On 28th November The Open University took part in the Big Give Christmas Challenge, where for seven days, we asked our wonderful OU family to show their support by donating to the Disabled Veterans' Scholarships Fund (DVSF) and help make an extraordinary difference to disabled veterans by giving them the chance to find a new path in life.
We had a target of £36,000, and amazingly this was reached in a little over 24 hours after the challenge began. A generous donor from our alumni community then agreed to provide a further match funding pot of £2,500 and by Thursday morning, just two days into the challenge, we had set a new fundraising target of £41,000.
We are thrilled to reveal that in the end, our incredible OU family helped to raise £52,403 towards the OU’s Disabled Veterans’ Scholarships Fund. We can’t thank them enough!
This is a phenomenal achievement, and we are so grateful to everyone who supported the campaign and made it a huge success. The heartfelt generosity of our amazing OU family has helped make a truly life-changing difference by enabling even more disabled veterans the opportunity to rewrite their futures through a scholarship.
One of our incredible DVSF scholarship recipients and OU graduate Gregg Stevenson, whose future has been rewritten thanks to the Fund had some words to share about transformative impact it has had on his life:
‘’The Disabled Veterans’ Scholarships Fund is an incredible scheme that has truly meant so much to me. The OU and the donors who support the scheme took a chance on me and I was determined to repay that belief. I am embarking on a career for life which will help me to give back and keep me and my family safe and well.’’
Thank you to everyone who donated, promoted, shared, and liked the campaign on your social media accounts throughout the seven days. It really does make a difference in spreading the life-changing benefits an OU scholarship can provide.