Giving at Graduation has been a tradition at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service since 2010, when the school collected pencils, pens, and other school supplies for Volunteers in Public Schools (VIPS) at its commencement.
Each year, the Clinton School selects a local organization and encourages students and graduation attendees to bring items for that organization. This year it is A Bridge to Work, a City of Little Rock Partnership with Canvas Community Church that offers same-day work opportunities to individuals experiencing homelessness through a six-month pilot program with the goal of connecting participants to stable employment. Guests are encouraged to bring new men’s and women’s socks.
Giving at Graduation started as an idea by 2010 graduate Nicholas Hall, who drew the inspiration from his Clinton School project research.
“I attempted to start a philanthropic business in the model of TOMS Shoes and Ethos Water,” Hall said. “I was researching them, but while I was researching I ended up forming a business where the whole idea was to use large-scale events as places where good can be done.”
Hall, currently a second-year student at the University of North Carolina School of Law and officer in the North Carolina National Guard, used his business idea to partner with other organizations as well, including Arkansas Foodbank and Habitat for Humanity.
Other previous Giving at Graduation organizational recipients include Our House, Arkansas Children’s Hospital Mobile Dental Clinic, the Van, Jericho Way Resource Center, Central Arkansas Library System’s Hillary Rodham Clinton Children’s Library, Arkansas Foodbank, UA Little Rock Trojan Campus Food Pantry, and Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance.
In the nine years since the initiative started, thousands of items have been donated and thousands of dollars have been raised.
“We see every graduation as an opportunity to help others, and we hope high schools and other college and universities around the country will do the same,” Clinton School Dean James L. “Skip” Rutherford III said. “One year we asked for toothbrushes and toothpaste. We’ve found that even small acts of giving go a very long way.”