Colleagues,

It is with mixed emotions that I announce the resignation of Maribeth Spittler from the University of Notre Dame effective Friday, May 14, 2021. Maribeth has decided to retire to enjoy time with family, friends, and life! Maribeth has been an integral part of Notre Dame Development for the past twelve years. Her contributions, hard work, commitment, dedication, and grace are worthy of admiration. Maribeth will be greatly missed by all. Filling her shoes will be an almost impossible task. Maribeth is a friend, and I wish her all the luck in the future. Please join me in wishing Maribeth well in this next chapter of her life!

God Bless and Go Irish!

Anita Sareen

Please join me in welcoming some new team members to the Annual Giving team:

Indi Jackson will join the team on Thursday, May 13th as an Associate Director, Leadership Annual Giving on the Sorin Society team. Indi is a 2017 Notre Dame alumna and former Notre Dame student-athlete who joins us from the Fighting Irish Media team where she served as an associate producer. Her passion for storytelling is not only contagious, but will serve her well in her new fundraising role.

Abigail (Abbie) Spica will join the team on Monday, May 17 as the new Associate Director, Law and Graduate Business Annual Giving. Abbie is a 2017 graduate of St. Mary’s College and has worked in sales and recruitment since graduating, most recently with Northwestern Mutual. She and her fiancée will be relocating to South Bend from Grand Rapids in the coming months.

Kasey O’Connor will make a return to the Annual Giving team on Tuesday, June 1 as the new Director of Academic and Athletic Annual Giving. In this role, Kasey will oversee a team charged with raising unrestricted funds for the Law School, Mendoza, and Notre Dame Athletics, as well as the stewardship and engagement strategy for the Badin Guild, Order of St. Thomas More, O’Hara Society, and Rockne Athletics Fund. Kasey will have a particular focus on growing the revenue from and experience for the $25k and $50k levels of these societies, and will co-lead Friends of Ted and Ned with Mary Jane Anon. Kasey has served in numerous roles in both Athletics and Development, including on the Annual Giving team as a leadership annual gift officer from 2018-2019. Most recently, she served as a Regional Director on the Southwest Team.

I’d also like to congratulate the following colleagues in Annual Giving who have been promoted to new roles:

Brandon Tabor will now serve as Director, Annual Giving Programs and Operations. In this capacity, he will oversee 2 teams charged with the execution of all mass communications and solicitations, as well as a focus on growing both total donors and undergraduate alumni participation. Brandon has been a leader on the Annual Giving team for 3 years after several years on the Storytelling and Engagement team. I am thrilled for him to expand his leadership in this way.

Katie Kerby will serve as the Senior Associate Director, Annual Giving Programs. Katie and her team are charged with the growth of all programmatic efforts of annual giving outside of the giving societies, including the Notre Dame Fund, ND Loyal, Notre Dame Day, ND Listens, For Good, and Senior Legacy. Katie, a former UR intern, has served as the manager of ND Listens since 2019 where she helped shape an incredible culture that empowers students and has become one of the top student employers on campus. Additionally, Katie has been a key player in engaging students in creative ways to generate a pipeline of future undergraduate alumni donors to Notre Dame.

Lauren Dolzan will serve as the Senior Associate Director, Marketing Operations. Lauren’s team oversees the development and execution of engagement, cultivation, and stewardship vehicles including email, mail, and digital. This team also plays a critical role in the execution of Notre Dame Day, The Fight, and other crowdfunding campaigns. Lauren has served as Annual Giving’s Project Manager since 2018 where she has invented and implemented processes that guide the execution of all Annual Giving campaigns and solicitations. Additionally, Lauren has helped to oversee the vision, creation, launch, and maintenance of For Good, our new monthly giving program at Notre Dame.

Please refer to the UR Pingboard as these changes become effective for an overview of the new annual giving team structure, and let myself or any of the leaders on the team know if you have any questions. We look forward to collaborating with all of you as we close FY21 and look to FY22. -Brian Diss

Blood Drives Are Essential and So Are You!

The Foundry Apartments is hosting a blood drive on May 12, 2021, 10:30- 4:30 pm, so tell your friends! Anyone who donates will receive a $5.00 Starbucks gift card & a $5.00 Amazon gift card.

Click Here to Sign Up!

As we look forward to more opportunities for in-person collaboration, we want to remind everyone of the campus health & safety protocols that remain in place for the time being.

• Wear a mask 
  • Masks must be worn indoors at all times, except when alone in a private office.
  • Masks are not required outdoors, except during University programming.
  • Carry a mask at all times and be ready to wear it should it become necessary.
  • If you see a colleague without a mask or with a mask pulled down,  we encourage everyone to help by reminding each other of the protocols.
• Physical distancing – 6 feet social distancing is still required when meeting in person.
• Wash your hands
• Use the spray disinfectant 
  • Spray disinfectant is provided in the conference rooms. 
  • It is highly recommended to wipe down the surfaces before and after use of conference rooms. 

