Why Give to the Employee Giving Campaign?


Giving Back is Moving Forward

 

Below are just some of the many ways that Employee Giving dollars help to support James Madison University. Specific funds are listed under "Choose Where Your Gift Goes."

Provide Emergency Student Aid

Madison For Keeps emergency student aidBetween now and December 31, 2009, the emergency fundraising initiative, Madison for Keeps, aims to help more than 200 Madison students at risk of not returning for spring semester due to difficult financial times. Visit www.jmu.edu/madison4keeps to learn more about this important effort.



Support JMU Programs

Help purchase books and educational materials for JMU Libraries, support the Edith J. Carrier Arboretum in providing educational demonstrations and conducting research, support the General Education Program or division of Student Affairs.

Provide Student Scholarships

Establish and award scholarships deserving students. Scholarships exist for: children of JMU faculty and staff, JMU Athletes, exceptional incoming Freshmen, family members of Administration and Finance employees, and high-achieving students majoring in Sociology, Anthropology, Social Work, History, Journalism, SMAD, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, or Dance. More scholarships may be added in the future.

Give Assistance to Students and Faculty

Support students and faculty within the College of Arts and Letters and College of Business, College of Education, College of Outreach Programs, College of Integrated Science and Technology, College of Science and Mathematics, and College of Visual and Performing Arts.

Improve Colleges and Programs

Fill the gap in underfunded areas within the Health Communication Institute, Television Production Center, Institute of Technical and Scientific Communication, School of Communication Studies, English Department, History Department, Journalism, School of Media Arts and Design, Political Science Department, Biology Department, School of Art and Art History, School of Music, and School of Theater and Dance.

Support Research and Visiting Scholars

Award funds for faculty to conduct summer research in English, Foreign Language & Literatures, History, or Philosophy & Religion, provide funds for travel expenses and/or honoraria for visiting scientists to the Biology Department, award research scholarships to students in Biology, Chemistry or Geology, and provide travel expenses for professors or students to present seminars or research in Chemistry.

Become a Patron of the Arts

Provide funding to help in build the Performing Arts Center (estimated completion 2010), provide for expenses related to the Kennedy Center Concerts, sponsor exhibitions and visiting arts' expenses at the New Image Gallery, and provide for visiting artists and scholars, faculty and staff professional development, new technology and improvements within the Department of Art & Art History.

All of the Above

When you make your gift to the Employee Giving Campaign, you can designate your gift to one specific area.

OR, if you dedicate your gift to the Madison Fund, the JMU Foundation will carefully evaluate all the needs throughout the entire university and award funding to areas where the need is the greatest.

Simply select "Madison Fund" when you make your gift online or by mail.

Don't See What You Would Like to Support?

Consider establishing a new scholarship, endowed professorship, endowed chair, or a new fund to support a specific program. Visit us at the Leeolou Alumni Center or call: 1(800)296-6162

Your gifts make a difference


Wheelchair Ramp
Students from three universities, including JMU, help install a wheelchair ramp at a home in the Pine Ridge Reservation during Spring Break. Photo credit: Bryan Banville

Student leaders Kristina Snader ('10) and Liz Toms ('09, '10M) had spent hours researching and planning for their Alternative Spring Break trip to help with the housing crisis facing the Oglala Lakota Nation in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. They were devastated when, due to rising costs of airfare, trip costs skyrocketed to more than $1,000 per student. They contacted their Learning Partner, Lisa Ha ('04, '10M), a marketing program coordinator in Communications, Marketing and Public Affairs, to tell her that the trip might be canceled.

When Ha's colleagues found out about the situation, they began sending in checks to help. Ha and five of her co-workers contributed to the Alternative Spring Break trip. These donations, combined with other private support, enabled 10 students to attend the trip at a final cost of $650 per person.

During their week, the group was truly able to make a difference in one of the poorest counties in America, building two wheelchair ramps, insulating a trailer, helping build a house for a Lakota elder, cleaning a house for a disabled woman and installing bunk beds for children, some of whom had never had a bed their entire lives.

"It was an amazing experience and we all learned so much," says Snader. "I want to thank all the JMU employees who gave from the bottom of my heart. Without them, we wouldn't have had a trip."


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