laisse la gratitude rouler!
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March 1, 2022
Hello Stewies! As we “March” closer to spring, our energy is renewed by the plans we have in store for Giving Day in March and our red-letter day of gratitude, Thank a Donor Day, in April. Our seeds of hard work will spring into successful events, and it will be incredibly rewarding to enjoy the fruits of our labor together--in person--once again!
Thank you to those who attended Team Stewardship on February 17th. It warmed my heart to see the product of a continued investment in stewardship at UGA. Forming this group of talented, passionate, and caring colleagues is an accomplishment that gives me great pride. As I begin to see the close of my UGA journey, I am most grateful for Team Stewardship. I know its impact will be felt far beyond my career. Let’s keep up the good work, Stewies. May this year bring us the most successful stewardship harvest ever!
TONY STRINGER
SENIOR DIRECTOR OF DONOR RELATIONS AND STEWARDSHIP
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Stewies Celebrate Valentine's Day Campus-Wide
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Franklin College of Arts & Sciences
Every Valentine’s Day, Franklin College takes a moment to thank their faculty and staff donors for their generous support. This year, their communications team designed a lovely card that included a coupon for a complimentary frozen treat at Chick-fil-A. These cards were sent via campus mail to any faculty or staff donor who gave during the fiscal year.
For more information, reach out to Mary Alston Killen.
Mary Frances Early College of Education
The College of Education sent Valentine’s treat bags to their Heritage Society donors. The treat bags included a variety of candy and chocolates in red and black wrappers along with a card. Many of their Heritage Society donors were local, so the College’s Development team seized the opportunity to deliver these treats in person for a personal touch. The candies were mailed in a bubble envelope to donors who were not local.
For more information, reach out to Haley Watts.
School of Public and International Affairs
As a special thank you, SPIA treated faculty and staff donors with branded koozies filled with chocolates for Valentine’s Day. The koozie included a punny card that read “We Hold You Near and Dear for Supporting SPIA throughout the Years.”
For more information, reach out to Laura Bayne.
College of Public Health
The College of Public Health mailed a gift of thanks to all of their faculty and staff donors that included a Condor Dark Chocolate Bulldog Bar with a Valentine’s thank you message.
For more information, reach out to Lynnsey Lafayette.
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Annual Giving
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Calling All Dawgs: UGA Giving Day
Mark your calendars! UGA Giving Day is just one day and will take place on Thursday, March 31st. Giving Day is a unified fundraising effort calling on the University of Georgia community to elevate private support. We are Calling all Dawgs to participate, and all gifts count–regardless of amount or designation. In commemoration of UGA’s charter year, we’ve set a goal of 1,785 gifts!
Evan Tighe shared with Team Stewardship the timeline of events leading up to Giving Day.
- An email blackout period for alumni and donors will occur from March 10-31.
- A Giving Day mailing will drop at the beginning of March to alumni deemed as VIBs (or Very Important Bulldogs).
- The morning of March 28th, pick up your requested swag and a donut from “Donut Relations.” Swag boxes will include balloons, buttons, beads, pom-poms, Giving Day branded thank you cards, etc.
Giving Day will be busy and full of energy with five email blasts, a high social media presence, Engagement Center text messaging, a Student Ambassador phone-a-thon, and stewardship. Thank you emails from Kirby Smart will acknowledge all donors, and a mailed stewardship piece will reach their mailboxes in April. Stewies can make the day a success by working with your unit to strengthen the Giving Day presence on campus. You may use our balloons as decoration or stewardship, write handwritten notes, set up tables in your buildings, and spread the word amongst your peers and on social media using #CallingAllDawgs! You can make Giving Day your own!
To prepare for the big day, Annual Giving and DARCOMM have released a Digital Toolkit that includes a style guide, detailed central email schedule, and “thank you” verbiage. You can access the link to the toolkit via the button below.
For more information, reach out to Evan Tighe.
