NEW YORK - Columbia Athletics had yet another successful Columbia Giving Day as the department raised $2.97 million from a total of 5,339 gifts, Campbell Family Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Peter Pilling announced Thursday.

The figure was recorded over the 24-hour-event on Wednesday, October 23, 2019. Columbia University as a whole raised over $22 million.

"I want to thank all of our alumni for all that they did and contributions on Columbia Giving Day," Pilling stated. "This tremendous support enables our student-athletes to reach their goals and objectives and our athletics program give them the best experience possible."

"Our results on Giving Day show that the support we receive from alumni, parents and friends of Columbia Athletics continues to grow every year," stated Erich Ely, Director of Development for Athletics. "Their generosity shows a strong commitment to allowing our student-athletes and coaches to compete at the highest level."

Here are a few interesting facts and achievements from Wednesday's Giving Day:

* This is the first Giving Day in which all 31 varsity sports raised at least $25,000
* The varsity sport Programs saw a nine percent increase in Annual Fund support from Giving Day 2018
* The 5,339 gifts to Athletics (a 6.8 percent increase from 2018) represent almost 30 percent of the total gifts to the University
* After yesterday, 12 varsity sport programs have now successfully reached their annual fund goal
* The Fund for Excellence raised over $50,000 from nearly 100 gifts
* Columbia Athletics finished in second place among University schools, finishing only behind Columbia College.
* Columbia Athletics won five hourly challenges including the Most Overall Donors during two time periods (10-11 a.m. and 3-4 p.m.), the Most Faculty/Staff donors, the Student Thank You Challenge in Lerner Hall (2-3 p.m.) and Furthest Gift from Campus (3-4 a.m.).
* In addition to its varsity sports programs, Columbia Athletics also raised money for club sports, the Bubble at Baker, the Campbell Championship Fund, Sports Medicine and various other projects.
* #ColumbiaGivingDay was trending on twitter for a period of time and Columbia Athletics leveraged a theme of #RoarToVictory to drive the effort.

For more information, please visit: https://givingday.columbia.edu/pages/athletics, or, to make a gift online today, go to https://athletics.givenow.columbia.edu/#.