September 17, 2012 | SharkAdmin The Alamo Colleges and Northwest Vista College employee giving campaign, now called “Employees Giving Back,” has officially kicked off this month. Between now and December employees will have the opportunity to make a contribution that supports students, a community agency or the arts by designating your donation to The United Way, The Alamo Colleges Foundation, theFund for the Arts or all three if you choose. During the last campaign, NVC raised more than $46,000 to benefit NVC/Alamo Colleges scholarships, United Way agencies and arts and cultural organizations of theFund. Approximately 26 percent of our employees made contributions. Compared to our sister colleges, we did not have the highest percentage of employees contributing, but we did have a significant increase. The goal this year is to have 35 percent of our NVC faculty and staff participating in the campaign. Funding scholarships through this campaign makes it possible for many of our students to stay in school, focus on their studies instead of working and realize their dream of getting an associate degree. Last year, through the Alamo Colleges Foundation, over $1 million in scholarships was given to students. Three out of 10 students who applied for money received scholarships, which means that we are missing a big chunk of students who need money. The more we give back as employees the easier it becomes to gain support from community donors. Folks present at the all college meeting this morning saw an example of a scholarship fundraising partnership among a community family, a retired NVC employee and our faculty and staff. The Degerstrom family has been contributing each year to create an endowed scholarship fund for education majors to honor their deceased daughter who was a student at NVC pursuing a teaching career. Christine Crowley, our former library dean who retired last year, has pledged to donate up to $5000 to match employee contributions to fund student scholarships. We are so grateful for our big donors, such as Christine Crowley, but if you cannot afford to donate large sums, you can still make a difference. Many employees choose to have a few dollars deducted automatically from each paycheck on a yearly basis. Just think, that might be one Venti latte at Starbucks once every two weeks. There are many NVC scholarships to help build this year, the Jack Stone Award for New Music, the Degerstrom Scholarship, NVC Honoring Retired Employees Scholarship, the newly established Robert G. Marbut Jr. Scholarship for Public Service and the Vista Dash for Dollars 5K Kinesiology Scholarship – or you can start your own. You can contribute through the online portal at https://donor.united-e-way.org or use paper pledge forms available in Manzanillo Hall, Room 104G. If you have any questions about this year’s campaign, send an email message to Lynne Dean, NVC Director of Institutional Advancement or call Sally First or Patrick Troy, this year’s Campaign Co-Chairs. To make a donation, follow these instructions: Log on to https://donor.united-e-way.org Campaign code: Alamo Colleges Campaign Code: Alamo Colleges User Name: jdoe12 (email name less “@alamo.edu”) Password: GIVEXXXX (Last 4 digits of your Banner ID) Example: Banner ID: 90007861 = Password GIVE7861.
