“Blown away” was how Erin Glidden, director of loyalty giving for the SDSU Foundation, felt after reviewing the results for this year’s One Day for STATE.
One day for STATE set a goal for 1,300 donors to give to South Dakota State on Aug. 29, and 2,138 donors donated and 2,402 gifts made in those 24 hours.
With donor dollars and all 32 unlocked challenges, a total of $574,445 was raised on the day.
Glidden was excited by people’s willingness to give.
“There were some people who stayed up till midnight because they wanted to be the first to make gifts and some who wanted to be the last,” Glidden said.
The first gift of the day was made at 12:03 a.m. Aug. 29 and the last was made at 11:59 p.m.
Another standout number was the 268 students who donated $1,872.
“When we got 100 student donors, it’s not like they stopped,” Glidden said commenting on students’ gifts after Greg and Pam Sands challenge where 100 students had to donate $10,000 in scholarship dollars.
The youngest donor was 18 years old while the oldest was 92 years old. Donations came from 47 states and five countries ranging from the United States to Uruguay.
Also, 77 percent of all gifts were made online. There were 433 social ambassadors who helped spread the word about the day.
“If you were on social media, you couldn’t escape Jackrabbits,” Glidden said. “They painted social media blue and yellow.”
Glidden said she saw Jackrabbit alumni sharing stories, wedding photos and even baby announcements due to the excitement of the day.
“It’s was so cute,” Glidden said. “Someone calculated when their [child] would graduate from SDSU and had a picture with another baby and the post said from wombmates to roommates class of 2039.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bmv7oD5Fgm_/?taken-by=k.ellens.twinmama
The Yellow and Blue Block Party had about 2,000 people in attendance.
One comment that really touched Glidden was a community member expressing her gratitude for the block party, she said to Glidden: “The event felt like the university was giving love to the community.”
