From the Nominator

During the Spring Semester of 2020, the Georgia Tech Student Foundation's Development Committee launched its first Philanthropy Week, a week-long initiative to celebrate philanthropy, and educate students about its impact on campus. Attendees engaged in educational activities around the four pillars of our organization: awareness, gratitude, stewardship, and giving. Students worked diligently to create a philanthropic environment at each of their events, where student volunteers interacted with their peer's about the importance of giving back to their university as they all move forward in their careers. Each event was new and innovative to the Georgia Tech community, and dug deeper into a lot of the philanthropic themes that event attendees may have already seen at past events. The entire week of programming was built around the annual Giving Day held by the Alumni Association, a 24-hour push for former and current students to give back to the university. The Georgia Tech Student Foundation led the charge on all student-led programming during that day, and developed other events to show the power of philanthropy on this campus. They showed students real-life projects brought to them by the Association's Roll Call fund, which is unrestricted money controlled by the president of the university. The event engaged more than 1,000 students throughout the week at each of the different events, achieving the goal of educating more students on the importance of philanthropy.

From the Judges

The Georgia Tech Student Foundation Philanthropy Week exemplifies how integral a role student-led initiatives can play in creating and nurturing a culture of philanthropy. Building off an existing signature event—Georgia Tech Giving Day—the Georgia Tech Student Foundation launched its first-ever philanthropy week. Student Foundation leaders leveraged campus partnerships, physical and digital marketing, and longstanding campus traditions to educate their peers, and increase campus-wide awareness of the philanthropic impact of the Georgia Tech community. The results were a weeklong event that celebrated alumni donors, increased Student Alumni Association membership, and boosted Day of Giving participation.