Hi Sisters! I am pleased to share with you the report that was presented on behalf of the foundation during Grand Chapter at the 2012 International Convention in Miami. More coming soon!-- Heather Locke Green, President
Biennium Report
Delta Phi Epsilon Educational Foundation
As president and on behalf of all the Board
of Directors of the foundation, I am pleased to present this report of the
Delta Phi Epsilon Educational Foundation for the 2010-2012 biennium. What a biennium
of achievement and progress it has been!
Before I share the highlights of the
last two years, I want to extend some thank you. First, we started the biennium under the
leadership of Nicole Wachs who is now moving to the sorority’s IGB. During Nicole’s tenure as president, we
increased the amount of scholarships we gave each year from $10,000 to $15,000
and we made significant gains in the strategic planning and brand identity
development of the foundation, among many other highlights. Thank you Nicole for all of your past work on
behalf of the foundation—we look forward to continuing to work with you as an
IGB member.
I also want to recognize the other foundation
board members who are serving our organization--Kristen Peterson Lee, Nancy Hart-Esposito, Gaby Alvarez, Allyson Vitato and
Donna von Bruening. These women are stewards of the foundation and
they all have provided a great deal of service to the enterprise during the
last few years. Please help me thank
them.
Nicole DeFeo is our staff liaison and I
have to tell you that we are so fortunate to have her expertise. There is a saying about doing the impossible and when pigs fly. Well Nicole makes unicorns fly. Thank you Nicole.
Finally, I want to recognize Michelle
Gilboy, outgoing sorority president, for your support of the foundation. Your vision and guidance are a tremendous
asset to our sorority. On a personal
note, I have appreciated your friendship and wisdom. Congratulations on completing your term as
president. I have made a donation to the
foundation in honor of your many years of service.
The Delta Phi Epsilon Educational
Foundation Board of Directors is chiefly charged with promoting the
foundation’s mission to encourage the personal and professional
advancement of women by supporting educational and philanthropic programs that
are responsive to the needs of our communities. Essentially it is our duty to
create the right circumstances
·
to ensure our sisters have the resources they need to get the most out
of their sorority experience and
·
to be a vital partner of the sorority to help the entire enterprise flourish.
We have certainly made a great deal of
progress toward those ends during the last two years.
On the organizational front…
- As part of our strategic planning, we implemented a new logo and began development of the foundation’s brand. We also strengthened the foundation’s infrastructure by completing a policy manual and a by-laws review. We are continuing to review policies, including implementing a more detailed board member development process as well as investment and fiscal management policies.
- The foundation board continues to improve the management of expenses and our ability to forecast our expenses through our annual budgeting process. These expenses are continuing to change as we evaluate our operations and make changes in our fundraising methods. We continue to pay a management fee to the sorority for staff time and operations, which was increased from $6,000 to $12,000 over the biennium in order to gain more strategic support.
- The foundation board invested in our own knowledge when we sent Nicole Wachs and Nicole DeFeo to THE Foundation Seminar sponsored by the NIC Foundation last August to gain insight into what other organizations are doing to secure gifts and develop their fundraising efforts. Nicole DeFeo continued her professional development at a conference for lead foundation staff in January.
- We have significantly ramped up our communication efforts with an updated website and the creation of a blog and a Facebook page. Facebook has been our primary means of communicating with our community—we have almost 1,100 friends and I imagine that number will grow dramatically during this Convention when I remind you all that you can find us at facebook.com/dphiefoundation (hint, hint).
Moving into
the next biennium, we are committed to further ramping-up our communication
efforts with the creation of new communication and stewardship plans. Chief among our goals is ensuring that we
reach those who do not use social media and providing easier ways to donate
online.
On the fundraising front…
- We started the biennium having just completed a very successful fundraising effort during the last Convention. The foundation raised more than $21,000 through pledges, gifts, the silent auction and other fundraising efforts during the 2010 Convention. That was more than any previous convention.
- We held several mini-campaigns using the Causes feature on Facebook.
- We continued a successful parent fundraising campaign. New member parents are asked to give in recognition of their daughter’s affiliation with DPhiE and the new members are recognized during chapter meetings. More than $20,000 has been generated through the parent campaign during the last two fiscal years—thank you parents! We will be expanding the program to include all DPhiE parents this coming fiscal year.
- We have achieved 100% giving participation among our foundation board members, as well as 100% from IGB board members this biennium.
- Our largest fundraising effort this biennium – and possibly in the foundation’s history – was undoubtedly our DIMES for DPhiE initiative. For 31 days in March 2012, we celebrated 95 years of sisterhood by asking online alumnae, collegians, parents and our friends to donate to the Delta Phi Epsilon Educational Foundation. All told, more than $35,000 was raised in one month. This is an amazing amount. All the credit goes to you who gave and then promoted our fundraiser—thank you.
All told, there were more than 500 donors in one month to the
D4D campaign—we normally have about 300 in a year. When I saw the box of acknowledgement letters
and as I signed each one, I was just in awe at the number and the generosity of
my sisters.
There were seven chapters that had 100% participation, earning
“Keep Calm and Esse Quam” t-shirts for each of their sisters. Those chapters were:
o Delta Xi at
the University of Maryland
- Delta Sigma at Rider University
- Alpha Delta at Seton Hall University
- Alpha Mu at University of Michigan-Dearborn
- Alpha Pi at Southern Connecticut State University
- Beta Tau at Nova Southeastern University, and
- Gamma Gamma at Schreiner University.
