Meet the Cohort
Bolu (Boluwatife) Kolawole
Graduation Year: 2025
UM-Dearborn Institutional Advancement, Major Giving
Bolu will work to provide a streamlined list of funding and research opportunities, including all aspects of campus, the student community, and donor interests. The result will be to assist fundraisers with developing strategic lists of funding opportunities to develop engaging proposals for donors. Bolu will also include a writing component to update donor intent statements and create appealing description paragraphs.
Diego Viramontes Vargas
Hometown: Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico
Graduation Year: 2025
OUD Chief Operating Officer and Chief of Staff, Research and Benchmarking
Diego will research advisory groups within higher education and development to benchmark the function and structure of the President's Advisory Group, and recommend a format, communications structure, membership term process, and expectations for members—using best practices of peer institutions.
Dru Haney
Hometown: Rochester Hills, MI
Graduation Year: 2026
Michigan Medicine Events, Fundraising and Development Events
The Michigan Medicine events team proposes a project to help streamline and rightsize development fundraising events. To do this, Dru will benchmark against other top nonprofit medical institutions and large nonprofits regarding corporate sponsorship benefits, event programming, and post-event donor stewardship and follow-up. Dru will establish a reference point and provide recommendations for strategies to enhance future events.
Ethan Oly
Hometown: Middleville, MI
Graduation Year: 2025
OUD People & Culture, D-SIP Fundraising
Ethan will work with both Annual Giving and the Prospect Development and Analytics team to develop a lead annual giving and an annual giving fundraising strategy for D-SIP. Ethan will need to identify top prospects and identify innovative annual giving strategies possible to solicit D-SIP alumni for annual giving gifts.
Jesse Chang
Hometown: Troy, MI
Graduation Year: 2028
Washtenaw Camp Placement, Building Capacity to Transform Lives Through Camp
Jesse will be partnering with Washtenaw Camp Placement to develop data-driven engagement strategies to engage with and retain current and potential donors. With the Bloomerang donor database having only just been established, WCP needs to develop a deeper understanding of its donors, what connects them to WCP, and what connects them to each other. The project would consist of completing a current donor assessment, differentiating donors within the database, and partnering with WCP to create a plan to engage with different donors in multiple ways to develop the most positive relationship possible between WCP and its supporters.
Joseph He
Hometown: Midland, MI
Graduation Year: 2028
School of Kinesiology, Building a Data-Driven Engagement Pipeline
Joseph will dive into student philanthropy, analyze past student philanthropy programming, identify areas of shortcomings, and work together with the manager of Annual Giving to create a strategic plan to bolster the student philanthropy culture at Kinesiology. Joseph will complete benchmarking across SCUs and other universities for crowdfunding opportunities like Giving Blueday and Giving Tuesday. Kinesiology wants to increase alumni participation, gain first-time donors, and maximize fundraising potential on crowdfunding days while providing a meaningful donor experience. Honing crowdfunding strategies will provide a strong impact to Kinesiology, and building a diverse, representative pipeline of alumni donors is integral to continued success in fundraising.
Kait Bimer
Hometown: Whitmore Lake, MI
Graduation Year: 2027
Michigan Public, Circles of Giving
Michigan Public will give creative control to Kait to design and implement a tiered giving recognition plan, including levels and benefits for both one-time and lifetime giving achievements. Kait will also be tasked with creating a planned giving stewardship program, including the celebration of new planned gifts, a process for celebrating planned gift anniversaries, and creating a memento program for planned gifts. Kait would be responsible for all aspects of the plans, including marketing the plans once developed and approved.
Kevin Zhang
Hometown: Ann Arbor, MI
Graduation Year: 2027
School of Information, Lead Annual Giving Year Two Strategy
Kevin will help the School of Information prepare for year two of LAG work, which will include a variety of projects based on the intern’s skill sets and interests. Projects include producing deliverables such as a “thank you” video or a Giving Tuesday print ask, pulling and studying data, and survey creation. Kevin’s efforts will help SI cultivate deeper relationships with LAG level donors, provide an opportunity to retain and upgrade donors to a higher level, and strengthen our team’s strategy for engaging with this population of donors.
Lia Du
Hometown: Northville, MI
Graduation Year: 2026
OUD Donor Digital Engagement and U‑M Annual Giving, Donor and Alumni Engagement
Lia will begin by benchmarking digital engagement strategies from peer institutions and supporter-based organizations, analyzing their methods for fostering alumni and donor relationships. Following this research, Lia will conduct an internal audit of available resources, such as event calendars, archived content, and existing donor programs. This will also include an assessment of the resources for their inclusivity, identifying any gaps in reaching underrepresented groups. Based on these findings, Lia will develop a comprehensive plan to implement effective engagement tactics tailored to alumni, with the ultimate goal of cultivating long-term donor relationships and increasing alumni support.
