UNLV hosted its annual crowdfunding campaign on March 23. The event spanned across the school’s colleges and other campus organizations to unite students in a day of giving back to the campus community. Over the course of the day, $276,827 was raised over 1,595 individual donations according to the Rebels Give website. Programs such as the food pantry, UNLV-TV, and each of the individual colleges were among the options of specific designations to donate.
The day was observed across the campus and specific colleges throughout the morning, with students coming together at 11:30 a.m. to partake in the Pie on Pida event. In front of the student union, representatives from various programs and teams on campus donned ponchos and prepared to take a pie to the face in exchange for a gift to UNLV.
At the event, there was free pizza and opportunities for students, alumni, and faculty to come together in support of the university and to celebrate the experience of studying, researching, or working at UNLV. Individuals at Pie on Pida who gave a one-time gift greater than $75 received Rebels Give socks to commemorate the occasion.
The day-long event is structured as a friendly fundraising competition divided into three categories. These categories are colleges and units, alumni chapters, and rebel ambassadors. The top earning area for the colleges and units category was UNLV Athletics, with 289 gifts in total. The winning alumni chapter was the Veteran’s Alumni Club Chapter, with nine gifts in total. Finally, the rebel ambassador with the most gifts was Wayne Pirtle, with 42 donations to the school.
President of the UNLV Veterans Alumni Club, Tamia Dow said, “This is my third time participating in Rebels Give. I love the concept, camaraderie, and friendly competition that is fostered during the one-day giving campaign. Alumni love their University and #RebelsGive makes it fun.”
All who participated in the event were encouraged to share their experience online with the hashtag #Rebelsgive. This additional level of engagement provides not only additional promotion for the donation campaign but also spread the broader message of giving back.
The Rebels Give event marks a moment of community across campus, as members of the university join to rally philanthropic support for the programs supporting their education. This event brings together students after the midpoint in the semester to reflect on the work that has been done and the plans that are still to be realized. The full leaderboards and breakdown by program can be found at https://rebelsgive.unlv.edu/.
