Pamplin College of Business helps lead Virginia Tech to record-breaking Giving Day

The Pamplin College of Business once again emerged as the college to beat, breaking records and spearheading efforts that helped propel Virginia Tech to new heights of philanthropic support over 24 hours.

For the fourth year in a row, the Pamplin College of Business led all Virginia Tech colleges and units on Giving Day, with 3,276 unique donors giving $3,762,883 in support of the college, both of which represent new records. With Pamplin’s help, Virginia Tech crushed its own Giving Day records, as over 18,900 Hokies raised more than $13 million for Giving Day 2024.

The 24-hour window between noon EST Feb. 21 and noon EST Feb. 22 marked Virginia Tech’s sixth Giving Day, a celebration of philanthropy that empowered members of the Hokie Nation to channel their generosity and support the university’s colleges, departments, programs, teams, student organizations, and more.

“It was a great team effort by the entire Pamplin community to promote Giving Day,” said Pamplin College of Business Dean Saonee Sarker.

“Giving Day serves as a community-building event to advance Virginia Tech’s culture of philanthropy and to provide critical resources through the power of broad-based participation. It was exciting to see the momentum build to an exciting final hour countdown for my first Giving Day.”

By leading all colleges and units in unique donors and amount raised, as well as finishing first in several different hourly challenges, Pamplin received additional funds to be shared equally amongst all Pamplin units who participated in Giving Day 2024.

Through the generosity of the Pamplin Leaderboard Challenge donors, all Pamplin departments, programs, and initiatives won a share of the challenge’s prize pool. The top 10 Pamplin funds with the most donors won a share of $100,000, with first place receiving $20,000 aggregated down to $2,000 for 10th place. Special bonuses of $500 were awarded to the areas that ranked 11th through 38th when Pamplin reached 2,683 unique donors and 2,750 unique donors, respectively.

Pamplin’s student-run, faculty-led digital marketing agency, PRISM, topped the Pamplin Leaderboard for the third consecutive year with 733 donors. The Hospitality & Tourism Management Annual Fund and Bond & Securities Investing by Students, or BASIS, finished second and third on the leaderboard, respectively.

Pamplin extends its gratitude to the 2024 Leaderboard donors who have made the Pamplin Leaderboard Challenge possible: C.E. Andrews ’74, Christina Brogdon ’93, Greg Carter ’84, Tracy Castle-Newman ’90, Mike Clarke ’83, Gary Cole ’92, Brian Cook ’79, Trish Cox ’90, Nick Cullen ’90, Kendley Davenport ’84, Chip Devine ’92, Lynne Doughtie ’85, Shirley Edwards ’82, Debra Emory ’87, Jeff Hartman ’79, Jim Hatch ’72, Bob Hogan ’78, Lisa Kay ’88, Jason Kies ’03, Carman Liuzzo ’83, Randy Lucas ’91, Jake Lutz ’78, Brian Maloney ’95, Mark Maloney ’82, Floyd Merryman ’81, Don Neff ’90, Jackie Norell ’98, Jim Pearman ’70, Debbie Petrine ’78, Steve Pierson ’90, Todd Rowley ’94, Kim Shanahan ’93, Dwight Shelton ’71, Greg Thompson ’77, Richie Whitt ’87, and Chris Xystros ’84.

Pamplin Hokies embody the Virginia Tech motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), dedicating their time, skills, and resources to uplift fellow Hokies, their communities, and their alma mater. This commitment is evident not only in Pamplin’s remarkable performance during Giving Day but also in the college’s continued high placement in national rankings. 

The Ut Prosim difference was particularly evident in the Pamplin Virginia Tech Advantage Challenge, which leveraged Giving Day to bolster scholarship support for Pamplin students.

For every 275 unique donors to the college, $10,000 was unlocked for Pamplin scholarship support, up to the maximum of $100,000. Aligned with the Virginia Tech Advantage, supporters of the Pamplin College of Business took advantage of the opportunity to help alleviate financial strain by contributing to any Pamplin fund area, thereby unlocking additional support for Pamplin scholarships. 

The Pamplin Virginia Tech Advantage $100,000 Challenge was facilitated by the generous support of Michael Clarke ’83.

“I believe very strongly that an education should be affordable and accessible to any student talented and diligent enough to pursue a Pamplin College of Business degree,” said Clarke, a member of the Pamplin Advisory Council Cabinet member and chair of the Finance Advisory Board.

Much of the success of Giving Day 2024 can be attributed to the dedicated efforts of all of the Giving Day ambassadors who, along with supporting the cause through donations, also spread the message of Giving Day to their network of family and friends via social media and other means. The “You+2” challenge encouraged ambassadors to make a gift and have at least two others within their circle do the same.

Virginia Tech had over 1,500 ambassadors who shared their passion, generating over 10,500 gifts for a total of $744,531.86 raised. With 288, Pamplin accounted for nearly 20 percent of the total number of ambassadors for the university. Those ambassadors raised over $161,000 for the college from 2,323 gifts.

“The tremendous increase in the number of Pamplin Giving Day ambassadors is key to our exceptional outcomes this year, and the growing generosity of Hokies asking Hokies to support Pamplin and Virginia Tech has an immediate impact on our support of students and faculty,” said Tracy Castle-Newman ’90, a member of the Pamplin Advisory Council (PAC) Cabinet and chair of the PAC Development Committee. “Thank you all who helped make this a great success and for helping to build a stronger Pamplin College of Business.”

To see a complete breakdown of Pamplin’s Giving Day, please visit the Giving Day 2024 by the numbers page.

To see images from Giving Day 2024, please visit the photo gallery.