UTSA Giving Day 2023: It’s Go Time to Build the Nest
The 2023 UTSA Giving Day starts at 10:11 a.m. Central Time today and will continue for 1,969 minutes until 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 5. During the 32-plus-hour online event, students, faculty, staff, alumni, parents and fans will show their support for programs across the university by making gifts.
The goal for this year’s effort is to have at least 3,000 individual donors making gifts, which would be an institutional record for two-day donor participation. This support keeps the institution’s many outstanding educational experiences affordable for students, allowing them to make the most of their time at UTSA. Participants are encouraged to share their enthusiasm online using the hashtag #BuildtheNest.
“UTSA Giving Day brings donors, advocates and champions together to positively impact our university’s trajectory toward becoming a model of student success, a great public research university, and an exemplar for strategic growth and innovative excellence,” said UTSA President Taylor Eighmy. “Together, your individual gifts make a collective impact to advance UTSA’s continued progress and future success.”
“Everyone can help Build the Nest to ensure the future success of the university, and especially our students.”
The 2023 edition is the third UTSA Giving Day and offers participants opportunities to support more than 50 programs across the university. All colleges and schools, as well as UTSA Athletics, UTSA Libraries and Museums, the UTSA Alumni Association, student activities and wellbeing initiatives, and many more are participating.
One of the new opportunities to support this year honors a UTSA trailblazer. Professor Emerita Ellen Riojas Clark has been part of the UTSA family since the university first opened its doors in 1973. Donors can thank Clark for her service and recognize her significant role in developing the field of bicultural-bilingual studies in the university’s College of Education and Human Development and in academia with a gift to the Ellen Riojas Clark, Ph.D., Endowed Chair in Bicultural-Bilingual Studies.
This gift will help fund important opportunities for students and faculty in the department. Also new to UTSA Giving Day are the Schools of Art and Music, Birds Up for Barry, which honors longtime student activities leader Barry McKinney, and several class projects by master of business administration student groups.
Donors can multiply the impact of their gifts by taking advantage of the many challenges that unlock when donor or dollar thresholds are met.
“One of the wonderful things about UTSA Giving Day is that everyone can make the most of their giving by participating in fantastic giving challenges to increase their impact,” said Vice President for Advancement and Alumni Engagement Karl Miller-Lugo. “There is more than $207,000 available in challenge funds, thanks to the many donors who stepped up as sponsors of those special opportunities. I cannot wait to see the difference we make together.”
One of those challenges is by local general contracting firm Waterman Construction, led by alumna Andrew Waterman ’03. Building on the significance of the irrational number Pi in engineering and science, the department in the Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design that gains the most donors during the first three-hours, 14-minutes of the campaign will earn an additional $5,000.
At the same time, the first $4,000 each day from faculty and staff donors will be matched dollar-for-dollar.
Randolph Brooks Federal Credit Union is also sponsoring a challenge where magnets hidden around campus can be turned in to benefit student programs.
Finally, the UTSA Giving Day projects with the most donors and dollars raised will earn an additional $5,000 from challenge funds donated by alumna April Ancira ’03 and long-time UTSA supporters John Richardson and Jan Puckett.
A full list of challenges and their generous donors is available on the UTSA Giving Day website.
Beyond giving, students, faculty, staff, alumni, parents and community friends can also get involved in promoting the effort. Via social media, participants can post a photo of themselves, their family or their pets in UTSA gear with the hashtag #BuildtheNest. Four winners will be selected throughout UTSA Giving Day to award $250 to a program of their choice.
Real-time results will be tracked on the website, including totals for colleges and key programs as well as the map tracking the goal to have gifts from every state in the nation.
BE INVOLVED
Kick-off Event: Cornhole Challenge benefiting the UTSA Athletics Women’s Opportunity Fund
9:30 a.m. Tuesday, April 4, outside the McKinney Humanities Building, Main Campus
Magnet Challenge sponsored by RBFCU Main Campus challenge
Starting at 10 a.m. Tuesday, April 4
Student Union Paseo (1.002)
Downtown Campus challenge
Starting at 10 a.m. Wednesday, April 5
Frio Street Patio
Roadrunner Gaming Livestream
Beginning at 10 p.m. April 4 on YouTube
Spirit of San Antonio Marching Band Livestream
Beginning at 11 p.m. April 4 at on Facebook
Mariachi Los Paisanos Livestream
Beginning at 5 p.m. April 5 on Facebook
“While the big gifts have significant impact at UTSA, the university’s trajectory is collectively maintained by the donors who give $20, $250, $1,000 on UTSA Giving Day and throughout the year. Everyone can help Build the Nest to ensure the future success of the university, and especially our students,” said Miller-Lugo. “UTSA Giving Day is a celebration of what makes the university special and we are beyond grateful for every gift because it will all make a difference.”
The online fundraising event concludes at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 5. To make a gift, visit the UTSA Giving Day website.
