LeaderNotes Winter 2023

This fall was a busy season for the USM and the USM Foundation. In November, the Foundation Board’s new chair, Don Scheeler, led his first full Board meeting. Don Scheeler has served as a director on the Board since 2015 and he currently serves as president at The LEARN Academy. You can read more about Don and the meeting in this newsletter.

The Foundation’s annual report recently went live on our website. You can access the report by clicking here. It includes a letter from myself and former Board Chair Bonnie Stein, and a letter from Chancellor Jay Perman, as well as our financials from the past fiscal year.

Across the USM, I am happy to report a fair share of good news regarding philanthropy. In FY22, the USM surpassed its $323 million fundraising goal because its institutions raised a remarkable $431 million. This year, the USM has set a $383 million goal and is on track to meeting that goal. You can read more about some of the recent gifts and grants our institutions received later in this newsletter.

As always, the Foundation staff has been hard at work supporting our colleagues across the System and the work of the USM. The Foundation provides professional development programs for advancement and alumni relations colleagues across the USM. Since April 2020, the Foundation has offered 60 programs with more than 1,700 colleagues in attendance. As in-person events become the norm again, they also have returned to the System. Our events team has helped host nearly 30 events since this spring, which is about equal to the number of events hosted annually pre-Covid.

I also want to mention another project that the Foundation is leading. As some of you know, the Foundation owns and financially supports the alumni/donor database that is used by most of our USM campuses. The database platform is becoming obsolete and it’s clear that we will need a new platform. We are currently sponsoring a comprehensive needs assessment that will help determine the future direction of Advancement database needs across the System—a great benefit to every campus and essential to moving forward thoughtfully with the project.

As always, please reach out to me with any questions you may have!