Faculty and Staff Annual Campaign challenges campus to improve participation rate
The St. Thomas Faculty and Staff Annual Campaign will attempt to improve on the university’s faculty and staff participation rate of 19 percent. Of the 13 MIAC schools, St. Thomas ranks 10th in faculty and staff giving. The average participation rate is 30 percent. St. Olaf has the highest number of faculty and staff participating with 58 percent.
The importance of improving on St. Thomas’ participation rate cannot be ignored. First, the majority of designations for current UST faculty and staff gifts benefit students. The majority of gifts have been directed to student financial aid. Other gifts have been restricted to specific academic departments, volunteer organizations – VIA (Volunteers in Action) and VISION (Volunteers in Service Internationally Or Nationally) – or the Community Builders Scholarship. Increased faculty and staff giving will only increase the funding these programs will receive and ultimately help our students.
Second, faculty and staff giving is just one criteria foundations use in determining which grant applications they will fund. With growing competition for grant dollars, it would be disappointing to lose an opportunity to receive these funds due to something as controllable as the on-campus giving rate. A 30 percent participation rate at St. Thomas would put us in line with our peer private institutions in Minnesota. That would require 600 faculty and staff to make a gift before June 30, 2006. To those faculty and staff who already have made a gift, thank you!
Faculty and staff will receive their annual campaign materials via e-mail in the next few days. There will be a link to the secure UST online giving site if you choose to make a gift with your credit card. There also will be a link to the annual campaign pledge card. If you choose to make a gift by check or to start a payroll deduction, print out the pledge card and mail it to John Bannigan, director of annual giving, Mail #DEV.
The amount of your gift isn’t as important as the fact that you are participating in this effort. Any size gift counts toward our participation rate.
If you have any questions regarding the campaign or the options for making a gift, contact Bannigan, (651) 962-6982.
