Alumni, Friends Respond to Giving Tuesday

Multiple Ways to Help Ole Miss Students Featured During Day
UM music students and faculty members, on the set of LMR Live, had the opportunity to meet songwriter, lyricist and record producer Glen Ballard (center). Living Music Resource™ is one of the Ole Miss programs that received support during Giving Tuesday on Dec. 3.
The Ole Miss Career Closet at UM’s South Oxford Center attracted many gifts on Giving Tuesday, as alumni and friends helped secure more clothing for students to select for internship and job interviews.

More than 250 University of Mississippi alumni and friends marked the occasion of Giving Tuesday, the worldwide annual day of giving on Dec. 3, to embrace philanthropy by raising over $11,200 for project-based crowdfunding initiatives at Ole Miss.

“A total of 251 Giving Tuesday donors made 258 gifts and showed that kindness and charitable investments are among their top priorities,” said Maura Langhart, senior director of annual giving. “Their generous gifts will greatly benefit many members of our university community.”

The most popular initiative, the Ole Miss Career Closet, received 123 gifts from donors, which will help provide more students, regardless of their financial situation, with a free outfit and professional styling each semester to help them interview and launch their careers with confidence.

An Ole Miss Women’s Council fund paying tribute to the late Jennifer Lawrence Bordelon received 27 gifts on Giving Tuesday this week. Here, Bordelon is pictured pointing to her personalized “Miss Ole Miss” brick on the Walk of Fame.

Students will also benefit from the 27 gifts made to the Ole Miss Women’s Council for Philanthropy’s campaign for the Jennifer Lawrence Bordelon Leadership Fund. This fund, which provides income for operating the OMWC’s mentorship of its student scholars, honors the memory of a beloved young alumna who had been an OMWC scholar, a member of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College and selected as Miss Ole Miss and Kappa Delta president during her college career.

Among other ongoing crowdfunding campaigns, donors supported:

  • The Helen Ward Kellum Legacy Award for Excellence in Theatre Arts to cover continuing-education travel costs for theatre students.
  • Ole Miss Opportunity Scholarship to help Mississippi residents afford college.
  • Oscar Pope Memorial Scholarship to honor late UM alumnus Oscar R. Pope through a scholarship in the School of Journalism and New Media.
  • Carnesha Nelson Memorial Scholarship to benefit students in the School of Applied Sciences and preserve the late student’s memory.
  • Living Music Resource™ to give students unique experiences to enhance their music degrees.

For each gift of $18.48 or more, donors received a pair of Trash Can Friday-themed Ole Miss socks — a big hit with Giving Tuesday donors. The design featured the iconic red and blue bins that dot the Grove on football gameday weekends.

All philanthropic contributions to the University of Mississippi Foundation are tax-deductible. To continue giving, visit online at https://ignite.olemiss.edu. For more information, contact Maura Langhart, senior director of annual giving, at ag@olemiss.edu or 662-915-2760.

By Tina H. Hahn/UM Development

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