By Catherine Brown and Sara McCloskey

The Virginia Commonwealth University and VCU Health family will come together to support students, faculty and staff, patients and community on April 24. With game-changing donation matches and challenges, the third annual VCU Giving Day enables donors to boost the value of their gifts and amplify their support for the cause(s) they care about most.

“On Giving Day, we celebrate all the ways that VCU lifts people’s lives here and around the world,” VCU President Michael Rao, Ph.D. said. “We invite alumni, faculty, staff, students, family and friends to join together to make possible the many initiatives at VCU and VCU Health that support our students, our patients and our communities here and beyond.”

Giving Day takes place during VCU’s Philanthropy Week, when students celebrate the many donors who support student scholarships, life-changing research and health care, classroom and lab spaces, art-making and athletic equipment, and more. Events throughout the week on the Monroe Park Campus provide opportunities for students to thank donors for enhancing their college experience.

“VCU donors on Giving Day and every day play a pivotal role in advancing our research, health care and student support,” Rao said. “We are grateful for their unequaled generosity.”

When it comes to the health system, there are a wide variety of ways people can transform the care of VCU Health patients and support the next generation of our health care workforce. Giving Day offers opportunities to support specific care teams, research initiatives and health science schools connected to VCU Medical Center, the only academic medical center in the region.

VCU Giving Day empowers donors to support programs in many ways including opportunities to:

• Unleash hope with Dogs on Call, which brings trained therapy dogs to meet with patients and health care workers.
• Enable VCU Health Pauley Heart Center’s specialized team of providers and researchers to care for patients living with cardiovascular conditions.
• Celebrate 50 years of VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center serving the Richmond region.
• Help expand mental health services at VCU Health to make sure no one gets left behind in our community.
• Ensure doctors, nurses and health care workers receive all the resources needed to continue to advance VCU Health’s patient-focused programs and medical care.