I'll take the lack of information from either the Annual Fund or the Owl Club to mean that we fell short of both goals. In the past, they have made it clear right after the deadline that the goals had been surpassed.

(06-02-2017 09:52 AM)mrbig Wrote:  I'll take the lack of information from either the Annual Fund or the Owl Club to mean that we fell short of both goals. In the past, they have made it clear right after the deadline that the goals had been surpassed.

At least a couple hundred gifts short of the Annual Fund goal.

The bar for the Owl Club was very high - 1000 is over half the current Owl Club membership IIRC. No critique intended of the anonymous donor; the $100k is his to do with as he wishes, of course.

What were the goals for the last couple 24-hour fundraisers? It seems like they were much lower and these were much more ambitious. Additionally, I felt like I heard about this 24-hour challenge less than I had heard about the previous ones, though perhaps that is because I haven't been using facebook as much.

(06-02-2017 11:08 AM)mrbig Wrote:  What were the goals for the last couple 24-hour fundraisers? It seems like they were much lower and these were much more ambitious. Additionally, I felt like I heard about this 24-hour challenge less than I had heard about the previous ones, though perhaps that is because I haven't been using facebook as much.

In March there was a young alumni challenge of 1,500. That one was longer than 24 hours.

Last year (March) there was a 24-hour challenge that required 5,000 donors. That was met. Don't recall the end total.

As of noon on June 2nd, the Web Site says "Still Counting, check back for final numbers". I predict that they will discover a misplaced box containing 800 donations (100 for the Owl Club) and will declare victory pretty soon.

Still says "Still Counting...

5,591 (1,000 Owl Club, 250 Business Fund)

Still waiting on Alice, Texas .....

They are looking at hanging chads to see if any of them count as donations.

Dukes of Duval County put us over the top

Both Owl Club and the Business Fund made their goals; the University-wide challenge fell just short of it's very ambitious (and, IMO, too high a bar) goal (5,500 vs. 6,000). Still, a very good showing.

If you donated during the challenge you have been entered into a drawing for a trip for 2 to Iceland. If you didn't donate during the challenge you have till June 30th to donate and enter the drawing.
https://giving.rice.edu/give/win-a-trip-to-iceland

(06-13-2017 11:42 AM)dragon2owl Wrote:  If you donated during the challenge you have been entered into a drawing for a trip for 2 to Iceland. If you didn't donate during the challenge you have till June 30th to donate and enter the drawing.
https://giving.rice.edu/give/win-a-trip-to-iceland

So donate, and depending on how much you donate (and your income), your tax deduction could get wiped out and you owe a bunch more in taxes. But you get a nice trip, if you can make the time for it.

Sounds like a cool trip, but I'm not sure it's a strong inducement for most donors (considering the vast majority donate under $2k for the year, which is probably the minimum tax that would be owed for the trip for most).

EDIT: actually, it's 1 for 1 the deduction against income (not a tax credit), so I should really be comparing against the full $11k of the cost of the trip. For some, it may be worth it, but for me, it probably wouldn't.

Or, donate the trip that is won to a charity auction. Solves that problem.