Meet the cohort
Alex Villagomez
Hometown: Detroit, MI
Graduation Year: 2028
Ross School of Business, Office of Advancement
Major gift fundraising is a highly relational, strategy-driven profession, yet a significant portion of gift officers’ time is spent on administrative tasks such as meeting preparation, documentation, and drafting internal materials. As Ross Advancement manages an increasingly complex donor pipeline and portfolio, there is a growing need to explore how emerging technologies—particularly artificial intelligence—can responsibly support this work and allow gift officers to focus more fully on donor engagement and closing gifts. Alex will undertake this project to pilot the use of the U‑M GPT platform, including its Maizey functionality, to design an AI-assisted administrative agent that supports core development workflows. The business value of this work lies in improving efficiency, consistency, and scalability across tailored fundraising efforts, while also positioning Ross Advancement as a forward-looking leader in the application of AI within higher education advancement. By testing and documenting this approach, Alex will generate insights that can inform future operational decisions and broader AI integration across the school.
Amadou Diallo
Hometown: Detroit, MI
Graduation Year: 2026
OUD Stewardship & Donor Relations
The University of Michigan enjoys a long history of philanthropic giving to advance its public mission. Effective use of gifts enables investments in education, research, and programs, supports ongoing fundraising and donor relations, and is essential for the university to sustain long-term financial health. To ensure that donors’ generous gifts are put to good use toward their intended purposes, the Gift Funds Stewardship and Management Program developed a comprehensive approach for gift fund management across the university. This team is taking its next step in this approach by enhancing services and resources available on the GFSM website, https://gfsm.provost.umich.edu/. The goal of this project is to transform the current collection of resources into a robust and accessible gift fund management support hub. This hub will be utilized by faculty and staff, university-wide, to promote consistent, effective gift fund management practices and compliance with SPG602.03. Amadou will be responsible for reviewing and reorganizing current documentation, building on the current website to improve user experience and ensuring all new structures are sustainable. This project offers high business value by centralizing critical knowledge and reducing ambiguity in gift fund management policy and practice for staff across the university. Beyond the technical deliverables, Amadou will be fully integrated into the Stewardship team, gaining exposure to cross-unit collaboration within and without OUD.
Benjamin Rodgers
Hometown: Santa Barbara, CA
Graduation Year: 2026
Huron Waterloo Pathways Initiative
Benjamin will organize Huron Waterloo Pathways Initiative’s database to ensure that donors are categorized by their giving history, donation amounts, and propensity to give. Benjamin will also customize a plan of action for each of these donor categories to invoke additional support of the organization. This will help connect HWPI to larger or more impactful donations. Additionally, Benjamin will continue to grow the connection with current donors and search for new donors and sponsors for an annual event that occurs in the fall.
Brody Becker
Hometown: Holland, MI
Graduation Year: 2027
OUD Student Philanthropy
A robust student philanthropy program is vital to the fundraising pipeline development efforts at U‑M, especially during a campaign. Effective and dynamic engagement can have a dramatic impact on donor acquisition and retention as well as revenue generation, starting while constituents are on campus and extending well past graduation. Results show that alumni are three times more likely to give if they also gave as students, and 30% more likely to give if they participated in a Student Philanthropy team event. As U‑M philanthropic programming has developed, one critical component remains underdeveloped: student-led fundraising initiatives. The Student Giving Campaign Blueprint would remove a significant barrier to entry for many student organizations and SCCUs looking to begin class gift campaigns. Brody will provide a game plan, including tactics and timelines to build a student-led, peer-to-peer crowdfunding campaign that could then be shared with campus partners and student organizations alike, ultimately increasing the number of student donors to the university.
Ivan Ramirez
Hometown: Detroit, MI
Graduation Year: 2027
OUD Prospect Development and Analytics
Ivan’s project aims to develop a comprehensive fundraiser resource library leveraging core resources from the Prospect Development and Analytics team and enhanced by AI-driven features derived from NotebookLM. The goal is to create a centralized, structured, and scalable repository of training materials and resources for the entire fundraising community, addressing training and support needs from onboarding through offboarding. By consolidating existing resources and enhancing them with additional materials such as podcasts, glossaries, quizzes, and other digital content, the library will provide standardized, accessible guidance and best practices. Additionally, Ivan will set the stage for the integration of a dedicated Maizey AI instance, further expanding accessibility and personalization for users. Ultimately, this resource library will foster professional growth, streamline onboarding, and ensure continuity of knowledge within the fundraising community.
