Introducing the D-SIP class of 2024!

A cohort of 20 ambitious Wolverines are ready to delve into the world of development! Meet them here:

Meet the Cohort

Adib Mahdiath

Hometown: Detroit, MI
Graduation Year: 2026

Magazine Strategy for Campaign

Adib will focus on magazine benchmarking, including researching magazines at academic medical centers, interviewing editors on how they used their magazines during big fundraising campaigns and their approach to DEI, collecting back issues, and analyzing their web presence. Adib will also help analyze non-magazine projects, such as newsletters and appeals.

Alison Skogseth

Hometown: Greenville, MI
Graduation Year: 2025

School of Public Health, Campaign Readiness

In this project, Alison will play a vital role in preparing the School of Public Health (SPH) to be campaign ready. Alison's primary focus will be a comprehensive audit encompassing the website, engagement calendars, print materials, and other public-facing resources. This audit will serve as the foundation for making data-driven recommendations aimed at enhancing the alumni experience and aligning the school's efforts with the overarching goal of encouraging alumni to connect with, serve, and support the SPH.

Chanhee “Joy” Park

Hometown: Houston, TX
Graduation Year: 2027

LSA Advancement, Stewardship Comprehensive Recognition Program

This internship will primarily center on researching and launching a comprehensive recognition program tailored to LSA's extensive annual giving donor base. This significant initiative targets 10,000 incredible donors, who generously contribute 16,000 gifts annually. Joy will work with extensive and complex data in collaboration with the Business Intelligence and Annual Giving teams to understand LSA’s behavior-based donor segments. Joy will leverage this knowledge to craft unique and creative touch points for regular donor engagement.

Charlie Seely

Hometown: Ann Arbor, MI
Graduation Year: 2023

Foundations Preschool, Young Donor Initiative

Charlie will assist Foundations Preschool with strengthening the Young Donor Initiative. Charlie will explore businesses in our area that employ Gen Zers and millennials, and benchmark engagement tools and resources for attracting and soliciting these demographics. Charlie will build a campaign to reach out to these businesses to try to get an audience and offer opportunities for involvement (volunteering, hosting a fundraising event, etc.). Charlie will also explore and set up ways to best reach this audience outside of the workplace through social media channels or other avenues.

Eilene Koo

Hometown: Ann Arbor, MI
Graduation Year: 2026

Office of Student Publications, Marketing and Event Planning

In the fall of 2024, the Office of Student Publications will host upwards of three different alumni reunions for three different publications. Each will serve as a unique opportunity for our alumni to engage with each other in ways that they rarely can. They will serve as the launching points of our campaign as we try to hone in on what areas of focus we will fundraise for. Eilene will be doing prospect research and outreach to ensure that messaging is clear, consistent, and persuasive in order to ensure that both the campaign and the reunions go smoothly. Eilene will radically expand the scope of how much work we will be able to put into this effort. The amount of work hours that we would be able to put into this effort would increase by 80% with Eilene. Eilene will allow student publications to reach a far more broad and diverse set of alumni to the events through more individualized outreach. Eilene will conduct direct outreach and be able to actively participate on reunion and campaign committees, providing a unique and impactful opportunity.

Gabrielle Pacifico

Hometown: Ann Arbor, MI
Graduation Year: 2025

Ross School of Business, Annual Giving Society Upgrade

For this project, Gabrielle will focus on helping the Michigan Ross Office of Advancement Annual Giving team build out the Annual Giving Society. In order to do so, Gabrielle will be focusing on creating a portfolio of marketing collateral for the Annual Giving Society, which will be used to develop welcome packets for new members of the Annual Giving Society, and partnering with Michigan Ross Marketing & Communications to create an Annual Giving Society page on the Michigan Ross website. Gabrielle’s project will allow the Michigan Ross Annual Giving team to continue providing the best experience possible for Annual Giving Society-level donors, hopefully increasing discretionary gifts to Michigan Ross—allowing leadership to continue saying “yes” to scholarships, action-based global learning experiences, research needs, and new programs. Gabrielle’s project advances our DEI efforts by refining collateral surrounding our World of Difference Scholarship and other Michigan Ross programs that address the school’s strategic priority of Economic Inclusion and Financial Accessibility.

