College Raises More Than $1M on NC State’s Record-Breaking 2021 Day of Giving

Once again, NC State’s donors have proven there’s strength in the Pack.

On March 24, 742 donors — more than ever before — contributed over $1 million to the College of Sciences as part of NC State’s annual Day of Giving fundraising event. As a whole, NC State raised an extraordinary $58.1 million from 14,272 gifts over the 24 hours, more than doubling 2020’s total of $23.2 million.

Every year on Day of Giving, the Wolfpack comes together to help NC State raise funds for priorities across the university, such as meeting students’ most urgent needs, increasing scholarships to keep education accessible to people from every financial background, investing in diversity and inclusion efforts, and strengthening the infrastructure that supports our leading-edge research.

By the end of the day, the college had

• Raised $1.04 million
• Received 742 gifts, a 26 percent increase over the 2020 Day of Giving event
• Received more gifts than all but two of NC State’s 10 colleges
• For the second year in a row, won a challenge for securing the most gifts from alumni between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m., which earned the college an extra $1,500 in bonus funds from the university
• Earned more than $7,000 on top of our total amount raised for our performance on the college and unit leaderboards

For the third consecutive year, College of Sciences Foundation Board member Dean Bunce and his wife, Gail, generously donated $30,000 to the college for a gift-matching challenge. They are the university’s only supporters to donate Day of Giving challenge funds in all three years of the event’s existence. Additionally, an anonymous individual donated $5,000 to the Department of Physics Enhancement Fund once it reached 50 gifts, in honor of the work of astrophysicist Katie Mack.

The 2020 Day of Giving was delayed until September because of the COVID-19 pandemic, so this was the university’s second such event this fiscal year. In total, the college raised more than $3.3 million from 1,260 gifts over the two days.

The money raised during the day will go toward NC State’s Think and Do the Extraordinary campaign, which will raise more than $1.6 billion for NC State before its close at the end of 2021.

“This year, our community really came together again to support our people and programs,” said Chris McGahan, dean of the college. “The funds we received will make a crucial difference right now and long into the future.”