donors came from all 50 states and 14 countries.

“This was the first year that we had and met the 50-state challenge,” said Raj Chaphalkar ’08, the director of annual giving at SJU. “It was fun and compelling. People really felt a part of Johnnie Nation.

“The international alumni really stepped it up this year. New countries represented included Japan, Kenya, South Africa, Canada, Finland, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Austria, Australia and Serbia.”

Some other statistics from a successful day:

• There were 1,351 online donors compared to 1,267 a year ago.
• The class of 2010 led the way when it came to number of donors. Forty-seven donors contributed a total of $9,305. Next up was the class of 1990 (40 donors, $11,240), followed by the class of 1982 (37 donors, $18,375), the class of 2005 (37 donors, $4,860), the class of 1972 (32 donors, $8,660), the class of 2008 (31 donors, $2,590), the class of 2002 (30 donors, $5,709), the class of 2007 (30 donors, $3,785), the class of 1970 (30 donors, $15,388) and the class of 1999 (29 donors, $8,060).
• Eighty-two percent of the donors were alumni, 13 percent were parents, four percent were faculty or staff members, three percent were friends of the school and two percent were students.
• SJU Interim President Eugene McAllister and his wife stepped up with a challenge, agreeing to donate $5,000 if the number of donors crossed 1,500 – which it did.
• In all, there were a total of 52 matches and challenges and 20 personal plea videos were submitted.

“I know having personal matches established and plea videos posted makes a difference toward inspiring others to join,” said Bill Olson ’91, the SJU Alumni Association vice president for resource development. “And did they ever!

“If you’ve created a match and/or a video already, or have long since made your Student Gift Fund, I want to say thank you for being a leader through action.”

Give SJU Day marks the biggest giving day of the year when it comes to support of Johnnies.

And though the day itself is over, donations can always be made to the SJU Student Fund.

“I love this place,” McAllister said. “This is truly a wonderful university with such a sense of community and brotherhood on campus. We want to share that with a lot of new young men, and the best way to do that is through scholarships.”