By Lynn Sommerville
Alazeah Giarrusso remembers where she was when her Ramfunder team hit their fundraising goal, coming into the office with a few fellow student workers and doing their daily check of the Ramfunder progress bar. When they saw that the bar was filled in and the number had hit $5,000, they were blown away. “For me, $5,000 is such a crazy concept,” she said. “That’s unfathomable. And we raised that kind of quickly!”
That $5,000 didn’t come from one donor. It came from a few dozen, most giving under $250 to Alazeah’s team, given by people who wanted to be part of something at CSU, even in a small way.
Many of the stories told about CSU donors focus on the individuals and organizations who give large, multi-figure gifts. But each of the 30,000 donors—out of 37,000 total—who gave less than $250 this school year is visionary, too. Each of these gifts is motivated by purposeful care for this place. And together, these donors are the engine driving CSU’s programs and people forward each year.
These donors often give to CSU through our Annual Giving campaigns. Short and time-bound, these campaigns connect CSU donors with the programs and people that need their support the most. This year, Annual Giving’s Ramfunder campaigns connected donors to 180 student organizations, club teams, faculty projects, support services, and programs in March and October in month-long cohorts. Two of these stories—one from a scrappy club team, one from a program focused on students who grew up without family support—show exactly how the donors who support these campaigns make an impact.
Rowing Toward a Goal, One Gift at a Time
The CSU Crew team is a co-ed, no-cut club team welcoming students from all experience levels. Many of their rowers, like CSU junior and Crew Team Vice President Molly Slupik, are sitting in a boat for the first time when they join. The journey from that first wobbly entry into a shell to competing on a national stage this past year is only possible because of the CSU donors who supported the team’s competition travel expenses through Ramfunder.
Participating takes dedication. 4:30 a.m. practices on Horsetooth Reservoir. Funding their own travel to competitions. And, as a club team, it’s fully student-led. That means student officers like Molly balance team leadership—scheduling practices, coaching, coordinating equipment, managing team finances—on top of being a student. “It’s hard because we all are student athletes and officers, but it is a really awesome leadership opportunity,” Molly says.
After hearing about Ramfunder through the sport club coordinators, Molly and her team decided to participate in hopes of raising $4,000 in travel funds so more people could make the trip to the ACRA National Championship Regatta in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. They leaned into promoting the campaign through social media and called on their strong community of friends, family, and team alumni to support them along the way. The Ramfunder cohort structure, training, and giving platform helped make things “easy, accessible, and exciting for people,” in Molly’s opinion.
When they met their goal, the relief was immediate. “I was a little nervous about meeting our goal. It felt like a lot to ask for, but it was cool to see that there were a lot of people who gave a few hundred dollars, and that made the difference,” Molly said. “I think everyone was super stoked. It just takes that gloomy cloud over everyone’s head away. Because, for this regatta, we rowers pay for it out of pocket. To be able to compete at such an awesome regatta and then have that financial help makes it so much easier and enjoyable for everyone, and we’re able to focus on competing our best.”
And compete they did! Four years ago, the team sent four rowers. When Molly was a freshman, they sent ten. This past year, thanks to donor support, 17 team members traveled and competed against more than 70 clubs before a crowd of nearly 30,000 people. Molly placed first overall in the women’s singles B Final, with her teammates also turning in their strongest performances at this level.
As for what’s next for CSU Crew, the goal is to keep that steady track of growth for the team, both in size and in competition. They’re excited to participate in Ramfunder again this coming year, hoping to fund new equipment that will serve that goal. “It is awesome to see how if everyone’s able to give just a little bit, that adds up quickly and can make a huge impact on the team.”
Across campus, another program was also experiencing how the Ramfunder program could expand reach and accelerate impact.
A Program Built on Showing Up
Fostering Success is a donor-funded organization that provides essential services and support to CSU students from independent backgrounds, like students coming from foster care, orphans, McKinney Vento Unaccompanied Homeless Youth, and more. The program has two full-time staff and hires student staff—most of them participants in the program itself—to serve this unique group of CSU students. Currently, more than 300 students participate in the program, and it grows each year.
