Vice President Update: Advancement

NMU Foundation

NMU students will once again be staffing the NMU Foundation call center. Calling will begin on October 25. The call center provides many benefits above and beyond soliciting gifts to meet the needs of students and the university, including:

employment for students; an excellent opportunity for alumni to connect with students and learn more about what's happening on campus; a way to update or collect new alumni contact information.

A reminder that the next event sponsored by the Siril Endowment for the Music Arts will be in Jamrich Hall at 5 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 15, and will feature the Royal Opera performance of the ballet Swan Lake. The Siril Endowment was established through the generous gift of an anonymous donor. The Endowment will also be sponsoring performances in the spring, along with an artist-in-residence program.

The Foundation has received many generous gifts and pledges since the beginning of the fiscal year, including the:

Alyson R. Luff Scholarship established by NMU Foundation Trustee Don Miller and his wife Joani; gift from NMU Foundation Trustee John Hebert and his wife Margo to Invent@NMU; Dr. Dora A. Buccalo Scholarship for pre-med or pre-dental students; Hill and Wilkinson Annal Scholarship for construction management students; Clare Helen Mugford Nursing Scholarship; six-figure gift for the Upper Michigan Brain Tumor Center; $15,000 gift from Wells Fargo to once again sponsor Make a Difference Day.

As always, we are grateful for every gift at every level of support.

The Foundation has year-end planning guides available if you would like to learn more about estate-planning options. To request a guide, contact the Foundation at X2627 or email foundtn@nmu.edu.

The application window for privately funded scholarships will open Feb. 1, 2016 and close Feb. 12. The Foundation currently stewards over 375 scholarships and last year awarded over $700,000. Please encourage students to apply. Criteria for scholarships vary, but they are available in many areas and fields of study. Visit nmu.edu/scholarship and click on DONOR-FUNDED SCHOLARSHIPS to learn more.

Finally, our financial team asked me to remind everyone that if you or your department is directly receiving any checks as gifts, to ensure that your donor receives any potential acknowledgements and tax benefits, they must be made out to the NMU Foundation. Thank you for your help.

If you are interested in working with NMU Foundation staff to raise funds to meet your goals, please let us know at x2627 and we can provide a step-by-step guide. You can access Northern's fundraising policy along with a Solicitation Approval form in the bottom right hand corner of our home page at nmu.edu/foundation.

Alumni Relations

According to the current plan, Alumni Relations will be moving to the Beaumier Alumni Welcome and U.P. Heritage Center early in the winter semester.

The Alumni Association continues to diversify events, both in terms of format (receptions, zoo outings, networking events, baseball games and gatherings around NMU sporting events) and alumni populations. Hosting a Business Cards and Brews networking reception in Detroit and sponsoring the Upper Peninsula Readers Association conference, held here on campus, are two recent events that illustrate our continual efforts to both respond to our alumni wants and needs and go where our alumni are located.

Engaging with our future alumni is key, too. As such, we worked with the Center for Student Enrichment and Marketing and Communications to sponsor family photos during the Family Weekend Tailgate. The opportunity offered a fun way to connect with our alumni parents and future NMU alumni. We'll be welcoming our December 2015 alumni class into the fold in a fun way with our Pizza and a Pint event, which is open to all faculty and staff.

All of our alumni events can be found online at nmu.edu/alumniassociation/events.