Hailey Mauro

Hometown: Fairfield, OH
Graduation Year: 2025

Garrett’s Space, Critical Mission Support for Suicide Prevention

In August 2023, Garrett’s Space purchased a 76-acre property in Superior Township to build the envisioned campus. The proposed residence and creativity studio will provide an alternative, innovative, and effective support option for young adults and their families. Garrett's Space also hosted its first in-person fundraising event during this time, Go4Garrett’sSpace, which had been a virtual fundraiser in 2020, 2021, and 2023. The in-person event was very successful, exceeding the fundraising goal ($140,000) by more than 60%, attracting more than 200 attendees and 46 sponsors, and assembling an online auction with more than 180 items. The second Go4Garrett’sSpace is scheduled for August 2024, and Hailey's primary responsibility will be to work on the planning for this event, including event marketing and communication stewardship of sponsors, supporting the silent auction volunteer committee, and organizing the "run of show" for event day. With Hailey’s help, Garrett’s Space hopes to fundraise for the new campus and provide important services to the local community.

Hanan Husein

Hometown: Dearborn Heights, MI
Graduation Year: 2026

Groundcover News, Implementing Digital Strategy

For the first 10 years of its existence, Groundcover News had a direct donation model. After hiring its first full-time director in 2021, the organization shifted to expanding its development program by seeking grants from local foundations and conducting small fundraising efforts with individual donors. Over the past year, Groundcover News has been focused on intentionally pursuing individual donations and plans to have its first major fundraiser in the beginning of 2024. With Hanan’s help, Groundcover News hopes to have consistent engagement with stakeholders and improve the organization’s use of digital tools to maintain these customer relationships. Another key strategy in increasing organizational income is directly increasing newspaper sales. Hanan’s role will include working on Groundcover News’ website to effectively communicate key details about the organization, including ways for potential customers to participate. Hanan’s work plan outlines goals related to expanding the organization's online presence through website development, social media strategy, and donation relationship management.

Layney Barritt

Hometown: Northville, MI
Graduation Year: 2027

Center for the Education of Women+, Strengthening Our Pipeline

Layney will be supporting the Center for the Education of Women+’s (CEW+) annual giving and stewardship efforts as well as analyzing the organization’s data to make sure its records are up to date. Over the years, CEW+ has been able to award thousands of dollars through the use of emergency funding as well as scholarships, but its records are currently lacking some of that data. The beginning of the project would include analyzing data to determine where the gaps are and filling in the information. Once the data has been cleaned up, Layney will complete smaller projects around annual giving and stewardship.

Leonard Chown

Hometown: Traverse City, MI
Graduation Year: 2026

Graham Sustainability Institute, Prospect Research

The Graham Sustainability Institute at the University of Michigan is often described as a “bridge” organization within the university, advancing sustainability policy, research, and practice through collaborative and interdisciplinary efforts. Fundraising efforts for the institute are following a similar path in leading through collaboration. As Graham moves toward a model of affinity-based fundraising, Leonard will support a project to identify major gift prospects through non-traditional avenues. This might include utilizing research and analytics, donor prospecting, and peer benchmarking. Additionally, Leonard’s project could take the next step into developing predictive indicators for likely engagement as well as potential donor communication opportunities. Leonard’s project will impact Graham tremendously by broadening and deepening its prospect pool, which will also hopefully expand the diversity of Graham’s donor base.

