Faculty, staff contribute to campaign success

(Read comments from faculty and staff about why they participate in Campus Campaign.)

UW-Eau Claire faculty and staff have been generous in their support for the UW-Eau Claire Foundation’s ongoing comprehensive fund-raising campaign — to the tune of more than a half million dollars as of mid-March 2004.

Since the Fulfilling the Promise of Excellence campaign began in 2000, faculty and staff total contributions to Campus Campaign have averaged more than $146,000 each fiscal year, said Heidi Fisher, director of annual giving and donor relations. Campus Campaign contributions are recognized as gifts to the comprehensive campaign, which runs through June 2005 and seeks at least $35 million for UW-Eau Claire’s people and programs.

As of mid-March 2004, faculty and staff campaign gifts and pledges since 2000 totaled $584,672, Fisher said.

“Our campus community has been a strong force in the ongoing success of the university’s first-ever comprehensive campaign,” she said. “Their gifts are benefiting departments, programs and scholarships that in turn have direct, positive impacts on students. At the same time, their generosity has shown other potential donors that employees at this university are 100 percent committed to excellence.”

Participation by faculty and staff in the annual Campus Campaign has been important to the ongoing success of the comprehensive campaign, said Thomas King, professor of communication disorders and 2003-04 Campus Campaign co-chair.

“The generosity of faculty and staff not only directly benefits university programs, it demonstrates to other potential donors how strongly the faculty and staff of UW-Eau Claire are committed to excellence here,” King said.

The 2003-04 Campus Campaign theme is “Empowering Each Other.”

“This year’s theme captures what Campus Campaign is all about: helping ourselves in fiscally challenging times to ensure we will be able to continue our great work at UW-Eau Claire,” said Debra King, outreach program manager III in UW-Eau Claire’s Continuing Education and Campus Campaign co-chair.

Faculty or staff members can direct their Campus Campaign contributions to support areas of the university where they have the greatest interest, said Heidi Fisher, UW-Eau Claire Foundation director of annual giving and donor relations. In past years, department advancement funds have been a popular choice among faculty and staff when choosing where to direct their gifts. Some have designated that their gifts go to already established scholarships and other funds that support causes important to them. Still others have pooled their contributions to establish new funds.

Campus Campaign contributions can be made as one-time outright payments, as multi-year pledges or via payroll deduction. (The minimum contribution via payroll deduction is $2.50 per two-week pay period or $5 per four-week pay period.) Some faculty and staff choose to contribute through planned gifts.

Faculty and staff participation has more than doubled since the first Campus Campaign in 2001-02, Fisher said. She noted that the goal is to reach 40 percent participation during Campus Campaign 2003-04.

“The rate of participation, rather than the amount contributed, is the measure of success for Campus Campaign,” Fisher said.

All faculty and staff contributions to the UW-Eau Claire Foundation from July 1, 2003, through June 30, 2004, will be counted in the total for Campus Campaign 2003-04.