This October, Crowdfund UC Davis will feature 40 dynamic team projects driven by students, faculty and staff, all ready to make a real impact on programs at UC Davis and UC Davis Health.
THE PROJECTS
As crowdfunding is considered one of the most popular forms of fundraising worldwide, Crowdfund UC Davis experienced exponential growth in the number of applications submitted for its two cohorts last year, and this fall is seeing a similar pattern of growth. The fall cohort will feature 40 project teams from a wide range of areas across UC Davis and UC Davis Health, a record number of projects for the October cohort. Twenty are led by students.
The Crowdfund UC Davis program enables these project teams to conduct a monthlong, grassroots donation-based campaign to raise money using GiveCampus, a secure, UC Davis-affiliated online platform. Donors can give matching gifts to encourage others to support projects they are passionate about.
Below are some teams participating in the upcoming cohort.
The Great Native Bee Count: Mapping California’s Bee and Plant Connections
Give to The Great Native Bee Count
California is home to more than 1,600 species of native bees, alongside the managed honey bees that support our agricultural landscapes. The Great Native Bee Count invites everyday Californians to become community scientists, documenting the relationships between bees and the flowering plants that sustain them by photographing a flowering plant recently visited by a bee.
Gifts to the campaign will provide research support for the E. L. Niño Bee Lab, including their current priority of putting community science tools into people’s hands to generate valuable bee and floral resource data.
The Aviation Club
Give to the Aviation Club at UC Davis
The Aviation Club at UC Davis aims to promote general aviation within the student community and encourage students to pursue flight training. UC Davis is one of 25 colleges in the nation, and the only UC, to have an on-campus airport.
General aviation is an integral part of Davis and yet this invaluable resource is unknown to most in the student community. The club bridges this gap by discussing aviation history and culture, hosting workshops discussing integral skills used by pilots in-flight (i.e. deciphering a weather report) and inviting guest speakers in the aviation field to share their professional experiences.
Gifts to their campaign provide general support for the Aviation Club at UC Davis, including our current priority of providing students with free introductory flights at the University Airport. These flights are 30 minutes of one-on-one instruction with a professional flight instructor that allow for exposure to the cockpit environment.
Hands on the Land
One of many returning projects this October, Hands on the Land, or HOTL, is a graduate-student-run student organization centered on connecting the Davis community to the local natural landscape by providing equitable access to the outdoors in a safe and inclusive environment.
By working on landscape renewal through repairing and restoring native ecosystems, preparing the land to be resilient to fire, and engaging in group activities that promote a sense of place, HOTL’s work addresses large scale issues such as climate change through reimagining ecosystem functioning with small, local solutions
The club focuses on local restoration initiatives at McLaughlin Natural Reserve and Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve, two of the UC Davis Natural Reserve sites, by facilitating zero-cost, monthly weekend trips for 20-30 students and community members.
Gifts to their campaign will provide general support for Hands on the Land, including their current priorities of paying for transportation, food, and supplies and gear for their participants.
Global Community Emergency Fund
Give to the Global Community Emergency Fund
For international students and scholars, coming to UC Davis can represent the start of something extraordinary: an opportunity to learn, pursue new ideas, advance research and build connections across cultures and communities.
But building a life far from home also requires resilience. When the unexpected happens, whether it is a financial setback, an emergency affecting family abroad, a humanitarian crisis or other circumstances that put their academic or professional work at risk, the distance from familiar support networks can make an already difficult situation even harder.
In those moments, knowing there is a community ready to help can make all the difference.
The UC Davis Global Community Emergency Fund provides support to international students and scholars when circumstances beyond their control threaten their stability.
Read more about the fund on the Global Affairs website.
About Crowdfund UC Davis
Crowdfund UC Davis cohorts take place in October and February each year. Since its debut in February 2020, the program has raised more than $3.8 million from over 17,000 gifts.
The Annual and Special Gifts Program, in cooperation with Advancement Services, reviews applications and provides the Crowdfund UC Davis platform, training, guidance and some publicity — but it’s up to project teams to fuel the marketing and networking that lead to fundraising success.
Questions about Crowdfund UC Davis can be sent by email.
Media Resources
Andrea Elliott is managing director of marketing and communications for the Annual and Special Gifts Program in Development and Alumni Relations, and can be reached by email or at 530-754-2015.