BABY, IT’S NICE OUTSIDE!
Canton College Foundation
Fiscal Year-End Board Update - July 11, 2023
Dear Colleagues and Friends,
As we celebrate summer, we’ve now officially closed out the last fiscal year and we’re pleased to report that FY23 was an excellent year for the Foundation. We raised a total of $1,669,952 against a goal of $1,050,000. We also surpassed our ambitious $450,000 Canton Fund goal, with a final total of $458,356. Here are a few fun facts on our fundraising success:
- Total for restricted funds: $467,939 against a goal of $300,000
- Total for endowed funds: $741,422 against a goal of $300,000
- Number of new donors: 820 against a goal of 500
- Giving by new donors: $139,645 against a goal of $130,000
- Total number of donors: 1,810 against a goal of 1,500
We solicit alumni, faculty, staff and friends of the College through mail and email appeals as well as through individual asks. We mailed various appeals to more than 17,000 individuals throughout the year and emailed over 26,000. These efforts raised $141,667 from 464 individuals. We also do targeted appeals such as the Steel Bridge Team, for which we raised $20,975 to support the team in attending the national competition out in San Diego. Athletics Giving Week is another focused fundraising initiative that smashed prior years’ records, raising $110,000 from 960 donors.
Our fundraising success was driven by the hard work of the entire Foundation team. Kudos to Geoffrey VanderWoude, Beth Gravlin, and Sara Hartman-Richards for leading the way.
Reunion
We were happy to see so many alumni and friends spend time back on campus (and even at the old farm!) during Reunion Weekend! Our guests enjoyed an electric car demonstration, an interactive apocalyptic bunker activity, campus tours, lunch with the deans and president, and much more. The Reunion was spearheaded by Jamie Burgess and Jordyn Sweeney, with support from the whole team, and all who attended had a great time.
Save The Date!
The fall Foundation Board meeting is set for Thursday, September 21, from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. It will follow the annual Scholarship Luncheon, to which all Board members are invited, whether you have a scholarship or not. This is a terrific opportunity to meet some of our students and we encourage you all to attend. The Board meeting will be held live at the Alumni House with a Zoom option for those who can’t make it in person.
Our auditors will be starting their work next week and we anticipate another clean audit, thanks to the hard work that Lisa Donnelly, Whitney Sharlow, Beth Gravlin, Kolby Weaver and the rest of the staff have put into cleaning up our records and improving our internal processes and controls.
The Foundation’s Audit Committee and the Finance & Investment Committee will meet in the weeks prior to the Board meeting. The new Committee on Resource Development will also hold its first meeting. Tracy Woodward, who manages my crazy schedule and keeps the trains running on time, is in the process of setting up those meetings now.
New Faces
We will introduce five new Foundation Board members this fall. Provost Peggy DeCooke and I have been visiting with each of the new members individually to provide them with a thorough orientation to the Foundation and the Board, as well as an overview of the College. Please join us in extending a warm SUNY Canton welcome to Mike Berman, JoAnne Fassinger, Don Garrett ’72, Tom Ryan ’71, and Doug Zeif ’13. They each bring a wealth of knowledge, experience and commitment to the College and our students, and we look forward to serving with them in the years to come!
As always, thank you for your continued generous support of SUNY Canton. That’s all the news for now from your team at the Canton College Foundation. We hope you got to see fireworks on the 4th of July and that you will spend time with family, friends and loved ones during the rest of the summer. We will see you in September!
Best regards,
Tracey