Giving Day 2025 Generates $1.3 Million for Ole Miss

This year, Ole Miss students, parents, alumni, friends, faculty and staff members united to contribute 3,221 gifts. Resources gained during the sixth annual Giving Day will strengthen the Ole Miss student experience, academic programs and community offerings.

Chancellor Glenn Boyce kicked off Giving Day by announcing the Let's Book It: Ole Miss Opportunity Book Fund to benefit students enrolled in the Ole Miss Opportunity program, which assists full-time Mississippi students with family incomes of $40,000 or less. The book fund aims to give each scholarship recipient $500 to purchase textbooks.

"When I think of how much one gift can influence the lives of our students, I am continually grateful and humbled at the transformational impact our Ole Miss community can have together," Boyce said. "Resources secured during Giving Day will allow us to continue expanding access to Ole Miss in our state and across the nation while empowering our students to achieve beyond their wildest dreams."

A highlight of the two-day drive was the announcement that the Ramoo and Radhakrishnan Family Foundation, of Ashburn, Virginia, committed $500,000 to the Let's Book It Fund.

"By contributing to the Let's Book It Fund, we hope to ease the financial burden and ensure that students can focus on their education without having to worry about how they'll afford the essential tools for learning," said Regu Ramoo, a 1984 Ole Miss mechanical engineering graduate who represents the foundation.

"We see this gift as … a way to empower students to build brighter futures for themselves and those around them. Our family firmly believes that education is not just an individual asset – it has the power to uplift entire families and communities."

The social media-driven Giving Day 2025 launched Tuesday (April 8) and continued for 1 day, 8 hours and 48 minutes in honor of the university's founding year of 1848. University Marketing and Communications hosted its largest-ever livestream with 20 hours of live content on the Giving Day website, Facebook and YouTube.

More than 55 guests including Boyce, donors, deans, directors, Ole Miss and Willie Price Lab School students, the Gospel Choir, Miss University, and Mr. and Miss Ole Miss, encouraged people to make gifts to participating schools, colleges and programs.

All the proceeds are part of the Now & Ever: The Campaign for Ole Miss, which set a goal of securing $1.5 billion and ends June 30. Notable contributions included $100,000 from an anonymous donor and $50,000 from the Madison Charitable Foundation, of Port Gibson, for the Let's Book It Fund to generate matching gifts.

More than 90 challenge gifts from alumni and friends kept the momentum running high throughout Giving Day, as did competition between schools and units. The Division of Access, Opportunity and Community Engagement attracted the most donors, fueled by enthusiasm for the Let's Book It Fund. The unit raised $761,202 from 304 donors.

Winning the Early Bird Challenge of $1,000 from Bill, Shannon and Tyler Jordan, of Columbus, Georgia, was the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. The Division of Access, Opportunity and Community Engagement claimed the Chancellor Glenn Boyce and First Lady Emily Boyce's Lunchtime Challenge for $2,500.

The School of Law posted a strong showing, nabbing the Vice Chancellor Charlotte Parks Leaderboard Challenge for $2,000, the Funkys Happy Hour Leaderboard Challenge for $500 and the Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy's Buzzer Beater competition for $5,000.

Three students found stuffed squirrels in a scavenger hunt: Emma Marrell, a junior nutrition major from Long Beach who supported the Ole Miss Mock Trial; Ellyn Waits, a senior biology major from Jackson who gave to the Advancing STEM Scholarship initiative; and Melanie Moody, a freshman elementary education major from Madison who supported the School of Education's Student Teaching Fund. They got to direct $250 each to the Ole Miss program of their choice.

And speaking of squirrels, 65 donors gave $50 apiece to name one of the Grove's furry residents.

Students in the School of Liberal Arts who made gifts were randomly chosen to sign the iconic turret of Ventress Hall. They included Betsy Vise, a senior Arabic and international studies major from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Daniel Stewart, a senior physics major from Oxford.

Individuals also had a chance to register as social media influencers for the day and win prizes. Ninety-one influencers brought in almost $90,000.

"The importance of Giving Day is the opportunity it offers for all of us to combine our gifts and make a difference together," said Maura Langhart, senior director of annual giving. "We had more areas to support this year, giving people many choices to express what they love most about Ole Miss."

For more information on ways to support the university, click here.

Top: Jordan Karnbach (right), a communications specialist for University News and Media Relations, talks with students from the Croft Institute for International Studies about the impact of private support in the institute's programming during a segment of the Giving Day livestream. Photo by Srijita Chattopadhyay/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services