Maria Eduarda Clemente
Hometown: Randolph, NJ
Graduation Year: 2026
Zero Waste, Zero Plastic Week Challenge
Twenty-two million pounds of plastic flow into the Great Lakes every year, with half of that entering Lake Michigan alone. To combat this issue, Zero Waste is launching its very first Zero Plastic Week Challenge in collaboration with the City of Ann Arbor and community groups in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Zero Waste’s plastics program will require fundraising and grant support for it to be sustainable beyond the pilot week challenge and to create long-term programming for years to come. Maria will help fortify the plastics program by creating a web page, a data visualization tool around plastics, and social media assets. In addition to these deliverables, which will be used to attract large donors and grants, Maria will support Zero Waste’s work by applying for grants to keep this program sustainable in the future. This project will overlap with the Zero Plastic Week Challenge in June, which will give the intern a chance to integrate fundraising efforts into in-person community events.
Nazneen Masood
Hometown: Canton, MI
Graduation Year: 2026
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southeast Michigan, Alumni Project
Nazneen will support the development of the Alumni Big Giving Plan/Strategy. BBBSSEM would provide instruction and resources in basic fundraising development and offer guidance through mentoring and providing examples of fundraising best practices and alumni development, cultivation, and stewardship. BBBSSEM staff will support learning about major gifts programs and how to incorporate relevant tools to create the Alumni Big Giving Plan/Strategy. BBBSSEM will also provide support in learning about segmented and targeted marketing and communications.
Patty Fan
Hometown: China
Graduation Year: 2025
Institute for Social Research, Strategic Donor Engagement, Identifying Donor Insights to Enhance Outreach
As ISR gears up for the next campaign, it’s working to build a strong coalition of donors and provide meaningful engagement opportunities for them. In order to accomplish this, ISR needs to identify new constituents who have been touched by the institute over the years. As ISR identifies new and key constituents, Patty will have the opportunity to help develop strategy on how to engage these constituents and create meaningful engagement opportunities for them.
Rose Nada Johnson
Hometown: Grosse Pointe, MI
Graduation Year: 2026
LSA Advancement, The Major Gift Officer Experience and Faculty & Staff Philanthropy
Rose will shadow a major gift officer in meetings with local Washtenaw County alumni and friends, with a focus on faculty and staff donors. Rose’s primary project will focus on a faculty and staff audience, developing strategies for prospect discovery and stewardship. Rose will research best practices on how other colleges, schools, and units on campus and peer institutions across the nation engage faculty and staff in philanthropy. Rose will provide a framework for LSA to make a difference in the Look to Michigan campaign and in the future by engaging our faculty and staff community in meaningful philanthropy—a space LSA has not devoted robust resources or focus to in the past.
Sadia Haidari
Hometown: Chicago, IL
Graduation Year: 2026
Legacy Land Conservancy, Inspiring Low-dollar and Underrepresented Giving
Sadia’s project incorporates the principles and techniques of fundraising through the lens of lower-dollar, new, and underrepresented donors, which we know are the foundation any development program is built upon. Trust, relationship building, and engagement are the keys to growing any donor base and this project will help deepen and spark those relationships within the community.
Sydney Shimabukuro
Hometown: Mountain View, CA
Graduation Year: 2026
Alumni Association of the University of Michigan, Campus Partnership Tracking and Alumni Engagement Projects
Sydney will work on three campus engagement projects designed to support organizational efforts on inclusion and belonging. Sydney will help roll out the alumni recognition project with the creation of new alumni awards and plan outreach and recognition events during the FY26 academic year. The secondary project will be the development of the Future Alumni of Michigan student ambassador group, which will serve as an advisory group to the Office of the President. Tasks will include: benchmarking research on student advisory groups at Big Ten institutions and writing a project implementation plan; a website redesign project; and assisting University Relations and marketing teams in laying out the new “Alumni Awards” section of the AAUM website, including updating the “Notable Alumni” digital wall.
Tina Chen
Hometown: West Hartford, CT
Graduation Year: 2026
Ann Arbor Art Center, Optimizing Fundraising Success and Benchmarking, Strategic Planning, & Auction Preparation
Tina will assist in planning and executing fundraising efforts for the 2025 A2AC Gala, one of the center’s major annual fundraising events. Tina will gain hands-on experience in event planning, donor outreach, corporate sponsorship solicitation, and stewardship activities. Throughout the summer, Tina will also support donor communications, help manage event logistics, and assist with the coordination of silent auction items, sponsorship benefits, and post-event donor follow-up. This project will offer a comprehensive introduction to nonprofit fundraising and development.
Yanshun (Julia) Zhang
Graduation Year: 2026
LSA Business Intelligence, Data Clarity, Streamlining Data Organization and Documentation
Julia will be involved in supporting the systematic cleanup of LSA-specific data, focusing on business object reports. Julia will organize and streamline data to meet operational needs by identifying unused data, cataloging reports, creating data dictionaries, and documenting processes. This experience will help Julia gain organizational skills and familiarity with development data within Michigan Development, as well as learn overall development knowledge and goals. By enhancing the cleanliness and organization of our data, the project will improve the efficiency of the LSA Advancement Business Intelligence team, facilitating better data accessibility to provide to colleagues involved in fundraising and contributing to more effective strategies.
