Announcing: The CIS Microgrant, Major Impact Challenge

For my first time ever, I have been involved with the planning and support of a fundraising campaign. Over the past couple months, we have been working with RIT Development to develop a campaign the raise money for the CIS Microgrants program. In the past, microgrants were funded mostly by donations from Kodak. For obvious reasons (unless you have really been living under a rock), that funding has since run out; so in order to continue fostering cutting edge research performed by students, CIS has had to look for other sources of funding. Towards that end, we have developed an internal campaign whose main goal is to maximize faculty and staff participation: so long as 50% of faculty and staff donate some amount, Stefi will match all raised funds, up to $5,000. The hope is that by challenging Stefi to pony up some cash out of her own pocket, more faculty/staff will want to participate. We also hope that students will participate, too. Then, later on, we will take the campaign out to external collaborators and alumni - but it is imperative that we first demonstrate how committed we are to our own cause (hence why it is starting out as an internal campaign).

I mentioned last week that the Fall Picnic was supposed to include the kickoff for the campaign, but unfortunately that momentum got a bit muddled because of the fast-approaching ROAR day at RIT. Our hope is to have as many people as possible donate to the microgrant fund on ROAR day, since their impact can potentially be tripled. For any amount donated between $5 and $50, RIT upper administration will match it; and then if we get the 50% faculty/staff participation, Stefi will match donations as well. Hopefully we can get a lot of people participating on Thursday so that things will snowball!

To help promote both the Challenge and ROAR Day, I made up a quick poster detailing the challenge:

I know it's wordy (just like this blog post...), but there wasn't really any way to explain it in fewer words. This campaign is also the reason I teased a while ago about why I was asked to update the microgrants webpage. 

Anyways, that's the main gist of the Challenge. I'll be honest, I'm not sure what to expect. Some people expect it to do very well, while some people don't expect it will go successfully at all. I have witnessed a lot of mixed reactions... It is very difficult to ask people to give during a time when so many of us feel stretched so thin already. I certainly hope that the campaign goes well, not because of my involvement or the hard work I've had to put into it, but because I don't want to see the microgrants program suffer. We have been lucky to be able to offer such a special program for our students, and I would hate to see it be diminished in any capacity; there already wasn't enough funding to award every great idea that was submitted, and it would be a shame for the program to have even fewer resources. At the same time, I feel incredibly awkward working on the campaign and trying to encourage my fellow staff and faculty to participate... I am more than happy and proud to sing the praises of CIS and encourage students to come here and alumni to reconnect, but soliciting donations is definitely outside of my comfort zone. I also hope that this doesn't damage all the work I've done over the past 4 years trying to convince alumni that I am only asking for connections and involvement, not money. Thankfully I haven't been asked to put the "hard sell" on anyone, but I can't help but feel nervous about how my involvement might reflect on my position and the promises I have made. At least my work has essentially been behind-the-scenes, and really, it's not like this is some kind of dirty work - we are trying to do something very positive here! But you never know how some people might react. I guess all I can do is keep thinking positively, do my part, and ROAR loudly on Thursday...