For 24 hours, donors rallied together to help Cornell “reach for the stars” on the 11th Giving Day, held March 13.

This year’s space-themed event raised $11,206,717 from 17,591 donors, for a total of 25,929 gifts making a tangible show of support for causes across the university.

“Cornellians everywhere demonstrated their continued commitment to our founding principles and mission ‘to do the greatest good,’” said Fred Van Sickle, vice president for alumni affairs and development (AAD). “In these times of great uncertainty for higher education, the results of Giving Day 2025 help the university provide an exceptional educational experience for its students and bolster our impact around the world.”

Credit: Jason Koski/Cornell University

Donors from all 50 U.S. states and 67 countries gave to a record number of 765 funds across colleges, student organizations, scholarships, special projects and other entities. Alumni, students, parents, faculty, staff and friends contributed to a record 190 matches and challenges, unlocking more than $2 million to extend the reach of their gifts and amplify their impact.

Seventeen Giving Day events across Cornell’s Ithaca campus and at Cornell Tech in New York City drew in 1,620 students with giveaways, snacks, postcard-writing and games. This year, students contributed 2,122 gifts across undergraduate, graduate and professional schools, helping support areas that made a difference in their own experiences at Cornell.

“Giving Day is important for students like me because it’s an opportunity to give back to any causes that made an impact on me, whether that be a student organization, or an engineering project team or a department,” said Victor Wu ’25, co-chair of the Senior Class Campaign.

Wu is in a dual degree program, already on track to earn his master of health administration degree in 2026 from the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy. He was a beneficiary of the Sloan Forward Fund, which helps students attend conferences like the American Congress of Healthcare Executives, and he chose to give back to the Brooks School and other causes for Giving Day 2025.

“As we turn into the future generation of alumni,” Wu said, “giving back is what’s going to continue driving the work that is getting done here, what shaped us into who we are.”

Emma Rose Connolly ’25, president of the Alumni Affairs Student Engagement Committee, and a member of the Senior Class Campaign, donated to an annual fund through her class campaign.

“I wanted to help another student – any student – be able to get the resources that I was able to have these past four years,” Connolly said. “Financial aid is something very important for me, because it’s helped me be able to afford to be a student at Cornell. Without people’s donations, we can’t innovate and we can’t expand as a community.”

Some Giving Day statistics:

• Recent alumni had a strong Giving Day showing, totaling 3,453 gifts from the classes of 2015 to ’24 in undergraduate, graduate and professional schools;
• 512 Giving Day champions brought in more than 4,000 gifts for causes closest to their hearts;
• More than 1,450 students unlocked $50,000 for undergraduate scholarships with a student donor challenge from Board of Trustees Chair Kraig Kayser, MBA ’84;
• More than 450 international donors unlocked $5,000 for Global Cornell, thanks to members of the Cornell Asia Alumni Leadership Advisors, and $5,000 for the East Asia Program, thanks to the Cornell China Alumni Advisory Board;
• Social media challengers unlocked $8,000 as alumni spread the word on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook; and
• Four students competed in an in-person scavenger hunt to find stuffed bears hidden across Cornell’s Ithaca campus, each winning $500 for their preferred college or unit.

Jennifer Wholey is a marketing writer in Alumni Affairs and Development.