Scarlet & Give Back Day - Success!

Scarlet & Give Back Day, April 7, 2016, was an opportunity for alumni, parents, students, faculty, staff, and friends of Grinnell to show pride in the College as a leader in providing a world-class liberal arts education.

As a bonus, an anonymous donor issued a philanthropic challenge: if 2,000 people gave to Grinnell before 11:59 p.m., CDT, the donor would give the College $1 million!

By 5:08 p.m. 2,000 donors had made gifts, and the $1 million challenge gift was unlocked.

But our anonymous donor was so impressed with the generosity of the Grinnell community, they offered a new challenge to continue this exciting event through the evening. For the "bonus" challenge, if 500 additional donors who had not given yet to Grinnell, gave by 11:59 p.m. CDT, the College would receive an additional $100,000.

Both Donor Challenges Met

At 10:15 p.m., the College announced that 500 additional donors had made gifts to unlock the $100,000 bonus challenge. By the end of the day, more than 3,000 donors made gifts unlocking the challenge matches totaling $1,100,000. 

Total donors: 3,376
Donor gifts: $ 284,533.48
Matching gift: $1,100,000
Scarlet & Give Back Day TOTAL: $1,384,553.48

Thanks-a-Million

Thank you to the alumni, parents, students, faculty, staff, and friends who made a gift in support of Scarlet & Give Back Day. We are proud of the extraordinary generosity displayed by Grinnellians worldwide. The event’s donor total set a new one-day record for donors to the College.

Because of the tremendous number of donors, we successfully met two donor challenges and unlocked $1.1 million in matching gifts.  

While this was structured as a participation challenge, please join us in taking a moment to recognize how important this day was for campus. Every day, we are grateful for donors who, through their gifts, invest in the future of the people and programs that make Grinnell such a distinctive and wonderful place.