The new student giving campaign, Lions Legacy Association, promoted philanthropy and encouraged students to give back to the university through the first annual Philanthropy Week.
Throughout the week of Nov. 12 through Nov. 16, Lions Legacy Association sponsored four student-centered events. The National Philanthropy Awareness Week focused on educating the students and raising awareness in a fun way.
“In coordination with National Philanthropy Week, we decided to put some things together and see if we could bring some awareness and at the same time do some really cool things for the students in promoting student philanthropy,” said Andrew Hickman, coordinator of Annual Giving. “Private funding fills in the gap and allows us to do more than we could while relying on a state budget. The annual fund makes up room and helps us to do things on campus to continue to improve this place.”
Lions Legacy Association, which raises funds for Southeastern Foundation, was founded by recent Southeastern graduates MJ Ahmad and Heather Miletello.
“Our student giving campaign is Lions Legacy, which was created last spring as an avenue for our students to give back to the university,” said Hickman. “So far Lions Legacy has had an estimated 100 students who have donated to the university. In less than a year, Lions Legacy campaign has raised over $8,000 to donate toward student scholarships.”
Students are encouraged to participate in the initiative in part due to the direct result of such contributions.
“Philanthropy Week is important because it allows for the opportunity to recognize the significant contributions that donors and volunteers have made to enrich our university and local community,” said Ahmad. “Moreover, many students directly benefit from this initiative by receiving scholarships that create for a more affordable education.”
The first Southeastern Philanthropy Week featured “Swabbin’ 4 Robin,” “Philanthropy Awareness Day,” “Blacklight Volleyball” and “Thank-a-thon.”
During “Philanthropy Awareness Day,” students were provided with free food and encouraged to wear a Southeastern Philanthropy themed T-shirt.
“We did our picnic yesterday and we were able to feed over 500 students,” said Hickman. “The great thing about it was that it generated a lot of attention and enthusiasm for it. It gave us an avenue to not only do something nice for the students, but also educate them on what this is.”
Money donated goes to the Annual Fund which is used directly for a variety of university improvements.
“The Annual Fund at the university is unrestricted money raised for the university,” said Hickman. “This money is typically used for student scholarships, building improvements on campus and teacher development programs.”
While the series of events has just been introduced, Philanthropy Week will be held annually during the first or second week of November and will feature similar events.
“We use the events as a hook to get students involved and raise awareness,” said Hickman. “We wanted to give students something to look forward to every year.”
While Philanthropy Week is sponsored by the Lions Legacy Association, Southeastern Foundation solicits donations for the university throughout the year. The biggest fundraiser is the “Phone-a-thon,” for which student workers contact over 50,000 alumni, friends, businesses and community members over a 10-week period asking for donations for the university.
“First and foremost, one of our biggest charges this year was to promote student philanthropy on campus as fundraisers for the university,” said Hickman. “We spend a lot of time and effort focusing on our alumni, our major donors, that we really lose sight of the opportunity we have to inform our students about philanthropy and what it means to the university.”
For more information regarding Philanthropy Week, contact Hickman at 985-549-2420. For more information concerning student contributions visit the Lions Legacy webpage located on Southeastern’s main website.
“Our students are important to the philanthropy initiative on campus because private funding helps us so much, especially with the constant budget deficit,” said Hickman. “It’s so important now more than ever to promote philanthropy and create that atmosphere on campus.”