On Fairfield's Behalf

By Barbara D. Kiernan, M.A. '90

If Julie (Coyle '94) Davis could find the picture she knows is in a box somewhere at home, you could have seen her as a four-year-old Fairfield enthusiast waving pom poms at a Stags basketball game. Daughter of the late Hugh Coyle '53, Davis says she grew up on campus tagging along with him to rugby matches, basketball games, and assorted alumni events. "Fairfield is in my blood," says Davis, director of advancement technology and development relations. "I went here, two of my sisters went here, I met my husband here, and I've worked here for nine years."

Those nine years included work in corporate relations and annual giving, where she developed a mastery of technology that earned her promotion to director of Development Services, the nine-person office that deals with gift records, donor files, report generation, and more. In 2004, Davis assumed her current position and, in 2005-06, shepherded the establishment of the University's new Alumni Online Community. "I've never been afraid of computers or technology," says Davis, "and it's always obvious to me that more can be done. I have an energy for figuring that out."

Speaking of energy, Jessica Colligan '03 is a five-year member of Fairfield's development team, if you count the two years she spent as a reliable and capable student worker in the Office of Development Services. A communication major, Colligan didn't intend to go into the development field, but two days before graduation - at the farewell party being given her by the office - a chance conversation led to her landing a full-time job in the Office of Annual Giving. Her specific focus would be building the Senior Giving Program and donations from young alumni. "I'm embarrassed to say this," she confesses, "but earlier that year, when I received my Senior Giving brochure in the mail, I threw it away. I didn't think it applied to me because I didn't have a job lined up or a lot of money to spare. I had the same ‘Fairfield is rich' perception that many students and young alumni have."

It's a perception she now knows is skewed. Today she realizes how much tuition doesn't pay for and views annual giving as a way to honor and model the example Fairfield graduates have given since the first class went forth in 1951. Fifty-five years later, Colligan marvels at the impact thousands of small gifts can make when combined. And she should know. As an undergraduate work-study student, she witnessed staffers painstakingly enter gifts and pledges into a database as they came in, to ensure accurate record keeping and to prompt speedy acknowledgment of each and every donation. "It didn't take long for me to realize," she says, "how much modest gifts really matter over time."

You'll get no argument there from Vic D'Ascenzo, M.A.'88, who gradually crossed a bridge from sports information to fundraising at Fairfield a decade or so ago. After agreeing in 1987 to shepherd the Lyons-Lademan Athletic Fund, which raises additional revenue for specific varsity teams, he began to catch the development bug. "I saw the difference those ‘extras' could make for a team," he says. "I enjoyed being the connection between a slew of faithful alumni who were passionate about sports and the student-athletes and coaches looking to enhance their programs."

Since then, D'Ascenzo has risen through the ranks in the Advancement Division, spending four years in Annual Giving (with a focus on reunion years) before moving into the major gifts arena. "I find working in major gifts very satisfying because of the immediate impact that level of giving can have. Being competitive in hiring quality faculty, especially if they'll be moving into Fairfield County, is not cheap," says D'Ascenzo. "Nor is creating the diversity we need to prepare graduates to enter a multicultural workforce. I believe in what we do at Fairfield, and believe we do it the right way. That's why it's not difficult to ask for a gift." 

But that takes practice, as Cristina Dieguez '99, MBA'06, can attest. Last year, after five years focusing on different aspects of Annual Giving, she assumed responsibility for The President's Circle, the University's premiere giving society. Dieguez still remembers her first face-to-face "ask" for a gift at the $5,000 level. "I froze when it came time to make the ask," she laughs, remembering how she kept the conversation going until she could work up her courage again. "It took me a few minutes, but I did it. I said the words really, really fast, but I got them out!" To her delight, the donor said yes. More important, however, she began to know to her toes the source of her motivation: she wasn't asking for herself, but for the University she loves and the students who benefit from what she can raise.

And she should know. For the past two years, Dieguez has served as moderator of the Model UN Club, working with students who share her passion for the complexities of our global world. She has also traveled with students to Nicaragua as part of the Arrupe Volunteers Program sponsored by Campus Ministry. "For me, being involved with students brings my job full circle," says Dieguez, who received her MBA at Fairfield this past May. "When asking for Circle-level gifts," she says, "I know what the gifts I ask for can do for the students. They're smart; they're committed. I know the kind of students we're turning out!"

Stefanie (Lafond '94) Borsari knows what it's like to be a student who benefits, in her case through a gift directly linked to a specific donor. Most special to her was the Mary Louise Larrabee Scholarship, a stipend awarded each summer to one visual and performing arts major, which makes possible a once-in-a-lifetime enrichment experience. That's how the theatre major came to spend her junior-year summer engaged in the work of the renowned Williamstown Theater Festival. "I wrote Mrs. Larrabee so many thank you notes that she must have wondered if she'd ever stop hearing from me. I guess I was doing stewardship without realizing it," says Borsari, "I just knew I was grateful."

That sense of gratitude prompted Borsari to take a job in fundraising right out of school, working for a dance company in Chicago and then at an academic medical center. "I found that I liked working with a community of people toward one mission," she says.

For the past five years, that work has taken place at her alma mater.

At first she was involved in raising smaller gifts, working to boost the all-important alumni participation rate. For three years now, her efforts have focused on major giving. Having been involved with benefactors at both ends of the philanthropic spectrum, Borsari considers any gift a tangible demonstration of a person's regard for Fairfield. "My hope is always that alumni, parents, and friends will make a gift that is personally significant to them. People in lucrative jobs should be giving at a higher level - something with zeros after it," she laughs, "But really, whatever a person's circumstances, if a gift is significant to them, it's significant to Fairfield."

