On February 22, 2024, Illinois State University celebrated its sixth successful Birds Give Back. Redbirds across the nation donated funds in show of support—and the School of Communication saw a record-breaking number of gifts and dollars donated from alumni, faculty, friends, and students.
Birds Give Back is Illinois State University’s annual day of giving. For 24 hours, students, faculty, staff, alumni, and more raise money to support their favorite entities on campus.
This year, Redbirds helped Illinois State receive 4,244 gifts and raise $1,673,980. This is a $642,755 increase from 2023.
The theme for Birds Give Back was “Building Birds Together”. If an individual donated $250 or more, they received a Reggie Redbird statue built out of bricks. The University was not the only one with an incentive. In the School of Communication, those who donated $75 or more received a limited edition 6-inch Reggie Redbird squish toy.
In 2023, the School of Communication received 223 gifts. This year, the school more than doubled that number. With 497 total gifts received, it made for a record-setting Birds Give Back!
The school took first place within the College of Arts and Sciences and the University as a whole in both gift amount and money raised, receiving $90,162.03. These exceptional feats would not have been possible without the leadership and guidance of Interim Director Dr. Aimee Miller-Ott.
“Birds Give Back was such a fun and rewarding experience,” she said. “We relied on social media, handwritten thank you notes to last year’s donors, and emails to faculty, staff, and alumni to get everyone excited.”
The school also benefited from gracious donors like Steven Berger ’76, ’77; Tom ’83 and Connie (Kostopoulos) ’83, ’86 Kitzinger; Arles Hendershott Love ’79; and the advisory board. Learn more about each challenge from the day.
The Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) made its debut on the Birds Give Back landing page, and the organization raised $1,360. This money will go toward student travel and agency tours.
Meghan Smith, PRSSA president, pushed to get the organization on the page.
“Birds Give Back has taken financial stress off of PRSSA,” she said. “Events that we were unsure about attending due to finances suddenly became possible. We are thankful for every single person who donated to PRSSA.”
The School of Communication has been steadily increasing and improving social media efforts to keep faculty, students, and alum engaged. During Birds Give Back, the School posted on Instagram, Facebook, X, and LinkedIn every 15 minutes from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. The school also produced five exclusive videos on Instagram and TikTok in which Dr. Lance Lippert and Kyah Joseph ’23 went searching for the ghost of Jesse Fell. Each episode was well received and sparked engagement and lively conversation online.
Much of the content released during Birds Give Back would not have been possible without Julie Navickas ’07, M.S. ’10, ’18, director of student success and recruitment.
“I start planning for Birds Give Back at the tail end of the fall semester,” she said. “It takes a lot of time to think about our strategy, update the points of pride we want to celebrate, create new graphics, and collect stories. Not to mention, we like to have fun, new, and engaging video content every year. It’s a lot of work, coordination, and effort, but the end result is always worth it. We had a record setting year (again)!”
Supporters of the School of Communication are looking forward to achieving more successes next year. Be on the lookout for more information soon regarding Birds Give Back 2025.
