As a professor and chair of the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Fadi Fathallah donates to programs he cares about at UC Davis. They include Global Affairs’ Study Abroad programs and his department’s Excellence Fund, which offer students life-changing learning experiences.

“In giving, we are helping our community grow stronger and healthier,” said Fathallah, who serves as a member of the UC Davis Employee Giving Advisory Committee.

Fathallah also cares deeply about students and fellow employees in need. During this year’s Employee Giving Month, a fundraising effort that starts Friday (April 1) across UC Davis and UC Davis Health, Fathallah is joining other faculty and staff, current and retired, in a special push to help students coping with housing insecurity and homelessness as well as co-workers facing dire personal emergencies.

Programs emphasizing those areas include the Aggie Compass Housing Support Fund, providing students stable housing, food and wraparound services supporting their academic success; Aggie House, a student-run transitional housing shelter (see video above); and the Staff Emergency Fund, which provides quick cash awards of up to $1,000 to help with everything from housing, food and utilities to transportation and funeral costs.

Integrated with Give Day

Because Give Day, UC Davis’ biggest fundraising event, takes place during Employee Giving Month, employees can leverage their gifts of any size for maximum impact. Early giving for Give Day has already begun ahead of the April 22-23 date, and Employee Giving has its own page on the Give Day site.

And employees are doing their part. The UC Davis Retirees’ Association and the UC Davis Emeriti Association are giving $21,600 to the Aggie Compass Housing Support Fund. They are asking others to join them and support their Give Day challenge.

The UC Davis Employee Giving Advisory Committee, too, has issued a Give Day challenge gift of $5,000 that unlocks with 500 gifts. A gift to any UC Davis or UC Davis Health program will help unlock that challenge, though the emphasis is on student housing and staff emergency support.

Last year’s Employee Giving Month, returning after a one-year hiatus due to the pandemic, brought in $257,765, with 2,200 employees participating.

Organizers are hoping for another year that breaks the quarter-million dollar mark.

“Gifts of any amount are welcome, to whatever cause an employee cares about,” said Michelle Poesy, senior director of the Annual and Special Gifts Program at the UC Davis division of Development and Alumni Relations, or DEVAR, which manages Employee Giving Month. “All gifts make a difference and demonstrate that we are a caring campus community.”

Employee Giving Month runs through Saturday, April 30. You can make a gift or learn more about employee giving on the employee giving website. Challenge gifts may be found by clicking “challenges” in the top right navigation bar on the Give Day home page.