Jasmine Ramirez
Hometown: Southgate, MI
Graduation Year: 2026
Institutional Advancement (UM-Dearborn)
The UM-Dearborn D-SIP project goal is to evaluate and strengthen the organization’s gratitude communications while supporting the management of donor, prospect, and alumni information on LinkedIn. Jasmine will audit and analyze the current thank-you messages across email, mail, video, and social media channels; develop a comprehensive catalog of formats and tones; and recommend improvements to deliver more personalized, impactful outreach. Additionally, Jasmine will search LinkedIn profiles for key stakeholders to ensure accuracy and visibility in DART and create a checklist for ongoing maintenance. This project aims to enhance the consistency and quality of gratitude messaging and to optimize network connections.
Jeniya Coleman
Hometown: Detroit, MI
Graduation Year: 2028
OUD Fundraising and Strategic Alignment & Student Access and Opportunity
The Access and Opportunity team is newly formed at the university, but the programs it stewards are long-standing and deeply transformational: Wolverine Pathways, the Center for Educational Outreach, and the Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives. These programs continue to adhere to the ethos that access is a promise, not a privilege, and opportunity requires infrastructure (e.g., counseling, tutoring services, and more). As the Student Access and Opportunity fundraising team continues to increase fundraising performance, U‑M must also expand its digital fundraising footprint, especially around university-wide giving events where attention is scarce and competition is intense. Jeniya will play a critical role in researching, analyzing, and recommending digital fundraising practices that help A&O stand out while staying true to its mission. The primary focus is to determine how U‑M’s A&O portfolio can design digital fundraising strategies—especially for giving days—that both resonate in a polarized landscape and bring back the fun, joy, and relevance that inspire new donors and volunteers to engage. Jeniya will research best-in-class digital fundraising tactics (both inside and outside higher education) with a particular focus on Giving Blueday and comparable giving day campaigns nationwide. This project will provide recommendations around how to frame the work so it is deeply compelling, and how to infuse digital fundraising with creativity, delight, and culturally relevant moments that invite new donors to engage.
Jessica Wiley
Hometown: Detroit, MI
Graduation Year: 2028
Michigan Medicine Dev Campaign: Children’s & Women’s Health
Philanthropy in women’s health plays a vital role in addressing disparities and advancing research, education, and access to care for women globally. Philanthropic dollars have driven breakthroughs in predicting preterm birth, in-utero surgical innovations, reproductive cancers, global women’s health, and other conditions disproportionately affecting women. By focusing efforts on women’s health, donors can help close funding gaps and create a healthier future for all women. The Women’s Health Donor Engagement Project aims to leverage increasing momentum and philanthropic interest in women’s health at Michigan Medicine to elevate donor engagement, fundraising impact, and return on investment of various events and programs. Jessica will explore and implement innovative stewardship and engagement strategies for women’s health donors, benchmark best practices among peer institutions, develop targeted communication recommendations, and create a year-long plan that can be executed.
Julia Pougnet-Green
Hometown: Denver, CO
Graduation Year: 2028
Michigan Athletics
Julia’s goal is to demonstrate the proof of concept that Michigan Athletics can inspire a segment of its annual giving donors (with yearly cumulative giving from $5K to $9,999) to increase to mid-level giving donors ($25K to $50K+) with the incremental development resources, the right message, and household targets.
Kam’ryn Crosby-Goodlow
Hometown: Detroit, MI
Graduation Year: 2028
LSA Advancement
This project will provide Kam'ryn with a comprehensive, hands-on introduction to major gift fundraising, with a primary focus on donor discovery in the state of Michigan. Kam’ryn will have the opportunity to shadow a major gift officer across all stages of the donor lifecycle: discovery, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship. Additionally, Kam’ryn will gain firsthand exposure to frontline advancement work and relationship-based fundraising. A core component of this project is data-informed donor discovery. Kam’ryn will learn how to leverage internal advancement data and external tools, such as LinkedIn, to identify prospective donors, assess giving capacity and affinity, and craft personalized outreach strategies. With guidance from the MGO and Advancement Business Solutions, Kam’ryn will design customized discovery approaches, ranging from targeted emails to conversation starters, grounded in both data insights and fundraising best practices.
