Laura Pooser and Anne Boterri work for the UCF Foundation which is located right here on the UCF campus. Surprising, right? The UCF Foundation was created to raise money for UCF to fund projects such as professor and graduate research studies and scholarships for students.
Laura Pooser is a UCF grad herself. She majored in Graphic Design and worked for a long time for different ad agencies in the area. She was an art director and handled projects dealing with print materials and copywriting. She decided one day that she needed a change and looked into the nonprofit world. She now works as a fundraiser for the UCF Foundation, specifically for the College of Arts and Humanities (which is my college!). Ms. Pooser raises monies from international sources interested in the UCF message, companies, and individuals–with an emphasis on endowments from these individuals. She believes in face to face interaction and engaging potential donors. “Through engagement,” she told us, “people will eventually donate.”
Anne Boterri works as more of a technical communicator for the UCF Foundation. Which is a new position that was created just a few years ago as she was looking for warmer climes to work in–she’s originally from New Hampshire! She heads up a lot of their publishing ventures. She told us, though, that there’s no document we can create that will make someone write a check; so we have to remember to value the face to face interaction and engagement of potential donors. Ms. Boterri is all about storytelling–probably a carryover from her Liberal Arts degree. She worked in journalism for a while, too. When she helps create a document for the UCF Foundation, she focuses on “great photography and great headlines” because that’s what people are going to see first.
We learned some interesting things about donations to the UCF Foundations and the donors that make them. The UCF Foundation has a very clear idea of what kinds of donations they will and will not accept. Donations are considered gifts, not necessarily monies received. Quid pro quo gifts are not really gifts–a donation to the UCF Foundation will not sway the admission of a student. Discriminatory donations are not accepted either. Examples of something like this would be offering to donate to start a scholarship fund and then narrowing down the requirements for the scholarship to only a specific ethnic group or basically a particular student. Donors are able to specify things like GPA and/or area of study for their scholarships, though!
A lot of emphasis is placed on donor intent and making sure they know that we understood what they meant when we implemented their donation to a specific area. There is a lot of documentation that goes on tracking the money that comes in so that we can keep donors updated on how their dollars are making a difference.
Ms. Pooser and Ms. Boterri told us, like many others have, that working in the nonprofit world is all about your passion for the cause you’re working for. Ms. Boterri told us that there’s a lot of writing to be done in the nonprofit world and that we can’t be afraid to put the words together and get them out there.
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