We have spoken quite a lot lately about our desire to be a fully integrated advancement shop. In this type of advancement operation, every staff member has a role to play in our philanthropic achievement. A few weeks ago, Kim Day shared an unexpected story at our departmental meeting. I thought all of Advancement should hear it and so, I turn the “pen” over to Kim for my column this week!
By Kim Day, Associate Director, Young Alumni and Alumni Services
Most of you, if not all, are familiar with the Admin Services Request System. Daily tasks are added by your teams, such as profile updates, event set ups, swag mail outs, to name a few. What you may not realize is that the three hardworking colleagues who manage these tasks are also the Summerhill front-line team. Our alumni call and sometimes visit campus and look to this trio of staff to provide information, direction, and often just to listen to a memorable story.
As the Admin team can attest, anything can happen, and it is often the unexpected things that keep this team on its toes. Just ask Amy Offord, who one sunny Summerhill morning, answered the phone to what she thought would be a typical, pleasant conversation with a graduate. The caller mentioned he was interested in giving a gift. Amy thanked the alum and asked her regular question “where would you like to allocate your donation” to which the man replied, “not sure you can take this one over the phone.” The story went on to be about his grandmother being mad at Western, so she wanted to give a gift to Queen’s to be spiteful to the tune of $14 million dollars. Amy quickly wrote down all the details and passed the ball to Trish Falzon, who proceeded to have quite a nice chat.
We will be following this one!!
It was clearly Amy’s month when she took another call that resulted in a $50,000-dollar gift that Christie May’s team happily closed. All I can say is, give this girl a fundraising score card!!
Pavel, Tania, and Amy offer outstanding frontline service with years of experience between them. As we move forward, we will be reporting on all the important ways this unit feeds up to our overall advancement goals.
Please swing by and say hi when you are on campus – I am so proud to be part of this team.
Meet our consultants!
In last week’s ALTogether Now newsletter, Karen explained that Queen’s was in the final phases of a Request for Proposals (RFP) to engage a consultant to complete a Campaign Preparedness Assessment (which will include a Campaign Readiness Study, Campaign Feasibility Study, and a Campaign Preparedness Assessment Final Report). We can now share that the contract has been awarded to Grenzebach Glier and Associates (GG&A).
Special thanks to the those who participated in the RFP process: Michelle Fuko, Tim Wowk, Amy Lee, Rachel Castellano, Rachel Deir, Karen Bertrand, Deanna Bennett, and Patrick Fisher (from Procurement).
Alumni Review Congratulations
Last week we learned that the Queen’s Alumni Review (QAR) received an award of merit from the Society of Publication Designers (SPD). This is a highly prestigious award. Other merit winners include Cosmopolitan, Vanity Fair, National Geographic, NY Times, Rolling Stone.
For those unfamiliar with SPD, here is how they describe themselves.
“SPD powers the future of visual storytelling, setting the standard for editorial excellence. We bring together and support the most talented creatives, working across all platforms and disciplines, to learn, inspire, and collaborate.”
Congratulations to the entire QAR team for this exceptional recognition!
Final hybrid assessment and check-in
By Deanna Bennett, Executive Director, Advancement Services
This is the final survey for our hybrid working environment pilot!
The first part of this survey will have you assess Advancement’s hybrid working environment. The results will be compared to benchmarks established in May 2022 and our mid-point survey in November.
The second part of this survey is the work-from-home check-in. The results will be compared to the benchmarks established in June 2020.
We know that “survey fatigue” is real, but we also know that anonymous surveys are still the best tool we have to help us understand your thoughts and feelings and craft solutions that take your experiences into account. We hope you’ll take a few minutes and share your insights with us.
Please note, the survey will take approximately five minutes and all responses will remain anonymous. We thank you for your feedback and participation.
Employee spotlight
The Employee Spotlight celebrates the arrival of our new and existing staff by profiling responses they share through a fun and informal survey that will help us get to know them better. Be sure to review these profiles and use these fun facts and tidbits to find commonalities, embrace differences, and spark a conversation.
This week, we spotlight Associate Director, Principal Gifts, Kayla Kalijarvi. Learn more about her and the story behind her name.