Kaixi Ren (Kay-cee)
Hometown: Chicago, IL
Graduation Year: 2027
Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design
Stamps and the University of Michigan are in the midst of a campaign that launched in fall 2024. Kaixi will help increase the broad-based pipeline efforts that include giving days: Giving Tuesday and Giving Blueday. Each year, initiatives are identified to solicit support and build strategic plans to ensure we meet our targeted goal. This position would help lead this effort from start to finish in soliciting ideas, pulling and analyzing data, and creating a marketing plan to include email, social, web presence, and events. Kaixi will also help create assets needed for the digital space and events. The work will culminate in a final presentation and plan of action for FY27 and beyond that aligns with the Stamps School priorities.
Landon Nguyen
Hometown: Fenton, MI
Graduation Year: 2028
LSA Advancement: Stewardship
Landon will lead the creation of LSA’s inaugural Annual Impact Report, a new digital-first publication designed to communicate the collective impact of donor support across the college. Currently, LSA produces individualized impact reports for select donors. Landon will address a critical gap by establishing a scalable, college-wide stewardship tool that reaches approximately 10,000 donors annually across nearly 5,000 funds, with a focus on campaign priorities. The Annual Impact Report will serve as LSA’s first broad impact communication vehicle, housed in the Mythos impact reporting platform. Landon will research and benchmark peer institutions’ annual impact reporting models, develop a content framework aligned with LSA priorities, and synthesize qualitative stories and quantitative data into a cohesive narrative. The project will culminate in a functional digital prototype organized by donor interest area, ensuring that every donor can see a clear connection between their philanthropy and student and faculty success. This project delivers significant business value by creating a repeatable framework for large-scale donor communication, increasing stewardship reach without a proportional increase in staff capacity, and strengthening LSA’s ability to articulate impact during and beyond the campaign. The work combines research, analysis, writing, and digital storytelling, and will directly inform future stewardship strategy and implementation.
Margaux Kotcher
Hometown: Birmingham, MI
Graduation Year: 2029
Michigan Medicine Dev: Medical Education
This project will allow Michigan Medicine to provide an improved stewardship experience for its scholarship supporters and their families, with the additional goal of creating opportunities to further engage donors interested in student support. Margaux will gain valuable insight into development operations through this stewardship project by working collaboratively with gift officers and alumni relations professionals who will be executing on their project. Margaux will be working with a diverse set of development colleagues and gaining experience in multiple areas beneficial to their professional growth.
Min Aung
Hometown: Akron, OH
Graduation Year: 2029
School of Information
UMSI is seeking to develop a robust alumni relations strategy specifically for two distinct populations: the Bachelor of Science in Information and the online Master of Applied Data Science programs. BSI alumni are a young, rapidly growing group, with many just starting their careers and a short program history (dating back to 2016), making it harder to tap into established traditions or deep school ties. In contrast, MADS graduates come from a fully online, global program and may not feel the same connection to campus life as residential students, creating obstacles in building affinity and community. Min will conduct benchmarking research on best practices in alumni engagement, survey and interview graduates from both programs, analyze data, and assess current communication channels and engagement opportunities. Leveraging these insights, Min will formulate recommendations and actionable initiatives to foster stronger connections among BSI and MADS alumni, create pathways for volunteer opportunities, mentorship, and professional networking, and increase participation in UMSI events. Strengthening connections with these demographic groups creates sustainable pathways for volunteerism, mentorship, professional networking, philanthropy, and building the donor pipeline. By addressing the unique needs of these groups, UMSI can increase affinity with the school and foster a more engaged, lifelong donor and advocate base.
Nicholas Samowitz (Nick)
Hometown: New York, NY
Graduation Year: 2028
Bentley Historical Library
The Bentley Historical Library has a dedicated base of approximately 100 loyal annual giving donors who contribute between $25 and $5,000 annually. While these supporters demonstrate consistent generosity, many have historically been under-engaged beyond annual solicitations. As the Bentley works to strengthen its fundraising program and build a more sustainable donor pipeline, there is a need to better understand donor behavior, motivations, and engagement pathways—and to translate those insights into practical, capacity-appropriate strategies. Nicholas will leverage data analysis, benchmarking, and strategic planning to assess the Bentley's current annual giving pipeline and identify opportunities to improve donor experience, retention, and long-term loyalty. Nicholas will spend the initial phase of the project becoming familiar with the Bentley’s mission, collections, and fundraising context, including an immersive introduction to fundraising in a small, grassroots-like environment. The second phase will be focused on improving donor retention, strengthening stewardship practices, and helping the Bentley deploy its development resources more effectively.
