Fordham English Celebrates a Successful Giving Day Thanks to a Thriving Community of Supporters
By Elissa Johnston
As part of Fordham’s 2023 Giving Day campaign on April 17th and 18th, the English department grossed more than any other academic department (and beat out several sports teams!). Thirty-seven donors gave $7,265 to the English department, surpassing last year’s total of around $3,000.
Professor Mary Bly, chair of English, thanked donors for their outpouring of support. “We will be sending out individual thank you’s, but every single gift counted,” she said. “With donor help, we could transform the English Department—strengthening ties to community colleges, for example, and creating scholarships to support students who wish to transfer [to Fordham].”
This year’s Giving Day campaign benefitted greatly from a generous (and anonymous) Matching Gift offer of $3,000, which helped double giving compared to last year’s total. But English also had a remarkably high number of contributors: with 37 donors, the English department placed 12th institutionally for number of donors (the football team, for comparison, had 36).
Dr. Bly highlighted the many ways that donor support helps the English department support students. “These funds help us by providing monetary support to underserved student communities. In addition, donor support allows us to create more opportunities to enable students to conduct research, explore internships, and plan for their futures. Furthermore, Giving Day funds can be used to help cultivate community building amongst students, faculty and staff via programming events and social outings related to cultural enrichment. The English Department development committee will continue to consider other possible needs of our students, staff, and faculty, as we raise funds.”
Professor Stephen Sohn, chair of the department’s development committee, also expressed his gratitude for the outpouring of donor support on Giving Day: “We are extremely thankful to all the donors who gave!! In a time when the humanities are endangered and there are consistent proclamations that the English major is dead, these gifts send a message that we are a community that can advance together even in spite of such dire warnings. Indeed, these donors helped enable English to be the highest-performing department on Giving Day! Our gratitude is thus immense, and we will continue to show the donors and our Fordham community what it means to have such support.”
Dr. Bly offered to share more specific information about how gifts could be used. “We used donor gifts in the last year to support our majors and faculty in numerous ways. If anyone would like to know how we spent it, we would be happy to share that information.”
Dr. Sohn also thanked the many people who worked to make Giving Day a success. “The development committee could not have proceeded without the help of a team of individuals. Professor James Kim provided student testimonials. Our contacts in DAUR have been especially responsive, including but not limited to Michelle Nista, Elaine Ezrapour, Michael da Silva, Neil Stevenson, Caroline Burgos, and Drew O’Kane. Professor Keri Walsh provided our theme for this year. We also had additional support via our two newest members: Shonni Enelow and Maria Farland. It truly takes a village.”