Order your Giving Day balloons today! Please let Donor Relations know how many balloons you will need included in your SWAG box no later than Friday, March 25.
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Congrats, Calli Choe!
After eight dedicated years in Donor Relations and Stewardship, Calli Choe has been promoted to Senior Presidential Stewardship Coordinator! Calli crafts personalized acknowledgements for the Office of the President for gifts and pledges of $25,000+, new planned gifts, and trustee giving with Shearron Hamlin. When she joined the team, Calli wrote approximately 500 acknowledgements per year but letters increased to more than 1,200 per year due to our success in fundraising. Calli also manages our Honor Roll of Donors, student workers, and Presidents Club Reception ambassadors, and she coordinates PAWS Reception and Thank a Donor Day with Jordan Dotson. This promotion is well deserved, and we look forward to her continued leadership in stewardship at UGA!
Maternity Leave
Our newest Stewie will be arriving soon! Caitlin Lacey will be on maternity leave starting next week, March 7th, and will return to the office at the end of May. Please reach out to Melissa Lee with any questions regarding faculty gratitude reports, financial endowment reports, or donor statements while she is away!
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Presidential Stewardship
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Tribute Notifications
Thanks to Shearron Hamlin, we are all more knowledgeable about the Tribute Notification process! When a donor makes an honorary or memorial gift, a tribute card is sent to the honoree (or the next of kin if the honoree is deceased). The tribute card includes the name of the tributee, the fund name, and the donor. It does not include the gift amount. Donor Relations mails approximately 3,000 tribute cards a year - that’s over 1,000 more than in 2016! Tribute Gift Reports are pulled every Monday reflecting gifts made the week prior. If multiple gifts have been made, the notification to the acknowledgee will include all gifts made during that week. Notifications are then mailed on Friday and interactions are added to GAIL the following week.
Please remember to reach out to Shearron during the following scenarios:
- Tribute acknowledgee would prefer notifications emailed
- Several family members would like to receive notifications of gifts
- Donor has a special note to add to the notification
- Donor wants to keep it a surprise
- Notifications default to “in honor of” but it’s important that it read “in memory of”
- You are expecting a large influx in tribute donations upon a death, retirement, etc.
We understand that tribute gifts are sensitive. Avoid upset donors by sending tributee and acknowledgee information to Chris Spruill in Gift Accounting.
For more information, reach out to Shearron Hamlin.
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Reporting
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FY22 Faculty Gratitude Reports
169 chairs and professors were contacted last month to provide a thank you message to the donor representative for the fund that supports their teaching and research (or coaching/curating)! The deadline for faculty to submit their note was February 24th. Stewies in units with faculty who did not send their note by the deadline received an email from Caitlin yesterday. The final, final deadline for participation is this Friday, March 4th. We will spend the month of March proofreading responses, and reports will be sent to the printer to merge variable elements soon after. We plan to mail Faculty Gratitude Reports to donor representatives this summer.
For more information, reach out to Caitlin Lacey and Melissa Lee.
Unspent Endowment Funds Report
Donor Relations and Stewardship and UGA Foundation Financial Accounting are working together to encourage timely and proper spending that assures donors that we are putting their generous gifts to good use. This month, UGA Foundation will share a list of funds with FY22 spending budgets that have seen no spending activity this fiscal year. This is being made available to you so that you can, when appropriate, create a plan to utilize these endowments prior to June 30, 2021. Please look out for this list in the coming weeks! And thank you, UGA Foundation, for your collaboration with us!
For more information, reach out to Will Hearn and Melissa Lee.
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Events
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Thank a Donor Day
We are excited to announce that our 11th Thank a Donor Day will be held on Thursday, April 21 at Tate Plaza! We are unveiling a new layout, a designated ambassador check-in, a larger social media presence, and student callers at the Engagement Center, and we are saying “adios!” to the tri-fold thank you card.
