By: John Robbins

Feb. 1, 2023: The biggest day of Fundraising for Thiel College’s “Thiel Fund” is coming up later this month on Thursday, February 23rd, after months of prep work. In non-profit organizations, such as Thiel, these types of days hold much importance to the institution. That responsibility sits on the shoulders of David Mogle, the now Director of the Thiel Fund.

The Thiel Fund is an essential part of helping improve the campus for students and staff alike. David Mogle reaffirmed the importance of the fund as “it assists with need-based scholarships, academic programming, athletics, and campus improvements as well, are some of the areas [it goes towards].” The Fund can also act as a potential safety net for the college for “unseen expenses” as David Mogle best phrased it. Thus, bolstering the importance of Match Day.

Arguably one of the most difficult things of every Match Day is the planning and execution of the theme to garner the interest of donors. This year’s theme is based on the popular 1970s game show, Match Game. David stated their plan to incorporate their theme, “we are looking to do some giveaways, that’ll be kind of the Match Game theme. So, as folks finish their laps, we are looking to have various prizes. Some folks may come away with prizes while others will have better luck next year.”

This is David’s first match day as director of the Thiel Fund, succeeding now Director of Advancement, Mark Batt, but David was able to lay out the timetable for how the planning process has gone thus far. “We actually began this process in early December, that was our first meeting. Myself, my colleagues Mark Batt, [and] Robertta Leonard who runs our advancement department here, she is the director of the whole department. We met with the marketing team and the great team over there started brainstorming. Then once we came back from the New Year’s break, we really hit the ground running.” There is still more work to be done over the next couple weeks as David gave us a preview of the next steps, “we are planning fun videos to unleash over and things of that sort.” There are also many different organizations, not just the Thiel Fund and marketing that joined in to put on this event. “I have to work with AVI, our great food team here, and those folks over there. As well as athletes, Greek organizations, and student life in filming various videos,” said David, looking into the future plans leading up to Match Day as they enter the final stretch of preparation.

If you wish to participate in Match Day, you can come down to the Stamm Track and Field complex to join in.