Lior Cooper

Hometown: Ann Arbor, MI
Graduation Year: 2026

Institute for Social Research, Data-Driven Fundraising: Building a Coalition of Donors Based on Data

As we gear up for the next campaign, the Institute for Social Research (ISR) is working to build a strong coalition of donors and provide meaningful engagement opportunities for them. In order to accomplish this, Lior needs to identify new constituents who have been touched by ISR over the years. Lior’s aim will be to learn how these different groups want to engage with ISR. Additionally, Lior will analyze giving trends for ISR donors to assist in our annual giving and major giving strategy. This will include analysis of the thematic areas they have supported, what they are passionate about, and the effectiveness of different types of solicitations over the years. As Lior identifies new and key constituents as well as trends for current donors, Lior will have the opportunity to help develop strategy on how to engage the different audiences.

Lucy Piao

Hometown: Beijing, China
Graduation Year: 2026

Michigan Medicine Development, Fundraising Case Plan Development for Cancer Programs

Lucy will focus on a project aimed at assessing and benchmarking a facilities improvement fundraising campaign for the Rogel Cancer Center (and likely University Hospital if there is time). As facilities will be a key focus of the new fundraising capital campaign, Lucy will help us build our facilities fundraising case and plan. Part of the process will entail assessing the current named spaces and understanding how they came to fruition, and identifying priority spaces for potential new naming gifts that would support the renovation and refurbishment of the space.

Maddy Ramsey

Hometown: Farmington Hills, MI
Graduation Year: 2026

International Giving and Engagement, Digital Fundraising in Support of International Student Scholarships

Maddy will be developing and begin implementing a plan for promoting regionally focused scholarships through digital channels that occasionally converge with targeted in-person events. Areas of emphasis will be funds focused on India, China, the Middle East, and South America. Regionally focused scholarship funds are a pillar of our international strategy, providing an entry (and go-to) point for giving and aligning well with the campaign’s prioritization of student support. In addition to working with internal stakeholders, Maddy will interview 30 to 40 alumni and prospects, and develop a strategic plan for promoting the scholarship funds. Maddy may also design, promote, and staff a modest event in one of the aforementioned markets. The above project aligns well with DEI goals and objectives, as it would directly lead to engaging donors in diverse communities and support students coming from diverse communities. The impact would also be significant as Maddy’s project is core to the international team's strategic planning.

Nitin Madhu

Hometown: Chennai, India
Graduation Year: 2026

Michigan Medicine Children’s and Women’s Hospital, Grateful Family Fundraising at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital

Nitin will be responsible for developing a plan to promote and create awareness around the Grateful Family Program at Mott. Nitin will be responsible for benchmarking best practices among other leading children’s hospitals and identifying the most effective ways to share information with families. Nitin will also research strategies that other hospitals use to increase Grateful Family referrals from faculty and staff, with a focus on major gifts. Once the benchmarking study is complete, Nitin will be responsible for working with colleagues across the office and Mott to implement their findings. This may include creating a “ways to get involved” flyer or pamphlet that can be shared widely across the hospital, finding ways to promote the program via TV and elevator screens, helping to update the Mott giving website with the top needs and priorities, along with other ideas that may be identified during the benchmarking process.

Noah Alvarado

Hometown: Ypsilanti, MI
Graduation Year: 2025

UM-Dearborn, Strategic Fundraising and Communications

Noah’s project involves cataloging and developing a proposal database, including evaluating current proposal writing and correlation to giving, benchmarking, uncovering best practices for development proposals, and creating storyboards for strategic funding priorities, including video adaptation for a social media presence.

Ola Ifidon-Ola

Hometown: Lagos, Nigeria
Graduation Year: 2026

Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design, Prospect Development and Campaign Planning

The Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design and the University of Michigan are in the midst of a campaign with a public launch anticipated for fall 2024. Ola will help with prospect development of our major gift pipeline and create a strategy for national engagement. We have over 14,000 prospects in the Stamps constituency. Ola will perform data analysis and research on those with the highest capacity and likelihood for major gifts by working with the Stamps Development and Alumni Relations team and Prospect Development and Analytics team. Ola will create a report that includes data analytics, short briefings for prospects, and reasoning on why the development team should focus on specific individuals. Ola will also perform research on areas with regional campaign councils to learn about specific art and design schools, programs, festivals and fairs, and other events in those areas, and propose potential engagement opportunities. Some research may include outreach to constituents in specific regions to learn more about areas of interest, such as whether an event at an art fair would be a draw. The work will culminate in a final presentation and plan of action for FY25 and beyond that aligns with the Stamps School priorities.

