One Syracuse University alumnus —  a business analyst at JPMorgan Intelligent Solutions — has pledged $20,000 in a crowdfunding campaign at the iSchool.

ReFuel, the School of Information Studies’ crowdfunding campaign, aims to raise money for four different programs in the iSchool. The campaign will last 44 days and has a goal of $44,000 raised by alumni, parents, current students, faculty and staff.

“As a young alumnus I felt that giving back to the university was such a critical component,” said Sam Clarvit, the JPMorgan analyst who graduated from SU in 2010.

ReFuel was launched at the end of March during Philanthropy Week and is set to end on May 3, the last day of classes for the academic year.

Kimberly Pietro, assistant dean for advancement at the iSchool, said the campaign hopes to raise close to $40,000 on its own, and then with the matching $44,000 from the Board of Advisors come to a total of about $75,000.

The number 44 was worn by SU’s football titans: Jim Brown, Ernie Davis and Floyd Little. ReFuel chose 44 and the goal of $44,000 to “keep the tradition of No. 44 at SU alive,” Pietro said.

The four programs ReFuel is raising funds for are: Student Immersion, Librarians in the Field, Women in Technology and Researchers of Tomorrow. Pietro said all of the funds will go directly toward benefitting students.

The Student Immersion program would allow iSchool students to take trips to technological hubs, such as Silicon Valley or New York City, according to the ReFuel website.

Through the Librarians in the Field program, students in the library and information science program would be able to attend conferences and workshops, according to the website.

The Women in Technology program is a gender-based initiative, according to the website, and it would help the iSchool introduce women to information technology.

Doctoral students would receive funding for research through the Researchers of Tomorrow program, according to the website. Funds would go toward sending doctoral candidates to conferences — both domestic and international — to immerse them in the world of information technology.

The funds raised through contributions to the crowdfunding campaign will be matched by the iSchool’s Board of Advisors, Pietro said. Out of the four programs that can be donated to, the one that gets the largest number of contributions will also receive the largest amount of challenge funding — $8,000 — from the Board of Advisors.

The distribution of challenge funding is determined by the number of contributions rather than the amount of money each program receives, Pietro said. A program that receives 500 separate contributions of $1 each would get more challenge funding than a program that received one contribution of $500, she said.

Because each contribution acts as a vote toward which program should receive the most challenge funding, Pietro said the program with the most individual contributions — or votes — will receive the most challenge funding.

The program that comes in first place with the highest number of contributors will receive $8,000, the program in second place will receive $6,000, the program in third will win $4,000 and the program in fourth place will get $2,000, Pietro said.

Major contributors to the matching funding were Clarvit, the JPMorgan analyst, and Stephen Marsh, the founder and CEO of tech company Smarsh.

Marsh said he contributed to the ReFuel campaign because there were similar programs that enabled him to help finance his education when he went to SU. He added that the programs helped make parts of the program available to him and other students.

“So I figured it would be a good chance for me to give back,” Marsh said.

While Marsh is a member of the iSchool’s Board of Advisors, he said he did not organize the campaign, but rather contributed by donating to the Board of Advisors’ matching funds initiative.

Clarvit and Marsh are both Generation Orange alumni, an alumni base composed of people who have graduated within the past 10 years. The ReFuel program was designed to engage Generation Orange alumni by adapting to more modern forms of fundraising like crowdfunding and eliminating the pressure to donate, Clarvit said.

Published on April 4, 2016 at 9:37 pm

Contact Kennedy: krose100@syr.edu | @KennedyRose001