Since 1980, Clare (Carney '76) Schimpf has been beating that drum as well. As Director of Annual Giving, it's her job to raise a target goal set by the finance division to offset operating expenses not covered by tuition - typically $2,000 per student. "What I struggle with," she says with a twinkle in her eye, "is how to convey the real importance of $25, $50, and $100 gifts." She and her staff of four professionals work to increase not just the dollars but also the percentage of alumni who give - any amount will do - on an annual basis. Currently, that percentage for undergraduate alumni is around 21 percent. Yet if everyone who gave the previous year, or any year, made a gift every year, that figure would soar to nearly 70 percent. Imagine the impact!

Every year, especially at reunion time on campus, Schimpf hears alumni rave about what a great experience they had at Fairfield and what wonderful, lasting friendships they made with classmates, faculty, and administrators. It's an experience she had as well. As if her full-time job in Annual Giving weren't enough, last year she agreed to chair her high school's Annual Fund as well. "I wish there were a guaranteed way to transform the genuinely fond feelings most alumni have - whatever their alma mater is - into a gift," she says. "Education is just so important." Knowing that, Schimpf walks a tightrope, balancing her desire to raise more for Fairfield with gratitude for what she and her colleagues are able to accomplish. In 2005-06, the Annual Fund exceeded its goal by 7.5 percent.

Also on the upswing was the office of Foundation Relations, which nearly doubled the monies raised last year through private foundation grants. Leading this effort was Noël (Cafiero '81) Appel who, in eight years as director of foundation relations, has perfected the role of matchmaker. The relationships she helps facilitate, however, involve linking faculty research, institutional needs, and program development to the philanthropic interests of assorted foundations. In 2005-06, these partnerships yielded $2.4 million in grants.

"What I like," says Appel, "is the interaction with faculty, deans, and the academic vice president's office around so many aspirations, be they for programs, an individual's research, or broader institutional goals. It is very, very satisfying to be so closely tied to projects that truly enhance the University."

Those enhancements, in 2005-06, included: a sustainability grant for Ignatian Residential College (Lilly Endowment); palliative care research in nursing (Gustavus and Louise Pfeiffer Foundation); the inaugural School of Nursing lecture (McKeen Foundation); the Center for Faith and Public Life (Wabash Center); the Community Partners Scholarship Program (William Randolph Hearst Foundation); religious studies (FADICA; Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities); the School of Nursing Learning Resource Center (Schechter Foundation); and nursing scholarships (Paul L. Jones Fund).

"I have found that new approaches to fundraising are very welcome at Fairfield," says Appel. Two years ago, she began serving as a liaison between the Advancement Division and the School of Nursing and the College of Arts & Sciences, working collaboratively with their respective deans, Dr. Jeanne Novotny and Dr. Timothy Law Snyder. Each school formed an Advisory Board in 2005-06, unique in their strong and unashamed focus on development. "The Boards bring together parents, alumni, and friends of Fairfield to champion the strategic direction of each school and assist in securing the financial resources to achieve their long-range goals," says Appel (visit www.fairfield.edu/sonadvisory and www.fairfield.edu/casadvisory).

In the area of corporate relations, Cathleen Borgman '80 (director until June 2006 and now director of career planning) worked with Dr. Norm Solomon and Dr. Evangelos Hadjimichael, deans respectively of the Dolan School of Business and School of Engineering, and their long-established Advisory Boards. In Borgman's area of responsibility, corporate gifts totaling $1.1 million funded scholarships, scientific research, a simulation "trading floor" classroom for business, two shared faculty positions in nursing, a greenhouse project, and underwriting for the Bennett Lecture in Judaic Studies (Bank of America), and the first annual School of Nursing lecture (Pfizer, Gen Re).

At the hub of all this activity sits Diane Lawler '04, executive secretary to Fredric C. Wheeler, associate vice president for development. For 14 years she has grown in the job, relishing new responsibilities and promotions as they came along. Lawler directs the traffic that flows in and out of the Development Office - paperwork, appointments, reports, calendars, correspondence, and more. Her favorite part of the job is making appointments for Wheeler, and conversing with benefactors who are so encouraged by Fairfield's growth. Lawler also enjoys the part she plays in connecting scholarship donors and recipients. "I see the letters and I know how grateful the students are," says Lawler, who spent 13 years earning her undergraduate degree part-time through University College. "I also know the that the donors appreciate the ‘thank you.'"

Lawler knew nothing about fundraising when she took the job way back when, and has come to value its role and the work of Advancement. "Our division is terrific," she says, "and I'm happy to be part of a team that does such good things for Fairfield."

At a desk nearby, Sharon DiVincenzo, A.A.'02, seconds that sentiment. For 21 years, she has played what she calls a "supporting role" in the Advancement Division, as administrative assistant to Vice President for University Advancement George E. Diffley (who retired on June 30). "George infected me with a love of what we do in Advancement," says DiVincenzo, who is also the mother of two Fairfield alumni. "When I communicate with donors or potential donors to schedule appointments, I see myself as an ambassador - the front line, so to speak. I truly believe in what we do here."

DiVincenzo didn't have the opportunity to go to college out of high school, and so is grateful for the education her two children received at the University. So pleased that she and her husband, Mike, have been members of The President's Circle for nine years. "I give because I'm so thankful," she says. "When I talk to family and friends about Fairfield, I sometimes feel like I'm on a soap box, but really, I just want to give back!"

What a tribute to the University that so many windows of opportunity continue to be opened through the dedication of Fairfield's own.