I also want to recognize the colonies
and new chapters who were just so generous.
Everyone who donated received a bumper sticker. I cannot tell you how meaningful it has been
to me to hear from you that you appreciate the opportunity to give and that you
are proud to show your support with the t-shirts and stickers. We will do it again next March, so look for
an email and digital “bumper sticker” then!
- Nicole DeFeo recently shared some really amazing numbers with me. For FY11, we saw a sharp increase of chapter donations over the previous year, by 58%. This was driven by two factors: sorority collegiate growth of 9 percent and more significantly, the installment of the Chapter Assessment Program by the sorority. This program incentivizes collegians to donate more to the foundation than the minimum of $3 per person which it is assessed. Some chapters gave up to $17 per person in light of the program. Thank you!
- Nicole also shared with me that overall this biennium we have raised 74 percent more than the previous biennium and net income is up over 250 percent from last. Our assets are also up about 28%. (That all probably sounds confusing without the financials in front of you, but I assure you, it’s really good!)
On the programming
front…
- We continue to increase the amount of scholarships we award each year. In 2011, we awarded $15,000 in scholarships to 13 women, which was a sharp increase from just four years ago when we awarded $10,000. This spring we awarded $20,000 in scholarships to 16 collegians and graduate sisters, as well as one legacy. This is an increase of 33 percent over the previous year and includes offering higher award amounts for some of the brightest applicants.
- For the past few years we have granted the top-rated collegiate recipient with a special scholarship in memory of Dr. Paul Hirsch, husband of past president Harriette Hirsch. This year we are pleased to recognize Nicole King, Gamma Zeta Chapter at Webster University with this special honor. She is a dynamic young woman who is highly respected among her chapter sisters, serving as chapter president. She says, “Thank you from the bottom of my heart” for the special recognition.
- The Harriette Hirsch Sisterhood Fund grants funds to sisters in need. There were several awards over the biennium, including one to a sister who is a single mom struggling to pay rent after a crisis and another to support medical expenses for a sister's daughter. Harriette Hirsch continues to set the standard for sisterhood with her generosity. Her love for Delta Phi Epsilon is like none other, and we are indeed fortunate that Harriette is in our lives.
- The Educational Foundation board made great strides toward our goal to support leadership and philanthropic programs beyond scholarships this year. As I mentioned previously, the Educational Foundation is for the first time the official lead sponsor of our convention this summer with a grant of $15,000 to the sorority for programming. This grant is a milestone moment in the growth of the foundation and your support will allow us to do even more in the future.
Along with the
accomplishments there are a few trends to note.
This year, there were 70 applicants for our scholarships, a more than 100%
increase over the previous year. Some of
this interest I attribute to our stronger presence on Facebook, but some of it
is simply an increase in need during these challenging economic times. Ideally we would award scholarships to all
our deserving sisters.
A second trend
to note is growth in the number of alumnae that are giving. In the past we have
primarily relied on “dues” from chapters to support our scholarships and in
recent years we have seen improvements in alumnae awareness about opportunities
to support the sorority by giving to the foundation. One great example was seen during the recent
D4D campaign—collegians and alumnae from Delta Sigma at Rider University used
social media to encourage (and challenge) each other to raise the most money. They even had alumnae from other chapters
giving to their tally.
We have so much potential within our
organization if we can harness the generosity of alumnae from all generations
and all chapters. So a vital part of the foundation’s plan
moving forward is securing the means to ask every DPhiE woman to support the
foundation each year, whether it be online, by phone or in person. Our foundation board is going to turn our
attention now to building connections with you –all of our sisters—to spread
the word about our efforts and to provide outlets to make being a DPhiE
meaningful for your lifetime.
I continue to be
involved in DPhiE long after my collegiate days because I believe that Delta
Phi Epsilon provides a strong leadership laboratory for women. A few years ago, the buzz in the national
sorority world was that someday soon there may no longer be 26 NPC member
sororities. They highlighted that the
two greatest threats to organization survival are risk management and financial
resources. I don’t know about you, but
that got my attention and that is one reason why I serve and give. I want to ensure that DPhiE is here for your
children and your grandchildren and that it remains a strong, affordable option
for women seeking leadership, philanthropic and social outlets. I know many of you feel as I do that it is so important, even
today, that we ensure educational and personal development opportunities of all
kinds continue to be available for women.
Sorority membership is one great way to do so.
Our motto Esse Quam Videri calls on each of us to
be true to our word and to honor our ritual oath that sisterhood is for a
lifetime. Through the foundation’s
growth we ensure the vitality of our beloved sisterhood. Other national sorority organizations receive
hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants from their respective foundations
each year, keeping membership in their organizations affordable and allowing
for greater services and opportunities for their members, both collegian and
alumnae. I believe that DPhiEs deserve
the same kinds of opportunities because when given such resources we are the
kind of women who excel and change the world.
I hope we can count on your support through the next biennium and beyond.
On behalf of
the entire Delta Phi Epsilon Educational Foundation board, I thank you for your
support and interest.
Respectfully submitted by
Heather Locke Green
President