 

The UR protocol guidelines are currently being updated and we expect to be able to share the updated document within the next week but there is one protocol being lifted as of today:

• Conference room usage is no longer restricted to only two (2) meetings per day per room.  We will allow for multiple meetings per day in the same room.  
• Rooms should be reserved using the specific room’s Google calendar and availability will be on a first-come, first-serve basis,
• It is incumbent on everyone to disinfect the area (table, chairs, etc)  when you arrive and before you leave the room.  For the health and safety of all, do not assume the room has been disinfected.  

 

We also encourage you to upload your vaccination documentation, as updated and complete information is one of the factors that the University uses to determine health and safety protocol updates.  You can find more on the HERE site.

 

With the warmer spring weather on the way, we are all experiencing fatigue but we are all in this together and together we can make a difference and hopefully forward look at even more restrictions being lessened soon

Come join your fellow colleagues as we get our hands dirty at the Unity Gardens of South Bend. We will plan to meet at the Welcome Center located at 3701 Prast Blvd on Tuesday, May 11th at 9AM and will do a variety of projects until noon. Tools, sunscreen, gloves, and water will be provided but feel free to bring your own if you prefer. If interested, please sign up here.

Happy Birthday to all our colleagues celebrating their special days in May! We hope your year is filled with new experiences and fun!

5/1 – Ashley Baranowski
5/4 – Tashana Kenny
5/6 – Erin Thornton
5/7 – Grace Prosniewski
5/9 – Gavin McGuire
5/11 – Amy Walter
5/14 – Josh Flynt
5/15 – Kathryn Valenti
5/15 – Mary Flynt
5/18 – Ron Linczer
5/19 – Alison Dixon
5/19 – Lori Rush
5/21 – Kiran Mistry
5/22 – Andy Mason
5/22 – Stephanie Washington
5/23 – Annie Geary
5/24 – Kevin McMannis
5/26 – Kate Mueller
5/31 – Jennifer Powell

The City of South Bend will be closing Eddy Street from Angela to Napoleon on Tuesday, May 4^th from 6:30am-10:30am for drainage cleaning. Please know there will be no overnight parking per the city of South Bend on Monday night. The parking garage will be accessible from the Burns and Napoleon entrances during this time.

I am excited to announce that Vahid Sadrzadeh has joined the NY Metro team as a regional director, working with benefactors in New York.

Since 2016, Vahid has worked as an award-winning anchor, reporter and storyteller at ABC57 in South Bend. He is proud to call Notre Dame home and feels called to serve this mission. Vahid is married to University Relations’ own Heather Sadrzadeh of the Alumni Association. Fun facts: Vahid is an Ironman triathlete and a four-time marathon finisher!

Please join me in welcoming Vahid to the UR team.

Thank you,
Ryan

I am excited to announce that Nadia Erickson has joined the Southwest team as regional director, working with benefactors in Southern California. She starts on Monday, May 3rd.

Nadia joins us from a long career in athletics. She previously served as the DePaul University Head Coach for Women’s Volleyball for seven years and spent the last four years focusing on helping student-athletics and their families navigate the recruiting process for intercollegiate athletics.

Nadia graduated from Penn State in 2001 with a degree in Business Marketing and received her Master’s in Sports Administration from Northwestern University in 2019. While at Penn State, Nadia played volleyball and won a National Championship.

I am thrilled to welcome Nadia to the Notre Dame family and the Southwest team. Please join me in welcoming her to the UR team!

Best,

Shelby

Have you heard the news?…..We’re moving to asceND.

 

What is asceND?….It’s the most comprehensive advancement and constituent engagement solution in higher ed. 

 

Why are we asceNDing?…click on the image to learn why.

 

 

 

 

We’re very excited about this opportunity to implement a system that:

1. Modernizes the user experience
2. Provides an integrated solution to help break down data silos
3. Drives fundraising productivity
4. Builds personal engagements
5. Streamlines operations to maximize efficiency and effectiveness
6. Has the ability to be agile in supporting changing business needs
7. Provides a roadmap of future direction for continued growth

 

What will asceND do?

asceND will have the processes Advance Web, crmND, BEAT, and various reporting tools have and replace them. There will also be integrations with Tableau and other tools we are using to create a more seamless experience.

Look for project updates to appear in the weekly souNDoff newsletter, Tech Talk Live and Zoom product demonstrations. 

If you have any questions feel free to reach out to any asceNDers team member.