The air is getting cooler, and the season of giving is here. This was especially apparent last week, as Waynesburg University held its annual Day of Giving. This year, the Day of Giving yielded more than $230,000 from 2,366 individual donors across 43 states. All of those numbers are up from last year’s Day of Giving, which raised just more than $214,000 from 1,610 individual donors across 41 states.

The fundraising initiative was created to encourage students, alumni and friends of the university to donate — with some extra competition involved. The university offers cash awards for the academic department and athletics team that receives the most individual donors. Donors were able to choose which department or team they wanted their donations to count towards.

This year, Biblical and Ministry Studies won the department award with 165 donors, fending off Fine Arts with 138 donors and the Department of Communication with 133 donors. Meanwhile, the Waynesburg softball team brought in 437 donors, winning the athletic and overall award, outlasting the football team, which had 393 donors.

President Douglas Lee thanked all of the students and faculty for their efforts through an email on the Day of Giving.

“This Day of Giving was the fourth year of the program and the fourth year of consistent growth,” Lee said in the email. “We have come a long way from the first year goal of 150 donors to now over 2,300.”

Josh Sumpter, instructor of biblical and ministry studies and university Chaplain, said that while the BMS program may be smaller than other departments, they were able to compete and win because of a collective effort.

“I encourage the BMS majors to get three donors a piece. If they can do that, I will work to get about 100 donors to allow us to compete with larger programs,” Sumpter said. “I learned a lot about fundraising through years in ministry and have built a large contact list over the years. We may be small, but we are also motivated by competition and the underdog story. It sounds like a biblical challenge.”

Sumpter plans to put the winnings of the contest to good use, giving it back to the students.

“The money we raise from the Day of Giving goes directly to impacting student learning experiences,” Sumpter said. “A goal would be to convert some of the money to a scholarship for an incoming BMS student and to give students opportunities to travel with out-of-the-classroom learning experiences.”

Sumpter expressed gratitude to all who gave and helped BMS win, but wanted to highlight one supporter in particular.

“I am grateful for partners of the BMS program like Chuck Bailey, a former Waynesburg resident director and CCO campus minister,” Sumpter said. “Chuck is an advocate for campus ministry and students growing in faith while at Waynesburg University. He greatly impacts the BMS program during the Day of Giving by collecting close to 40 donors by himself. Our students know what he means to our program, both as a financial supporter, but also as a strategic ministry partner.”

Across the university, alumni from many different departments gave back to their respective programs as a part of the Day of Giving. Sumpter noted that this is also the case with Biblical and Ministry Studies.

“In 2019, we graduated our largest class for BMS of 11 students,” Sumpter said. “Many of our recent grads gave back as we grow our alumni base. It was a joy to hear their stories of how the BMS program and the Day of Giving impacted their journey.”