With the June 30 deadline looming, the UMF community is on track to make history with this year’s June Match Giving Challenge
By Marc Glass, June 2019
By the time this story reaches the broader community of UMF alumni and friends, about two and a half days will remain in the University’s second-annual June Match Giving Challenge.
Thanks to 312 — and counting — alumni and friends who have already participated in the challenge, the University is on track to receive a record number of gifts to the UMF Fund in a single month.
To alumni and friends who have yet to participate, Director of Annual Giving Katie O’Donnell ’07 has this advice for the waning days of June: Now is a great time to run up the score for UMF.
“This year’s June Match Giving Challenge is a win-win for everyone,” O’Donnell said. “Everyone who makes a gift of $25 to $1,000 to the UMF Fund by June 30 will have their gift matched dollar for dollar, everyone who makes a gift of at least $25 is entered into a raffle for more than a dozen terrific UMF-themed prizes, and everyone who makes a gift of at least $25 receives a UMF Buff. Most important of all, every participant ultimately helps provide the University with the resources students need to reach their full potential here.
“With a little more than two days to go,” she continued, “I hope alumni and friends will take full advantage of the challenge. Thanks to the group of lead challenge donors, there’s still money on the table to maximize the impact of your gift.”
Quick on the draw: Cyndi McShane ’07, career counselor in the University’s Center for Student Development, was the first member of the UMF community in with a gift to this year’s June Match Giving Challenge. She made her contribution within minutes of the challenge’s launch on social media. (Photo by Marc Glass.)
Whether motivated by the gift-doubling match, a shot at a season pass to Sugarloaf and Sunday River (among a dozen other raffle prizes), the offer of a must-have UMF Buff, the opportunity to honor a Best Farmington Friend, or the chance to pay it forward to the University and current students, this year’s June Match Challenge donors have defied a national downward trend in alumni fundraising participation. With nearly 70 first-time donors in the mix so far this year, alumni and friends have also built on the success of last year’s inaugural challenge at UMF.
While UMF alumni and friends have until midnight, June 30, to contribute to the 2019 June Match Giving Challenge, the current tally of 312 donors represents an 81 percent increase over the 172 donors who contributed to the UMF Fund as part of the inaugural June Match Giving Challenge in 2018. Last year’s June tally was more than three times greater than the June 2017 total.
Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that CASE (the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education) has recognized UMF this year with its Overall Improvement in Advancement honor. The premiere international organization of advancement professionals selected UMF from all public liberal arts colleges at a time when the University received a historic gift of $3.225 million, its second-largest bequest, and a $50,000 gift to fund the Bell Scholars Program, as well as a dramatic increase in overall giving.
The $2.45 million in total giving to UMF in 2019 represents a 134 percent increase over total giving to the University in 2018. It’s also a 642 percent increase over total giving to UMF in 2015 and in 2014.
“Alumni engagement in all its vital forms — giving to the University, participation in alumni events, and hiring our students as interns and employees — will continue to be critical to UMF’s success,” said Interim President Eric C. Brown. “Helping to achieve progress in fundraising and alumni engagement were top priorities of mine this year from day one, and I’m grateful to the UMF community for supporting our efforts. To everyone who has contributed to the University this year, thank you for your partnership in providing our students with the resources and opportunities they need to define and achieve their goals.”
Editor’s note: Several on- and off-campus partners have been invaluable to the success of this year’s challenge. The Ferro Alumni Center team thanks Jamie Beaudoin ’97, associate director of athletics and head coach of women’s basketball; Lisa Ellrich, director of admissions; Bethany Lebel ’14, head coach of women’s lacrosse; Ryan Mastrangelo, director of marketing and communications; UMF Alumni Council member Mike Milliken ’07; Peter Osborne ’09, vice president of the Alumni Council; Samantha Posey ’09; and Starr Soul-McDonald ’10, president of the Alumni Council for rallying their networks of alumni and friends to the fundraising initiative. By creating their own additional matching incentives Jamie Beaudoin ’97 and Brandi Rideout ’06 each provided a critical boost in participation in the final days of the 2019 challenge.
The gift-doubling impact of the $25,000 match wouldn’t have been possible without the generosity of the lead donors, including three people who wish to remain anonymous, past Alumni Council member Greg Gravel ’67, and Board of Visitors members David Levesque ’88, Chris McKee ’92, and Marjorie Medd.
The Ferro Alumni Center Team is also deeply grateful to the following alumni and friends, whose generosity and support made the first-ever June Match Giving Challenge Raffle possible: Noah Bissell ’12, Dana Bullen ’89, Ted DeInnocentis ’04, Lionel Herring ’90, Roger Knight ’96, David Levesque ’88, Lance Meader ’97 and Amy Meader ’96, Dr. Troy Norton ’96, Erin O’Toole ’06, Sam Peters ’06, Meaghan Opuda Swan ’03 and Matt Swan, Melanie (Willard) Steele ’11 and Justin Steele, and Seth Vigue ’99.
To make a contribution and see our progress, please visit our 2019 June Match Giving Challenge website.