Team TADD
Also new this year is Team TADD–a group including one or two students per school/college/unit serving as Thank a Donor Day Ambassadors. These students are not volunteers at the event; they will share content on their social media during the weeks leading up to the event, help you with various unit-based TADD projects, and participate as students on Thank a Donor Day. Please submit these names to Jordan by Friday, March 4.
Poster Contest
Our poster contest is back again! Each school/college/unit is allowed one entry. If you have not grabbed your poster board already, swing by Quarters B to pick one up. The Social Media Winner will be chosen based on the number of Facebook reactions. Images of the posters will be shared on the main UGA Facebook page the Monday before Thank a Donor Day, and the winner will be announced Wednesday evening. The Overall Winner will be chosen by staff members voting at One Press Place. The deadline for poster submission is Thursday, April 14.
For more information, reach out to Jordan Dotson.
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Communications
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Third Pillar Welcome
A worldwide supply shortage of magnet backing caused a delay in our Third Pillar welcome card. To continue stewarding this loyal donor group, we decided to move forward with a vinyl sticker of the same design. Cards were mailed to donors from the first half of the fiscal year last week, and the mailing will continue monthly through June.
To note: the cards for this mailing were printed before the decision to move to a vinyl sticker was made. To avoid unnecessary spending, the copy was not updated to reflect the change from magnets to stickers. If your donor reaches out to you about this, please relay this message and thank them for their generosity.
For more information, reach out to Daynes Parker.
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Stewardship & Engagement
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Donut Relations
March 28, 2022 | 8 - 11:30AM
For more information, reach out to Daynes Parker.
Calling All Dawgs: UGA Giving Day
March 31, 2022
For more information, reach out to Evan Tighe.
Thank a Donor Day
April 21, 2022 | 9AM - 1PM
Tate Plaza
For more information, reach out to Jordan Dotson.
PAWS Reception
August 26, 2022 | 3:30 - 5PM
Special Collections Library
For more information, reach out to Calli Choe.
Presidents Club Reception
November 4, 2022 | 5 - 7PM
For more information, reach out to Jordan Dotson.
Heritage Society Football Tailgate
November 5, 2022 | Time TBD
For more information, reach out to Megan Powell.
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Meetings & Professional Development
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DAR Division Meeting
March 21, 2022 | 8AM
Tate Center - Grand Hall
Team Stewardship
May 3, 2022 | 11AM - 2PM
Engineering Leadership Development Center - Room 1240
For more information, reach out to Melissa Lee.
DAR Development Meeting
May 16, 2022 | Time TBD
Tate Center - Grand Hall
CASE Stewardship Conference
June 13-15, 2022
ADRP Conference
September 21-23, 2022
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Team Stewardship Presentation
Thank you to everyone who attended and spoke at our Team Stewardship meeting last month. See the PowerPoint presentation for more information on Georgia Giving Day, Thank a Donor Day, and Tribute Notifications.
UGA Stewardship Overview
We take pride in transparency. You can see what we are working on by visiting the new web version of our Stewardship Overview. If you have suggestions about the website or have an interest in including your unit’s recognition strategy in our matrix, please reach out to Melissa Lee.
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Do you have news to share in the next issue? Reach out to Caitlin Lacey!
Development and Alumni Relations
Donor Relations and Stewardship
Quarters B | 100 Spear Road
Athens, GA 30602
Caitlin Lacey
Donor Reporting Coordinator
Team Stewardship is an internal professional development community for stewardship professionals at the University of Georgia. You received this newsletter because you are a Development and Alumni Relations employee or you have been identified as a "Stewie" due to your role as an administrative, development, or external affairs professional who writes acknowledgements, creates donor communications, or coordinates donor recognition and events.
If you are no longer in a stewardship position and no longer need to receive these newsletters, please reach out to Melissa Lee.
For more information on Team Stewardship, visit Donor Relations and Stewardship.
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