Tuesday is JMU Giving Day

This Tuesday, March 15, JMU will be hosting its University-wide Giving Day. On this day, students, parents, fans, alumni and more will come together and help raise money for JMU. It’s a one day online giving campaign to raise money for all of JMU, including the Duke Club. Which is where we come in.

As part of JMU Giving Day, the Duke Club has set a goal to raise $24,500. And before you ask, $24,500 happens to be the cost of one in-state full tuition scholarship. In order to meet this goal, the Duke Club has enlisted a number of prominent and successful alums to personally donate and help encourage more folks to do the same. They’ve gotten folks like Pittsburgh Steeler Arthur Moats, Carolina Panther and NFC Champion Dean Marlowe, College Gameday producer Lee Fitting, Sportscenter host Lindsey Czarniak, and…us. Presumably we were chosen to help reach the portion of the donor base that enjoys emotionally unhinged rants and snarky digs at our fellow CAA brethren. But we’re here to help. We’re going to donate a little something extra beyond our normal annual pledges.

So this is what we’re going to do. The wonderful women of JMU Softball have a full slate of 5 games between now and Giving Day. Your favorite bloggers pledge to donate $20 for each game they win. We’d love it if you could join us and make a donation as well. It doesn’t need to be a lot. Anything from $5 on up would make a real difference. All you need to do is visit GivingDay.jmu.edu on Tuesday (midnight to midnight) and make a pledge directed for the Duke Club. Then encourage your friends, family, and fellow Dukes fans to do the same by announcing it on social media and using the hashtags #JMUGivingDay and #ProudandTrue

Here’s the thing though. A goal of $24,500 is nice, but we think JMU fans can do better. Much better. Elon University just had a similar giving day and the Phoenix Club (its booster club) managed to raise a whopping $193,308.03. First of all, who doesn’t make even dollar donations? Did someone make an actual 3 cent donation, or did someone feel generous and tack on the 03 after the decimal? Second of all, a total of $19,165.36 went just to the football program. We’re talking about the Elon football program. And contrary to what you might have assumed, it was not given under the condition that the program be eliminated to stop embarrassing the school. It was given by Elon fans (they exist apparently) who want to show their support for the Phoenix. Wow.

Let’s do the math. Elon won 4 football games last year. It was a good year, relatively speaking. That means Phoenix fans donated $4,791.34 per win to the football team. If JMU fans gave the same amount per win, the Duke Club would get $43,122.06. The boys in maroon scored all of 147 points on offense, which works out to a hefty $130.38 per point. If we all chipped in at the same per point basis for the Dukes, it would lead to $69,229.97. You want one more? The Phoenix fans chipped in $1,064.74 for each of Elon’s 18 offensive touchdowns. The JMU offense scored 64 touchdowns last season, so if Dukes fans donated at the same rate, it would be $68,143.50.

We could go on and on, but the point is obvious. Elon is bad at football. Wait, that wasn’t it. Oh yeah, here it is. As JMU fans, we’re treated to a great product, not only on the football field, but on the softball diamond, basketball court, soccer fields, and pretty much every other place JMU athletes perform. Let’s step up and raise some money so future student athletes can continue to entertain us and make us all proud to be Dukes. Donate on Tuesday and encourage your friends to do the same.