A green front swept across the country for 1,861 minutes on Sept. 30 through Oct. 1 and resulted in $303,925.41 raised for SUNY Oswego.
A total of 1,543 donors made gifts during the 1861 Giving Challenge, held in conjunction with Founder’s Weekend, and as they did, they turned their home state from white to green on a map tracking progress.
Laker family members nearly doubled the original goal of 861 donors, helping to secure the $50,000 challenge gift of Al Roker ’76.
Additionally, former Laker wrestler Shane Facteau ’95 issued a challenge within the challenge to supporters of Laker wrestling. He would match dollar-for-dollar any gift made to the wrestling program up to $25,000. A total of $50,081 was raised for the wrestling program during the challenge.
This was the college’s most successful giving challenge to date, involving more donors and raising more money than any challenge before.