Graphic by Jieru Ye ‘23.
By Kate Vavra ’26
Staff Writer
Almost $75,000 was donated to the Mount Holyoke College Athletics Department on Nov. 1 during their first-ever Day of Giving Campaign.
Donors made contributions through an online platform called GiveCampus. Through this website, they had the option to designate their gift to a specific team, as each team had distinct initiatives for which they wanted to use their donations. Donors were also able to give to the general fund for athletics to support all teams.
Many teams wanted to fund training trips, buy athletic equipment and help with assistant coach salaries. Before choosing to donate, participants were made aware that 50% of the money given to each team went toward the overall athletic department.
Part of the money raised will go towards general initiatives such as diversity and inclusion education programming, Peak Performance and Leadership Academy programming, additional department staffing, guest speakers and recruiting, as well as aiding all teams with funds for their domestic and international training trips. The remaining 50% will go directly toward helping an individual team achieve their team-specific goals.
Going into the event, Mount Holyoke Athletics had a goal of reaching 500 donors. However, at the end of the 24 hours, they received donations from 1200 individuals, meeting 240% of their original goal.
The field hockey team had the most donors, with 202 individuals, and the rowing team followed close behind with 185. The swimming & diving team allocated the most money, with a whopping $12,436 donated in their name and $6,218 going directly to the team. The majority of donors were alums of the College and family members of current student-athletes.
Most donations came from Massachusetts, Connecticut, California and New York residents.