USD foundation works with students for Giving Week fundraiser and Founders Day events

The USD community is coming together for Giving Week after President James Abbott announced his retirement last fall.

Teagan McNary, former SGA president and political science and criminal justice double major, said the main goal of the week is to fundraise for the James W. and Collette Abbott scholarship endowment. The main source of fundraising is selling Abbott-moji buttons for a minimum of $5.

“Giving week is the student-led push or drive for President Abbott’s legacy at the university. So what we’re really trying to do is students helping students which is really cool,” McNary said. “We’re fundraising, we set a goal of $2,500 to fundraise in one week and our primary focus is the USD community.”

Throughout the week of fundraising, the student-led group said they’re hoping for 500 donors for the James W. and Collette Abbott scholarship endowment. The USD foundation started the idea of the scholarship endowment and Sami Zoss, associate director of constituent engagement, worked with McNary and Conrad Adam, a senior finance major to discuss the student activities for the week.

McNary said she’s been meeting with Adam for around a month to ensure that Giving Week is a success.

“We’ve been working for the past month and a half meeting at least weekly as a group, and then Conrad and I meeting more frequently than that to kind of put this together,” McNary said. “We’ve got a core group of people that kind of pulled from different areas on campus and so they have been a huge help.”

Founders Day activities include Donuts and Donations, Founders Day Food Truck Friday, President Abbott + Free Cake = G.O.A.T. and the Spring Football game all on Friday.

As of Tuesday night the James W. and Collette Abbott scholarship endowment has raised more than $2,200 with around 100 donors.