Our 105th Picnic Day and third Give Day are in the books and the reviews are in: Super job, Aggies, near and far!
The events overlapped last Friday and Saturday (April 12-13) as UC Davis threw its annual open house and solicited donations to maintain the university as an innovative, thriving public institution.
Preliminary data show Give Day brought in a record total of just over $2 million from 4,450 gifts over 29 hours, noon Friday to 5 p.m. Saturday, for programs at UC Davis and UC Davis Health.
The results showed a 17 percent increase in dollars and a 9 percent increase in number of gifts over the 2018 event. More gifts are expected to arrive through the mail this week.
Give Day included a record 145 challenges, which are donations of $2,500 or more to specific funds — donations that were “unlocked” when a specified number of donations came in. Challenge gifts are considered pivotal to the success of events like Give Day because they inspire new donors to participate.
Aggies from 29 countries and 46 states participated in Give Day 2019. The event also garnered support from 659 employees, 448 parents and 157 current students.
Now, as for Picnic Day, thousands of people converged on the campus for sun, sand, soil and lots more to see, from the parade in the morning to the Battle of the Bands that ran into the evening.
Photos by Karin Higgins, Dave Jones and Gregory Urquiaga/UC Davis
Media Resources
Dateline Staff, 530-752-6556, dateline@ucdavis.edu