Auburn Family supports Tiger Giving Day in record numbers

Auburn University’s Tiger Giving Day raised funds from more than 5,000 donors for a record-breaking 51 projects on Feb. 23, making Auburn’s seventh giving day the most successful.

Among this year’s most popular projects was Auburn Aviation’s bid to restore a classic airplane. The project raised nearly twice the goal amount, ensuring restoration of the 1945 Ercoupe will be possible, so this “Model T” of the skies can join the Auburn fleet.

The Auburn Family helped the College of Architecture, Design and Construction reach 200% of its goal for a project that will document and preserve four of the historic Rosenwald Schools, built between 1912 and 1932 to provide formal education for African American children. Another unique project, the Baby Steps scholarship, raised 234% of the goal to help pregnant students and those with children finish their Auburn education. 

Tiger Giving Day fan favorites, wheelchair basketball and the AU Bee Laboratory, or AU-BEES, were back this year with new projects. AU-BEES supporters gave nearly $15,000 to renovate the Bee Lab. Donors also gave in excess of $35,000 to help the wheelchair basketball and tennis teams purchase a wheelchair accessible van to transport equipment for team events and outreach activities. 

The College of Veterinary Medicine sponsored five projects for this year’s giving day and donors fully funded all of them.

“Because of the generosity of our alumni and friends, we exceeded our project goals and raised more funds than any previous Tiger Giving Day,” said College of Veterinary Medicine Dean Calvin Johnson. “The more than $137,000 in donations not only supports unique needs of each unit across campus but allows us to tell how the Auburn Vet Med team is bringing positive change in so many ways.”

The Gene Machine exceeded its goal by 48%, with donors giving nearly $15,000 to bolster research in the fight against breast cancer. Auburn’s Scott-Ritchey Research Center will be able to purchase a bioanalyzer to research and develop treatment of neurologic diseases and more with the $22,100 it received.

A Tiger Giving Day project veteran, the Southeastern Raptor Center, sought support for training for the first eagle flight of the 2022 football season. Achieving well beyond the center’s goal, donors gave nearly $35,000 to support one of Auburn’s most iconic traditions.

Donors gave more than $40,000 to improve the training capabilities and provide supplies for puppies in the Canine Performance Sciences program. The Auburn Family also pushed an Emergency Pet Care project 55% over its goal, giving $23,303 toward a fund to offset emergency treatment costs for those who cannot afford care at the Emergency Critical Care unit of the Bailey Small Animal Teaching Hospital.

“Tiger Giving Day helped us grow research to improve—and even save—lives, advance canine detection to better ensure the safety of all citizens and continue to provide the highest quality service to our animal patients, both in the veterinary teaching hospitals and at the Southeastern Raptor Center,” Johnson said. “The Auburn Family has again answered our call and we are beyond grateful.”

All projects and their updates can be viewed at TigerGiving.org.