Newman Fund sets new fundraising record for student scholarships
by Matthew Clark
The Newman Fund had record-breaking success during the 2019-2020 academic year, thanks to the efforts of University Advancement and support from the community and friends of the university.
Beth Fatkin, Newman’s senior development officer, explained how the team surpassed its fundraising goal.
“We had set the goal for the Newman Fund at $900,000, and by the end of our fiscal year, we raised approximately $908,000,” said Fatkin. “There was a great deal of work done by the Newman Advancement team, Interim President Teresa Hall Bartels, our Board of Trustees members — everyone pitched in to make sure we met that goal.”
She was astonished by everyone’s hard work, commending the efforts of her colleagues on multiple occasions.
“It took a village, and everybody rose to the challenge and we met that goal in spite of COVID-19.”
The Newman Fund provides institutional scholarships based on merit and need. An astonishing 99% of Newman full-time students directly benefit from scholarship support.
The record-breaking success of this past fiscal year has inspired the team to aim for a higher goal.
“This year, we have raised our goal to one million dollars, and we are currently a little behind where we were last year. We normally have our Party on the Plaza, which is our biggest fundraiser of the year, and because of COVID, we had to postpone that.”
Luckily, to make up for some of the losses of postponing Party on the Plaza, the team came up with an impressive raffle that gained plenty of traction around and outside of campus.
“(Board Chair) J. T. Klaus came up with a fantastic idea and worked with Les Eck, (who) donated a 2020 Ford Mustang for us to raffle off, and all of the money raised from the raffle has gone to the Newman Fund for student scholarships in a hope to replace the lost revenue from Party on the Plaza.”
Overall, Fatkin is pleased with the recent fundraising efforts and the support from staff, students and the community alike.
“We have a lot of work to do, but the board and Predident (Kathleen) Jagger are working very hard to raise money for the students.”