UND Alumni Association & Foundation wins 2024 CASE Circle of Excellence Award
Global organization recognizes ‘Notes from the Nest’ gratitude event with prestigious Silver Award
Editor’s note: In the UND LEADS Strategic Plan, the Service core value calls on the University to “engage UND alumni as community ambassadors, guest lecturers and thought leaders.”
As the story below describes, a recent Circle of Excellence Silver Award from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education — the global nonprofit association dedicated to advance alumni relations and education communications in 80 countries — honors UND’s first-ever “Notes from the Nest” event.
As the CASE website notes, the event “drew eager students to a central location on campus to thank their scholarship donors the old-fashioned way: through handwritten thank-you notes.”
By celebrating donors, the University and the Alumni Association & Foundation seek to further engage UND alumni into taking part in the life of the University, in accordance with the UND LEADS Strategic Plan.
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By Milo Smith
Senior Public Relations Director
for UND Alumni Association & Foundation
The University of North Dakota Alumni Association & Foundation has received a prestigious international Circle of Excellence Award from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, more widely known as CASE.
The Silver recognition in the category of “Special Events | In-Person – Multi-Day Events” comes for the first-ever Notes from the Nest gratitude event.
Notes from the Nest attracted nearly 2,500 students to the Memorial Union on Oct. 16-17 last year to write thank-you notes to scholarship donors. The event was made possible through a campuswide partnership among the UND Alumni Association & Foundation, UND Student Finance and several colleges, schools and departments. After the notes were turned in, students enjoyed free pizza and doughnuts and entered their names into a scholarship drawing. Students unable to attend in person had the option to submit messages of gratitude virtually.
More than 40 volunteers — including student ambassadors and representatives from UND colleges and University staff — helped pull off the massive letter-writing campaign.
Student participant Cole Guttormson said that creating a handwritten thank-you note was important.
“It shows the people that you don’t take it for granted and that you really do appreciate it,” Guttormson said at the event. “Every college student needs the money. If you just blow it off like it’s a little thing, they might not feel like helping other students in the future.”
CASE’s Circle of Excellence Awards are the premier recognition program for educational advancement. These peer-selected and adjudicated awards celebrate colleges, universities and schools whose talented staff have advanced their institutions with resourcefulness and ingenuity.
One of the CASE judges praised the UND event for its “novel approach that was highly effective and can serve as a model for building relationships.”
“We are thrilled to see Notes from the Nest honored by CASE at the international level,” said DeAnna Carlson Zink, CEO of the UNDAAF. “This recognition is a testament to the hundreds of hours of planning that went into this event and to the thousands of students who answered the call to say ‘thank you’ to their donors. Ultimately, the goal is to make sure those donors know how much their gifts mean to those who benefit from their generosity.”
Jenn Lukens, UNDAAF director of Stewardship & Donor Appreciation, had this to say: “We at the UND Alumni Association and Foundation share this award with all those who helped make Notes from the Nest a success. That includes the students who turned out in droves to recognize their donors. As it was our first-ever Notes from the Nest, we didn’t know what to expect, so we were thrilled to see that turnout and experience the students’ positive energy.”
The second Notes from the Nest gratitude event is set for Oct. 14-15.
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>> QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS about the UND LEADS Strategic Plan? Your thoughts are welcome! Please contact Angie Carpenter, UND’s director of Special Student Populations, and/or Ryan Zerr, associate vice president for Strategy & Implementation, the co-chairs of the UND LEADS Implementation Committee. You also may offer your thoughts by visiting the UND LEADS Strategic Plan home page and clicking on the “Provide your feedback” link that you’ll find there. Thank you for your support of the UND LEADS Strategic Plan!
>> About the UND Alumni Association & Foundation: The UND Alumni Association & Foundation supports the ongoing growth and development of the University of North Dakota. It is the official fundraising and private gift-receiving organization for UND. Staff members work closely with alumni and friends, faculty and staff, corporations and foundations, and the University to create fundraising programs and opportunities that benefit the University and its excellence in teaching, research and public engagement. It keeps classmates in contact with each other and alumni connected to campus.
>> About the Council for Advancement and Support of Education: CASE is the global nonprofit association dedicated to educational advancement — alumni relations, communications, development, marketing and advancement services — and championing education to transform lives and society. CASE’s membership includes more than 3,000 colleges, universities and independent elementary and secondary schools in more than 80 countries, making CASE one of the largest nonprofit education associations in the world in terms of institutional membership.
