SHREVEPORT – LSU Shreveport donors and supporters pulled through in the final hours of #LSUGivingDay, helping the University meet its fundraising goals and be the top performer among the LSU branch campuses and entities Wednesday.
A total of 105 donors gave $28,206 pledged to three different LSUS initiatives as the University participated in #LSUGivingDay for the first time. LSUS set goals of 100 donors and $25,000.
"LSU Shreveport had gifts from all over the country, and every gift, large and small, helped us reach our goal,” said Laura Perdue, executive director of the LSUS Foundation. “It was exciting to see how much this campus means to people, and we are incredibly thankful for all of the support."
The donations benefitted The LSUS Student Emergency Fund, The LSUS Scholarship Fund and the Pilot Pride College Experience.
"(The student emergency and scholarship) funds were created out of necessity because with most of our students going to school and working, something as small as a prescription or a new car battery can force them to abandon their goal,” Perdue said. “Supporting these funds tell students we believe in them and their dream of a degree."
The Student Emergency Fund provides one-time assistance to students facing hardships that would prevent them from graduating, starting in 2016 when the late George Khoury learned of a student who was living in his car on campus after being evicted two weeks before graduation.
That fund raised $12,510, including a $5,000 match from the Mike Woods Family that donors unlocked by giving $5,000 to this initiative.
“At a time of high inflation, I wanted to help students finish out their education,” said Woods, who was in the first LSUS graduating class of 1975 and is a supporter of scholarships for first-generation students as well as endowed professorships. “Students have enough to worry about without dealing with sudden, unexpected expenses.
“This will help them concentrate on their studies.”
The LSUS Scholarship Fund assists students who encounter academic costs late in their degree program not covered by financial aid, providing for one-time expenses like tuition assistance and certification exit exams (Praxis exams for teachers, etc.). The scholarship fund raised $7,511 from 47 donations.
The Pilot Pride College Experience provides funds to LSUS’s three colleges (Arts and Sciences, Business and Education and Human Development).
Donors supported that fund to the tune of $8,185 from 34 gifts, including meeting the 25-donor challenge that unlocked a $1,000 anonymous donation.
Branch campuses participated for the first time in the fifth annual #LSUGivingDay event, which raised nearly $5.8 million from more than 3,600 donors to benefit hundreds of initiatives.
LSUS topped the list of branch campuses and other entities with its 105 donors, a list that includes LSU Alexandria, LSU Eunice, Pennington Biomedical Research Center and LSU Health Shreveport among others.
