School of Pharmacy’s Record-Breaking Giving Day Raises More Than $70,000

Donations from more than 330 faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends will help support critical programs at the School.

By Malissa Carroll
February 15, 2019

The University of Maryland School of Pharmacy hosted its third annual Giving Day from Feb. 1 – 2 to help generate gifts that will allow the School to further its mission to lead pharmacy education, scientific discovery, patient care, and community engagement across the state of Maryland and beyond. The event, which was hosted exclusively online, nearly doubled the success of previous Giving Day events in 2017 and 2018, raising more than $70,000 from 332 faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends of the School.

“Thanks to the tremendous support from the School of Pharmacy community, we were able to double the amount of money raised during last year’s Giving Day, and secure more than $70,000 in donations for our School and its departments, cents, and programs,” says Natalie D. Eddington, PhD, FCP, FAAPS, dean and professor of the School. “These funds will help the School of Pharmacy continue to engage in activities that foster the continued advancement of pharmacy education, research, practice, and community service. The collective actions of our generous donors helped make this year’s Giving Day a wonderful success, and I am truly humbled by everyone’s generosity.”

Giving Day leveraged the power of social media to bring together the School’s faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends for a 24-hour philanthropic event. Themed to coincide with Groundhog Day, the event began at noon on Friday, Feb.1, and concluded at noon on Saturday, Feb. 2. The School’s unofficial groundhog mascot for the event — Pharmapreneur Phil — made appearances throughout the day on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to highlight departments, centers, and programs that exemplify the School’s Pharmapreneurship® initiative, including the Maryland Poison Center and the Patient-Centered Involvement in Evaluating the Effectiveness of Treatments (PATIENTS) Program.

Pharmapreneurship outlines the School’s commitment to supporting and best positioning its faculty and students to achieve their career aspirations and address the nation’s health care, research, policy, and societal needs.

“Giving Day truly highlights the power of community — the power of people coming together in support of a common cause,” says Greer Griffith, MS, director of alumni relations and annual giving in the Office of Development and Alumni Affairs at the School of Pharmacy, who spearheaded the effort to organize the event. “I was amazed by the outpouring of support that we received from our alumni, faculty, staff, students, and friends. It was exciting to watch our community come together once again, and even more awe-inspiring to see that we were able to double our numbers from last year.”

This year’s Giving Day featured several challenges to help keep audiences engaged throughout the event, including a Faculty and Staff Giving Challenge for which Eddington, who is a 1989 alumnus of the School, pledged to donate $1,000 if 85 faculty and staff members made a gift to the School, and the first-ever Quadruple Your Impact Challenge, for which an anonymous alumnus pledged to donate $200 to the School for every donation made of $50 or more.

In 2018, Giving Day raised more than $32,000 from 200 donors. At the conclusion of this year’s event, more than $70,000 had been raised by 332 donors, with approximately 44 percent coming from faculty and staff, 45 percent from alumni, four percent from current students, and seven percent from friends of the School, including parents and families of current students.

“Whether you made a gift, shared a post on social media, or encouraged a friend to give, you contributed to our success,” says Griffith. “I hope that our entire School of Pharmacy community is just as proud as I am of this collective accomplishment.”



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