Rose Seidl

Hometown: Ann Arbor, MI
Graduation Year: 2025

Washtenaw Intermediate School District, Creating a Sustainable Donor Funding Model

The Washtenaw Intermediate School District, in collaboration with the Washtenaw County Government, launched a new children's savings account initiative last year called My Future Fund. This program will provide thousands of Washtenaw County students with free savings accounts for college and career training along with educational support. The Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners has provided the initial funding for the program's first four years. In order to grow the program and build a model for sustainability, Rose needs to create a donor plan for generating additional funds for students' accounts as well as program operations. Rose’s project would focus on the initial steps of developing a donor plan for My Future Fund.

Sergio Lopez

Hometown: Lincoln Park, MI
Graduation Year: 2026

Development Services and Strategic Solutions, Centralizing and Logging Constituent Information

Constituent affiliations are a critical data artifact in DART. A “constituent affiliation” or simply an “affiliation” is a way to track connections between constituents and the university. Constituent affiliations can also be used to track connections between constituents and a school, college, or unit. Currently, there is no central repository that tracks the purpose of all the affiliations in DART. The purpose and usage of each affiliation have historically been left to each unit to manage and document. Sergio will work with all units across the campus to review and document each of their constituent affiliations. The end result will be a robust constituent affiliation library with critical information regarding the affiliation definition and how it should be used. Sergio will also use the library to work with units to review constituent affiliations that are outdated or out of use, which will be deleted from DART. The benefit of this project is that it will help users navigate a critical section of DART “constituent affiliation” as it will reduce the amount of clutter that exists in DART dropdowns. In addition, this project will benefit all units as it will create a central repository of this information. When a unit experiences turnover, this business knowledge is often lost. This leads to difficulties in utilizing data in DART. Having a central location for this information that is managed in the Office of University Development will allow units to track the purpose of their affiliations more efficiently.

Tina Vũ

Hometown: Sài Gòn, Việt Nam
Graduation Year: 2026

School of Information, Volunteer to Donor Conversion/Cultivation and Engagement Toolkit

Tina will work on analyzing recent alumni data collected and create a toolkit of resources based on current engagement opportunities and needs identified by alumni. The toolkit will consolidate information about alumni engagement opportunities across the school and will help gift officers make recommendations based on alumni and donor demographic information. The toolkit will also compile resources for the school’s non-development, alumni-facing colleagues so that they can identify alumni for engagement opportunities and steward them for their volunteer work. The toolkit is part of a broader strategy for cultivating pipeline donors through alumni engagement opportunities.

Yemaya Presley

Hometown: Kalamazoo, MI
Graduation Year: 2027

Alumni Association, Alumni Recognition and Engagement Initiative

Yemaya will complete the Alumni Recognition and Engagement Initiative. Yemaya will develop a comprehensive alumni recognition program that recognizes and celebrates alumni volunteers, and includes research into how U‑M schools and colleges recognize their alumni and review and compare what alumni awards are offered by our peer institutions. Yemaya will work with the Global Engagement Team to elevate club and affiliate awards, and develop a strategy to engage alumni who are current staff and faculty. Yemaya will work with the Office of University Development and the President’s Office to create the Presidential Distinguished Alumni Award and provide administrative support to the Alumni Advocacy Project and to the development team as they prepare for the next campus-wide capital campaign. Yemaya will be supporting the Alumni Association’s student engagement activities that comprise the development of Future Alumni of Michigan (FAM) project.