Director of Development, Scott McDonald

Key quotes

Shonta Sellers: So we have some exciting news to talk about today. It is Give 4 Garnet time, right? 

Scott McDonald: Yes, best time of the year.

SS: Best time of the year, among other times. But this is one of the ones that stand out. So let's start small for those who don't know what Give 4 Garnet is. What is it? And when did it start?

SM: Great question. So Give 4 Garnet is our day, or I should say days of, philanthropy. So it started about eight years ago, I believe. But eight years ago, we decided we needed a day to celebrate all the great work we are doing educate our students, alumni, friends of the university about the great work we're doing, and helping connect them to areas that they are interested in supporting. It's a way for us to all celebrate the university and to really feel the impact that we can all come together and accomplish some amazing goals if we're working together.

SS: Absolutely, so it's like 1 day, 8 hours and 01 minute.

SS: In the past couple of years, Student Affairs has had some increasing success with Give 4 Garnet. We've supported a lot of internal projects and initiatives. But we are striving to do that again this year, so let's talk more about the division, our success and what we're going to do this year.

SM: Yeah, absolutely. So obviously I'm coming in here newer, but we have looked at Student Affairs from other divisions that I've worked in. We've looked at the Division of Student Affairs to say, all right, what are they doing and how can I emulate that? And so it's been a lot of fun to, learn along with my colleagues about how do they really leverage, our volunteers to make it a success every year.

So typically what we do is we try to win the challenges, the power hours, the most donors or the most money. We try to be very strategic with our approach to Give 4 Garnet so that we can capitalize on some of the other funding that is available to us. Thinking about matching donations, where we have generous donors that say I've got $25,000, if you can find a hundred donors to this fund, it will unlock my whole $25,000 to that fund.

SS: So you did mention the Carolina Cares Fund. Let's talk a little bit about what that is, because I think people hear about it, but they're not really sure about what it is. So the Carolina Cares Student Emergency Fund provides short term financial assistance to help students remain enrolled and focused on their academic goals during moments of unexpected hardship.

Those unexpected hardships could be anything from something medical or mental health emergencies. It could be rent and utilities. It could be course materials like textbooks, access codes, lab materials, personal safety needs like changing locks on doors or on their cars. Replacement of essential personal belongings that, you know, somebody had a fire, and they need to have some some clothes or shoes. Transportation and commuting cost. They've had an incident. They're from California, and they need to get home. Helping them be able to do that. So the Carolina Cares emergency fund is really for emergencies, not just what people perceive as an emergency.

SM: Correct. And I think that's, one of the big stigmas people hear about this kind of support and they think, 'Oh, well, that person maybe didn't manage their money. Like if if they don't have their rent because of something that they did.'

And I always want to try to encourage people to pause for a moment and think about that time where your life just totally fell off the track. It wasn't anything you were trying to do. It wasn't for a lack of effort. It wasn't for a lack of trying. It was just, life hits you hard sometimes, right?

SS: Tomorrow we have our All Staff meeting, and we have something special lined up to celebrate the start of early giving. You want to tell us about that?

SM: I would love to, because I'm actually very excited this year about all we have going on. So at the university level, if everyone remembers those very cute Cocky Blocks, those sweet little Lego sets that, we're a little tricky to put together.

SS: I think I just finished putting mine together yesterday.

SM: So this year, our early giving gift is going to be a Cockaboose. And so a Cockaboose, for those who don't know, are those train cars that are right outside the stadium. We are going to have a Lego version of that. 

SM: So now what I'm more excited about is what is Student Affairs doing?

So I love the Comms team. They had a brilliant idea. They have created these very cute tumblers with a outline. I guess you could almost better describe it, but an outline of the university's, key landmarks and just this cute script. If people saw one of our planners a few years back from the Student Success Center, they had a similar design to it, and it was one of my favorites.

So a gift of $26 will guarantee you, one of those tumblers while supplies last. Of course. And so we'll be talking about that at the division. And so that way, a $26 gift to the Carolina Cares Fund that we've discussed, we would ove to see your dollars go there.

But now I think my favorite part and I think what a lot of our staff will be excited about. We want to encourage philanthropy at all levels because as I mentioned earlier, it's not about how much you give. It's the heart that you're giving with, so the minimum gift for Give 4 Garnet is $5 donation. Any staff member from the division that is supporting a fund from the Student Affairs Division with a $5 gift or more will be entered into a drawing to win a signed Dawn Staley basketball.