GW is raising funds for its athletic programs with the 2023 Buff and Blue Fund Challenge.
The fundraiser helps fund the University’s athletic programs, with money being raised primarily going toward scholarship costs, travel and nutritional needs of athletes in addition to academic support. Donors can give directly to an athletic program or to the fund as a whole, which covers overall investment in GW Athletics.
“GW Athletics strives to provide our teams with operating budgets within the top one-third of their respective conferences,” the University said on the fund website.
In 2022, GW Athletics raised more than $200,000 from over 1,100 donors, more than half of whom were alumni student-athletes. With the hopes of achieving similar success this year, the Buff and Blue Fund Challenge is once again a competition. Donors can enter to financially support a GW athletic team of their choosing, with cash prizes being awarded to the winning teams in the categories of most donors, most dollars raised, highest former student-athlete participation rate and most improved on total donors from last year.
Supporters can also offer a matching gift, with several alumni athletes matching donations to their former programs. Men’s basketball alum and former NBA player Tyler Cavanaugh has offered to match dollar for dollar up to $1,000 for other men’s basketball alumni donating to the program.
Last year, baseball had the most donors, gymnastics raised the most money, the water polo program won the highest alumni-athlete giving percentage award, while volleyball had the greatest improvement in their alumni-athlete giving percentage.
As of Oct. 1, GW Athletics raised a total of $68,383 from 289 donors, with 30 percent of those donors being former student-athletes, 37 percent being family members, 17 percent being current student-athletes and the remaining percentage coming from friends, faculty, current nonstudent athletes and nonstudent athlete alumni. The department has raised 45 percent of its $150,000 goal, with the campaign ending Oct. 6 at 11:59 p.m.
Thus far, the baseball program has raised the most money, collecting $20,820 from just nine donors. Lacrosse has raised the second-highest amount, $8,805 from 66 donors, the most of any program.
The Buff and Blue Fund Challenge was made possible through GW Athletics Advisory Council member Annemargaret Connolly’s philanthropic efforts. Along with her husband Ken Frank, Connolly, a GW Law ’88 alum, provided additional prizes that are distributed to the various winning programs. The money awarded to the winner of each challenge is provided through a donation from Connolly and Frank.
