A total of 276 donors gave $42,746 to Samford University during this year's concentrated two-day online fundraising effort known as The Big Give June 12-13.  The total dollars raised was 253 percent higher and the number of donors 28 percent higher than in last year's inaugural Big Give.

"It was exciting to see how many alumni, parents, friends, faculty and staff wanted to help each project come to fruition," said Kimberly Cripps, Samford's director of annual giving.  "In fact, one donor from the 1970's contributed to the Beeson Commons renovation primarily because he lived in that space when it was the former men's dormitory known as Crawford Johnson Hall."                 

Donors exceeded goals in six projects that were part of the Big Give--the Beeson Commons renovation, Brock School of Business Building, Ida V. Moffett School of Nursing clinical skills lab, James B. Angel Scholarship Fund, McWhorter School of Pharmacy fund for students to attend professional meetings and University Fellows Student Emergency Assistance Fund.

Donors also gave to such projects as a program for summer research scholarships, a fund to provide Birmingham Museum of Arts memberships for students, nutrition and dietetics scholarships, Samford's Shoe a Nation project in Dominica, international travel opportunities for education students and book scholarships for law students.

Cripps encouraged alumni who have not yet given this year to do so by the end of the fiscal year June 30.  "Every gift matters, regardless of the amount," she said.  To make a gift, please go to www.samford.edu/giving.