Riya Narasimhan
Hometown: Baltimore, MD
Graduation Year: 2029
OUD Annual Giving
On average, student tuition only covers 70% of a university’s operating costs. The University of Michigan is not an exception to this, and relies heavily on their donors to help make up the difference. In order to ensure that U‑M has a donor pool that continues to be passionate about supporting our schools, teams, projects, and programs, the knowledge of this fact must be conveyed to our student body. The Digital Fundraising and Student Philanthropy teams work closely together to improve the culture of philanthropy at U‑M. It will be Riya’s priority to research a number of potential student philanthropy projects, weigh the impact versus the effort of each, and define a single program that they will build from the ground up.
Sahij Jarria
Hometown: Stevensville, MI
Graduation Year: 2028
OUD Integrated Data Services
Sahil will develop a unit profile Tableau report that would showcase a variety of data for a fundraising unit based on their defined constituency population. The profile would include an overview of demographic, education, giving, prospect, and other engagement data, giving Sahij exposure to a variety of types of data created and used in development. The full report is anticipated to be 10-15 pages or tabs, though Sahij may initially begin with a “mini” version that would showcase the most important data elements as an introductory overview. This report would be shared with units through an IDS team member, creating a connection opportunity for the unit with the IDS team, and it will serve as a useful framework for initiating strategic conversations.
Tyler Nguyen
Graduation Year: 2026
Avalon Housing
Tyler will contribute to Avalon Housing’s development and community engagement initiatives with a focus on donor cultivation and relationship building. Responsibilities will include supporting friendraising strategies, coordinating house party events, assisting in outreach efforts to engage a younger demographic, and scheduling introductory meetings with prospective supporters identified through a curated outreach list. This internship will provide valuable experience in nonprofit development, stakeholder engagement, and strategic communications while advancing Avalon Housing’s mission to provide supportive, affordable housing in Washtenaw County.
Zachary Mitcham
Hometown: Ypsilanti, MI
Graduation Year: 2029
Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation
This internship project combines critical initiatives designed to strengthen donor engagement and operational excellence within the Philanthropy team. Zachary will develop external-ready profiles for former trustees who have attended our events over the past two years. These individuals represent some of our most committed supporters. Each profile will include background information, giving history, and photographs, sourced from our database and online research. This work will create a reliable donor profile system to support event planning and relationship building, ensuring staff and board members have the insights needed for meaningful engagement. By laying the groundwork for future events and communications, this component deepens donor relationships and supports personalized stewardship strategies—key drivers of donor cultivation, retention, and long-term philanthropic engagement. Zachary will also create a comprehensive process manual for the Philanthropy department. This manual will document standard operating procedures and best practices to ensure continuity, efficiency, and consistency across all donor interactions. As the organization enters a phase of significant growth, this resource will help the team operate at a high level, respond effectively to community needs, and maintain the high-touch experience donors expect. By codifying processes, the manual will serve as a foundation for training, onboarding, and quality assurance, supporting sustainable growth and operational excellence. Together, these projects strengthen donor relationships and improve internal systems.
Zatavia Wilson
Hometown: Detroit, MI
Graduation Year: 2028
Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum
This project aims to enhance MBGNA’s stewardship processes. While the current stewardship practices are sufficient, it would benefit greatly from increased organization of standard practices, innovation regarding membership benefits, and a streamlined stewardship process specific to donors who fund summer interns. Zatavia’s core deliverables will be instrumental in achieving this goal, requiring the adept leveraging of current processes and previous benchmarking research to analyze and recommend concrete next steps. The aim is to produce deliverables that can streamline general and specific stewardship projects, which will increase efficiency on the part of the Dev team and increase member and donor retention. Operating within a hybrid, but generally in-person environment, Zatavia will benefit from a supportive learning environment, gaining proficiency in stewardship strategies, communication, and event planning. This unique opportunity positions Zatavia to improve stewardship and therefore fundraising efforts of an organization committed to being a transformative force for social and ecological resilience.
