On Wednesday, March 4, START will participate in the University of Maryland’s Giving Day, the annual 24-hour fundraising event in which all members of the UMD community join together to raise critical funding for the university.
This year, for the first time, START staff members are creating personal and team pages to encourage donations to fund START’s experiential education opportunities for students that include research internships, participatory online and in-person courses, study abroad programs and professional mentoring.
“As important as our mission is – to serve as an independent, trusted source of data and analysis on terrorism and counterterrorism – it’s the way we go about it that matters most,” START Director William Braniff said. “Investing in students is the most important thing we do, and we do that through their active participation in experiential education, with a heavy dose of mentorship.”
Various prizes will be awarded to the units at UMD who solicit the largest number of donations in several areas, including most alumni donors, most faculty and staff donors, most parent donors, most student donors and the top fundraisers in general.
UMD community members are encouraged to post a “shellfie” (the kind of photos Terps take) to Facebook or Twitter showing their UMD pride, making sure to tag their school or program and including the hashtags #GivingDayUMD and #Shellfie.
Those interested in donating to START can do so through START’s main donation page at go.umd.edu/STARTgiving.