Knox College celebrated the importance of philanthropy during the first week of March. Donor Thank You Days, March 3-4, marked when students' tuition and fees stop paying for the cost of their education and private gift support kicks in.

"The goal of Donor Thank You Days is to help current students, as well as the entire campus community, better understand the impact that gifts from alumni, parents, and friends have on their education and their daily Knox experience," says Julie Layer, director of the Knox Fund, the College's annual giving program.

To celebrate Donor Thank You Days, approximately 85 students wrote thank you notes to Knox donors and hundreds more signed a huge card to thank donors for their gifts to the College. In all, nearly 350 students thanked donors to the College and received special Donor Days sunglasses to commemorate the occasion.

Facts and figures were the theme for this year's celebration. Posters and table tents around campus highlighted the number of donors in 2013-14 (8,200), the longest consecutive giving streak (70 years, by a member of the Class of 1944), and the class with the largest number of donors (the Class of 2014, which included 215 members who made a gift to Knox). Students who could successfully remember these statistics were rewarded with free Donor Days T-shirts.

Last year, donors helped Knox set a fundraising record, receiving $19.5 million in gifts from alumni, parents, friends, and private organizations to support Knox faculty, students and the College's educational mission. Of that $19.5 million, $3.6 million was raised for the Knox Fund, or gifts that support the annual operations of the College. Private gift support represents the College's second largest source of income behind tuition and fees.

For more information on giving to Knox College, visit www.knox.edu/give.