Cortland Challenge sets new records

04/30/2024 

On April 17, the 2024 Cortland Challenge linked more than 3,800 alumni, faculty, staff, students and friends of the university in the spirit of giving to raise more than half a million dollars for current and future SUNY Cortland students in a single day.

The university’s annual, 24-hour fundraising event this year blasted through previous giving milestones set in 2022, buoyed by overwhelming Red Dragon enthusiasm:

• Total gifts reached $564,870, a substantial increase from $472,595 in gifts made in the previous record year, the 2022 campaign.
• The number of individual donors was 3,826, far surpassing the 2022 campaign’s highwater mark of 3,361.

“This has been a thrilling year for Red Dragons everywhere to show their pride in SUNY Cortland,” President Erik J. Bitterbaum said. “The Cortland Challenge offers yet another opportunity for our community to come together and support a common goal: to open doors for our current and future students. No gift is too small to help in this effort.”

“We really can’t thank everyone enough for all of the support and enthusiasm that continues to be shown for this event,” said Natasha McFadden, director of The Cortland Fund and organizer of the annual challenge. “We broke our records for donor participation and dollars raised during the Cortland Challenge this year, and our giving day has seen some of the highest participation in SUNY.

“Genuinely, this could not have happened without each and every person who chose to give back to Cortland. The impact of your overwhelming generosity will be felt at our university for years to come.”

The Cortland Fund supports students and campus life in a variety of ways, including scholarships, athletics, technology, major events and professional staff and faculty development. This year, donors were encouraged to target their gifts to specific university programs.

Generous alumni pledged matching gifts to support the Cortland Challenge throughout the day as certain giving milestones were met. They included Norma Schlager ’62, Victor M. Rumore ’84, Anthony Moon ’86 and Susan Moon, Joel Tiss ’85, Gerald Brown, the Michael C. Holland Emergency Fund for Students, Girish Bhat and Sharon Steadman, Cheryl Barredo M ’81, and an anonymous ’03 graduate. Meet these and the other donors who helped make the campaign a fire-breathing success!

This year, numerous generous alumni, faculty and staff, and friends created the opportunity to unlock more than $155,000 in matching gifts — $55,000 more than last year.

On Challenge Day, a Wednesday, students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends gave to the Cortland Challenge cause of their choice at RedDragonNetwork.org/challenge. These causes included The Cortland Fund, athletic teams, campus programming and more.

Donor match goals set throughout the day marked key institutional milestones, such as the increase of donor-funded scholarships that are awarded each academic year to 1,000, an exciting jump from 900 last year.

The final hurdle for supporters to jump was to unlock $20,000 in matching gifts to reach 3,362 donors, one generous supporter more than the previous milestone of 3,361 donors in 2022. This will go down as the year that an outpouring of support from 3,826 loyal Red Dragons set new records on behalf of the university.

The returning Athletics Challenge garnered $248,257 in support for 20 teams broken into four categories: small, medium, large and extra-large based on the number of alumni and previous donor participation. Each team competed to earn more than $2,000 in awards by unlocking various fundraising achievements, including most donors, most dollars and highest average Cortland Fund gift. The challenge was backed by a generous, $10,000 matching gift offered by Charles Bocklet ’58. In addition, Thomas Christiano ’85 and David Colagiovanni ’11 each offered a special giving incentive to the teams they played for during their time in Cortland, men’s ice hockey and wrestling, respectively. Check out the individual team results on the Athletics Challenge website.

The Department Challenge returned for a third year, only with an added $12,000 incentive donated by members of the President’s Cabinet: Erik Bitterbaum, Richard Coyne ’07, Lorraine Lopez-Janove, Ann McClellan, C. Gregory Sharer, April Thompson and Mark Yacavone ’94.

This year also added a new, friendly competitive aspect among more than 40 departments seeking to raise money for their specific needs. Academic and campus areas competed for the most donors and the $2,000 first prize, plus second- and third- place prizes of $1,000 and $500, respectively. Each participating group also vied to win a $100 award if 20 unique donors contributed to their initiative during the Cortland Challenge.

Meanwhile as in past years, many academic and administrative departments worked with individual gift sponsors to pledge matching gifts ranging from $500 to $10,000. Matching funds were offered by Cary Carbonaro ’90, Ernie Logan ’73, Robert Bookman ’76 Esq., Virginia Carter ’74, Michael Bond ’75, M.D., William Baerthlein ’76, M.D., Louise M. Conley, Sheri Baron ’77, Barb Galpin ’68, Marcia Anderson ’73, Frank Rossi, David Kronman ’80 and Sandra Kronman, an anonymous 2003 graduate and two anonymous 1988 graduates. In all, more than $62,000 in matching money was offered by kind Red Dragon boosters in this special challenge. Check out the individual department or area results on the Department Challenge website.

Through a series of time-sensitive entreaties to meet match goals — morning rush hour, lunch hour, evening rush hour — 673 donors jumped in to give $44,763 and unlock three separate $1,000 awards.

Generous supporters contributed more than $94,000 to The Cortland Fund, a discretionary fund dedicated to the university’s greatest and most immediate areas of need that have an impact on the entire campus community. This challenge was bestowed on the university by friend of the university Gerald Brown, who had pledged to match up to $5,500 in dollar-for-dollar contributions. Scroll down the Cortland Challenge homepage to find out the details.

Notably, this year as part of The Cortland Fund match, nearly $9,000 was raised to benefit the Cortland College Foundation’s Student Emergency Fund administered by Student Affairs. The Michael C. Holland Emergency Fund for Students Committee created a special, one-time matching gift to benefit the university’s fund. The matching gift was made by redirecting a private fund created in memory of Michael C. Holland, a popular Student Affairs administrator who died in 2011. That fund had been run by a combination of university and Interfaith Association staff members.

To see where people chose to make their gifts in the Cortland Challenge, visit the RedDragonNetwork.org/challenge site, which soon will be updated with the fundraising results.