Virginia Tech employees donate more than $404,000 to charity

In the middle of a pandemic, Virginia Tech employees rallied together to exceed the university's 2020 Commonwealth of Virginia Campaign (CVC) goal of $370,000 by more than $34,000.

The campaign to raise money for charities across the commonwealth ended Dec. 11, 2020.

In a mostly virtual environment, senior management areas changed up the way they typically raised money. Fundraisers historically held in person and in the office were creatively switched from bake sales, potlucks, and contests to credit card fund giving, online bingo, and various virtual contests.

Made up of Virginia Tech employees from the university’s senior management areas, the steering team sets an annual campaign goal. From that goal, senior management goals are then set based on their size and recent history of giving. Many areas not only met, but exceeded their goal in 2020, including College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, College of Engineering, College of Natural Resources and Environment, College of Science, Dean of Libraries, Vice President for Advancement, Vice President for Business Affairs, Vice President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer, Vice President of Human Resources, Vice President of Information Technology and Chief Information Officer, Vice President for Research and Innovation, and Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine.

“Virginia Tech employees’ generous contributions to the CVC reflect our collective commitment to our motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve). Their donations will provide essential resources to those who have experienced significant challenges during this past year,” said Laura Sands, this year’s honorary campaign chair. “Their positive impact on others is yet another reason I am so proud to be a Hokie.”

Since 2010, Virginia Tech employees have donated more than $3.1 million to local charities in the New River Valley and across the commonwealth. Having finished his second year as CVC steering team chair, while very different from the prior year due to the pandemic, Edward Lener said he was deeply humbled to see the generosity of his fellow Virginia Tech employees in 2020, who really stepped up to help meet the needs in our community and beyond during a difficult time.

“We had to restructure and redesign many of our traditional CVC events for this campaign, and it was great to see the creativity shown by our volunteers. I especially enjoyed hosting a weekly charity spotlight series featuring representatives from many of our local charitable organizations and enabling them to share with viewers the important work they do.”

CVC donations have gone to approximately 1,000 participating charities, ranging from health and human services to animal welfare; from environmental conservation to medical research, and everything in between.

As the sponsoring department for CVC, Vice President for Human Resources Bryan Garey said, “It is truly remarkable seeing employees come together to support our local communities during a trying time. Once again Virginia Tech rose to the challenge to help those in need.”