Make a difference on #GivingTuesday this year

This year, #Giving Tuesday—a global day of giving for nonprofits—falls on November 28. Please consider showing your support for the NIRSA Foundation and your NIRSA family by participating and making a donation on that day. The NIRSA Foundation provides scholarships, research, student officials’ development, and professional development opportunities for students and professionals in the collegiate recreation field. Consider making a gift this year to support your NIRSA family!

During the week of November 26-December 2, gifts made to the NIRSA Foundation will be matched dollar for dollar up to $2,500 by Hughes Group Architects. Their support will allow the first $2,500 in donation dollars to become $5,000! Our #GivingTuesday goal is $8,000 in donations and at least 100 people making gifts in support of their NIRSA family.

While our target is $8,000, donations above and beyond would continue to enhance all the pillars of the NIRSA Foundation. Scholarships and stipends allow professionals and students to attend the Annual Conference and other NIRSA events for professional development. In 2017, the NIRSA Foundation awarded 60 full-registration scholarships, 35 preconference workshop awards, and six travel stipends to ensure NIRSA members—like 2017 Region I Scholarship Recipient Jennifer De La Rosa—can take advantage of NIRSA’s many educational opportunities.

“Receiving a NIRSA Foundation scholarship inspired me to continue in this field,” Jennifer says. “Being recognized with a NIRSA Foundation scholarship is something I will always be proud of. It solidified my love of working in campus recreation and gave me the drive to work hard and keep faith that I would find a future in this field.”

The NIRSA Foundation’s support of research includes underwriting the Institutional Data Set (IDS). Among its many incredible benefits, this data set can be used to benchmark programs against those at other universities as well as compare the size of programs nationally. This information helps us professionals and students better the profession and improve our impacts on our college campuses.

“The IDS provides a comprehensive, one-stop source for benchmarking campus recreation programs,” says IDS user Armand Buzzelli, PhD, Director of Campus Recreation at Robert Morris University. “With the IDS, our process has been streamlined, and we’re more confident in the accuracy and meaning of the data that we are presenting to our institutional administration.”

Student Officials’ Development is all about supporting training for student officials at NIRSA Championship Series National Basketball and Flag Football tournaments. Last year, NIRSA Foundation donors supported training for 104 up-and-coming student officials, who took this knowledge back to their campuses for the benefit of their campus rec communities. Providing students with the skills to better their officiating also allows them to seek other officiating opportunities after they leave our campuses, and teaches them valuable leadership skills such as conflict resolution, problem solving, and decision making.

Thank you for making a gift on November 28 and helping us secure the match from Hughes Group Architects. After you make your gift, please celebrate it on social media and encourage others within your NIRSA family to join you in supporting the NIRSA Foundation. You can use our template or come up with your own!