BU’s annual Giving Tuesday this year highlights four funds that support students and their learning, both on campus and around the world. Photo by Adele Bertschy

Giving

A Chance to Support Students Today during Annual Giving Tuesday

This year’s one-day fundraising effort will support University scholarships, Study Abroad, and the Community Service Center

Each year for the past decade, Boston University has participated in Giving Tuesday, the annual global day of giving back that first launched in 2012 to encourage people to give and celebrate generosity. Giving Tuesday is November 28 this year, and the University is focused on raising funds to support students.

Four highlighted funds offer a variety of ways for students, alumni, faculty, staff, parents, and other friends of BU to help students work toward their goals, both in the classroom and beyond:

General Scholarships

The General Scholarship Fund is one of the simplest—and most powerful—ways of supporting all qualified students, regardless of their financial need. The many donors who give to support scholarships are helping students focus on learning without having to worry about making ends meet, now and in the future.

Since its founding, BU has been committed to making sure that talented students from all economic backgrounds have access to its extraordinary resources. For this reason, each year the University spends more on financial aid. What’s more, this commitment to make BU affordable means that the University will meet 100 percent of demonstrated need for all first-time domestic students.

Gifts to the General Scholarship Fund help BU keep that promise.

BUAA Alumni Scholarship

The Boston University Alumni Association (BUAA) has created a new scholarship fund, one that encourages all BU alums to support future generations of Terriers. The BUAA Scholarship will benefit from the University’s Century Challenge, which will double the fund’s impact by matching its spendable income for the next 100 years.

Jenny Gruber (ENG’99), BUAA current president, will oversee the fund’s first awards. She sees the initiative as one important part of the University’s commitment to making an excellent education accessible to all—a commitment that goes back to its earliest days. “With BU’s recent equity and opportunity efforts,” Gruber says, “BU is getting back to its roots.”

Study Abroad

Scholarships provide essential support for many students, but they don’t cover all aspects of the BU experience. The Study Abroad program, for example, offers remarkable opportunities to explore new cultures and regions.

But those experiences would simply be out of reach for many students without additional financial support. For this reason, donors can also choose to give to Study Abroad on Giving Tuesday this year.

Community Service

The fourth highlighted fund for this year’s Giving Tuesday supports the Community Service Center (CSC). One goal for the CSC over the next several years is to raise $65,000 to fund scholarships for the center’s Alternative Service Breaks (ASB) program, a weeklong volunteer opportunity during spring break.

Through ASB, volunteers build genuine connections with fellow program participants and their host communities, emphasizing the importance of inclusivity, diversity, intentional service, and a deeper understanding of social justice. But, again, without additional financial support, many students cannot participate.

In addition to these four funds, each school and college will highlight a fund of its own. And all gifts to any fund made on November 28 (midnight to midnight, PST) will count toward #GivingTuesday 2023.

Last year on Giving Tuesday, more than 1,500 donors contributed over $320,000 to more than 170 funds. With a dedicated webpage, emails, texts, messages on social media, and tables around campus, organizers hope to do even better this year.

Find more information about all of these funds and ways to make a tax-deductible gift at givingtuesday.bu.edu.