The South Dakota State University Foundation held the 6th annual One Day for STATE fundraiser Sept. 8 where 5,362 donors raised an estimated total of $2,131,110.

The 24-hour campaign invites students, faculty and community members to come together and celebrate SDSU. The goal for this year’s fundraiser was to get over 5,000 donors, which was passed hours before the fundraiser ended. 

Throughout the day, there are over $700,000 in challenges set out to unlock gifts for the school. The challenges that unlock gifts range from getting donations from all 50 states to getting 1881 donors for the year the school was founded, with many other number goals the campaign hopes to reach.

The donations are spread throughout athletics and academic areas, as well as other organizations like Jacks Cupboard. Donors can make a specific donation to areas or just donate to the school.

“It’s a way for all areas of campus to feel connected,” said Erin Glidden, Director of Pipeline Strategy for the SDSU Foundation.

Each area is given a goal to reach with challenges to unlock gifts along the way.

“One Day for STATE raises money for our clubs and labs. A lot of our interactive homework comes from this fundraiser,” Olivia Petrik, an ambassador for the College of Natural Sciences said.

One Day for STATE also raises money for clubs and activities across campus. Sarah Aman, a junior who is a member of the Pride, said the funding is covering a majority of the band’s trip to the Macy’s Day Parade this year.

“The fundraiser covers three quarters of the cost for the students,” Aman said.

On Sept. 7, Jack’s Journey, the kickoff to One Day for STATE, took place. Student and faculty tour around Brookings with foundation members and President Dunn to get people excited for the following day’s fundraiser. On the fundraiser day, late morning to early afternoon, staff went outside the Union to interact and give out prizes to the students. The end to the event was the Yellow and Blue Block Party, where students, faculty and community members come together to celebrate.

The Yellow and Blue Block Party takes place on Sylvan Green where food trucks, games, club and organization information and many more activities set up shop for the evening. Pride of the Dakotas, dance and cheer teams performed during the event and student-athletes volunteer at the activity stations.

“It lets people see us perform which will get them to donate,” Aman said. “It just gets people excited.”

Over 3,000 people attend the block party and more than 500 students come to the Union to learn more about One Day for STATE, according to Glidden.

Social media is a big contributor to get people to donate to the campaign. All day, students and faculty post about One Day for STATE on their socials, encouraging people to visit the link and donate. Social ambassadors, which include students, faculty members and community members, sign up to advocate for their program on why they need the funding. These advocates help spread the word of fundraiser across social media networks.

“It’s a day that when you’re scrolling on social media it’s hard to get rid of the yellow and blue,” Glidden said, “which is a good problem to have.”

Awareness of the campaign is also sent to community members through the mail and on Facebook to make sure everyone knows about it. Gary Hobbie, a resident of Brookings, said he heard about One Day for STATE through flyers in the mail and posts made on Facebook.

“The campaign is a great way to get people to donate to the school,” Hobbie said.

The campaign has changed throughout the years to make it easier and more accessible for younger generations to donate. The campaign now takes donations through PayPal, Apple Pay and Venmo, as well as the traditional giving site and mail in donations.

“We didn’t want the way to pay to be a bearer for anyone,” Glidden said.

One Day for STATE was the first giving day in South Dakota, and in the first year there were 500 donors. The second year the fundraiser was held the donor number doubled to over 1,000 and has been growing in numbers since then. Within the six years this campaign has been held, the donation amount grew from just $300,000 to raising over $2 million.