Alazeah Giarrusso is one of those student staff members, a participant in the program, and a key leader in the two Ramfunder campaigns Fostering Success ran in the fall and spring this year.
The fall campaign raised funds for the program’s coaching and leadership resources, through which trained program staff hold hundreds of meetings with students to provide education and guidance on topics these students may not learn about elsewhere—finances and employment, finding housing, building life skills, developing community and supportive relationships, and tending to physical and mental health, to name a few.
“Less than 5 percent of foster youth will get a bachelor’s degree. And so we know that these students face undue burdens not only financially, but emotionally, and there are barriers that they need help overcoming. That’s what our coaching does,” said Melissa Henke, senior coordinator and former program participant.
In the spring, the program raised money for move-in packages for new students in the program. These move-in kits include everything from twin extra-long sheets for dorm beds to cleaning supplies, since many of these students arrive at CSU without many personal belongings or resources. Now entering her senior year, Alazeah still has several items from her own move-in package: a fan, an electric kettle, a dustpan and a broom.
As a fully donor-funded program, Fostering Success tries to engage donors in as many ways as it can. That is where Ramfunder came in. This year, staff and students worked together on these campaigns, and they surpassed their goals in both semesters. For a small program with a big impact, Ramfunder provided reach.
For Alazeah and Melissa, the impact of that reach goes beyond the dollar figure. “Moments like this help me feel like, in a program where students experience such disadvantages, we’re not the only ones fighting for a better future for them. For us to so quickly have the support of an incredible community that cares about happiness and degree pursuit of our students will always sit very deep in me because I am one of those students. I was one of those students. And I get to share that joy and advocate for those who are coming after me,” said Melissa.
Record-Breaking Generosity in Giving Day Campaigns
The same spirit of care and sense of overwhelming generosity was felt on both of CSU’s Giving Days: Giving Tuesday in December and Rams Rise in May.
Every Giving Tuesday, donors to CSU provide the equivalent of 10,000 meals to combat food insecurity, which 1 in 3 CSU students will navigate during their time at the University. By highlighting Rams Against Hunger and the essential support they provide through their meal swipe program for students, this day demonstrates the power of small gifts: less than $15 fills a plate, $160 feeds a Ram for a week, and $440 supports a student for a semester. Thanks to the donors of Giving Tuesday, the meal swipe program was able to support 333 students during the spring semester.
“This effort is so special because it kind of goes straight from hearts to plates, and the impact of that is very clear when we think about helping students thrive,” said Scott Roberts, President and CEO of the Colorado State University Foundation.
The year of Annual Giving campaigns culminated with Rams Rise, CSU’s Day of Giving, on May 8. The goal: inspire 1,870 donors to support funds across every college and area at CSU. The result: 2,000+ donors giving over $1.8 million to support 77 different areas on campus, from athletics to research, student services, and scholarships.
The beauty: How donors responded when asked, “What do you rise for?”
I rise for the four years that made me who I am.
I rise to see students succeed.
I rise for future cures and advancements that will come from CSU.
I rise for the chance to make a positive difference in someone’s life.
The Alchemy of Small Gifts
Each donor at CSU gives with a purpose in mind, with their own answer to that question: what do you rise for? What Annual Giving’s campaigns create is a space where that purpose can connect with an idea, a need, or a student who could use some support. It’s a powerful example of what we can accomplish in the small, everyday acts of generosity. Every gift and donor at CSU matters. But what giving days and crowdfunding campaigns demonstrate is how much work and change CSU donors drive, all the time, right here.
A club rowing team competing before a crowd of 30,000. New sheets, a mini vacuum, and hot water kettle for a student who needs it. A daily check on a number climbing past $5,000, proof that the need was seen, and supported. And gift by gift, those contributions add up to something no individual donor could have built alone.