by Joey Colbert, reporter
OMAHA – The Nebraska Foundation celebrates a 24-hour fundraising marathon known as UNO Giving Day. The campaign, known as #WearBlackGiveBack, takes place from noon to noon from October 28 to October 29.
The University of Nebraska Foundation is a non-profit organization established in 1936 with their mission of saving and changing student lives across the University of Nebraska system. The Foundation raised over $27 million in the last fiscal year at UNO with over five thousand donors.
In the last six to eight months, the Nebraska Foundation’s projects and activities slowed down when COVID-19 hit Omaha in March. Vice President of UNO Advancement, Mike Bird, said it’s been a challenge to find ways to support students.
“We just looking for ways to creatively engage the alums and the constituencies that we serve and share information about the great things going on at UNO,” Bird said. “It’s really been our role and everybody, including myself, I think feel some drag during all of this.”The Nebraska Foundation were looking for ways to support students struggling during their time at UNO. On top of that, they want to be sure that everyone can do their part to participate safely during a pandemic.
“Everyone’s doing their best to handle things as safely and securely as possible and continue to educate our students, do our research, get people their degrees, and you know, achieve the dreams that they’re looking to achieve,” said Joel Gehringer, Director of Annual Campaigns at UNO.
Gehringer organized the “Wear Black Give Back” campaign for UNO. He said the Nebraska Foundation wanted to create a day of recognition for student organizations across campus.
“We wanted to hold one day where we could really do two things,” Gehringer said. “One, have people share their pride in and how cool it is to be a Maverick. In addition, we wanted to help harness people’s power to support our current students, our current research, all the great things that are going on at this university.”
Students, former alumni and the community can participate in UNO Giving Day by wearing UNO black apparel and donate to an organization of their choice. On top of that, there are several social media challenges where participants can win gifts and donate at the same time.
“We’re leveraging everything we can through the alumni networks and the campus networks, and really trying to promote that,” Bird said.
Participants can receive gifts for their dedication to UNO Giving Day. Gifts range from UNO masks, hats from $60 donations and even Durango beanies from a scavenger hunt.
hrough the hard work from Gehringer and the staff, Bird is confident that the Wear Black Give Back campaign will be a memorable experience.
“He’s put this together and has been really creative and tried to think of different ways to make it meaningful,” he said.
Gehringer takes pride in working for the Nebraska Foundation. He anticipates there will be over one thousand donors participating in UNO Giving Day’s Wear Black Give Back campaign.
“It’s been really fulfilling to work on this project,” Gehringer said. “I’ll be wearing my black, I’ll be giving back on that day, and I hope others will join me in doing that as well.”
If you’re looking to make a donation to a student organization, you can visit the UNO Giving Day website at https://givingday.unomaha.edu/.
