The annual One Herd One Day 24-hour giving challenge raised $1,321,538 in an effort to fund Bucknell’s varsity athletics program as well as multiple club sports and activities last week.

The program began at 10 a.m. on March 28, and concluded the following day.

The exact count of donors was 3,381 people, which averages out at about $390.87 per person. Activities funded ranged from baseball to wrestling, in addition to a general area for the club sports. 

According to the BucknellBison website, the program “is your opportunity to support students by giving to your favorite varsity sport, club sport or athletics’ area of greatest need (Bison Athletics Fund for Excellence). If you are in a position to assist our teams, we respectfully ask you to make a gift during the giving challenge. When you do, you provide resources that shape championship experiences.”

Many of the teams such as Baseball, Men’s Crew, Women’s Lacrosse and Women’s golf met their fundraising goals, earning thousands of dollars.

“One Herd One Day 2023 was a critically important 24 hour period for our program in terms of fund-raising, not so much for ‘special,’ or ‘extra’ things we could buy or do, but for operational sustainability,” Men’s Soccer Head Coach David Brandt said. 

“The giving provided by alumni, parents, and friends of the program was exceedingly generous and provided us a much-needed boost financially in this period of time where simply operating is getting more and more expensive for every organization in the country.”

“One Herd One Day was incredible. It far exceeded my expectations. I feel that this says to the Women’s golf team that our donors  see how this program is growing and are excited to be part of our success. The Lady golfers are getting better every day.  I look forward to the rest of our spring season and look forward to some great scores,”Women’s Golf head coach Laura Tyler-Cook said.

Dan Wolleben, head coach of Men’s Crew said this year’s One Herd One Day was their most successful fundraising year in 39 years of the program. 

“One Herd One Day was a huge success for Men’s Crew, surpassing our goals of 250 donors and $80,000,” Wolleben said. “For Men’s Crew, fundraising is a crucial part of our success. Historically our annual budget is made up of about 20 percent student dues and 80 percent fundraising.”

He continued, “and at the end of every year we have more new supporters, so that group is only growing, which makes thinking about the future exciting. These successes and milestones this year will allow us to continue to offer our student athletes a high level rowing experience, and remain successful on the national stage. The donations on One Herd One Day will allow us to cover all of our remaining planned expenses for the 2022-2023 academic year, while also thinking about what we can add to the program, and make next year even better.”