The university’s 2007 Archway to Excellence Faculty and Staff Campaign will kick off this spring with a goal of maximum participation for all 9,550 active UGA employees and 2,400 retirees.
Mark Dawkins, an associate professor in the J. M. Tull School of Accounting, is a UGA faculty donor who said, “I give to UGA to provide financial resources to improve the university, from hiring new faculty to funding scholarship programs to improving facilities for students, staff and faculty.
“I support the J.M. Tull School of Accounting—my program—and the Archway to Excellence Campaign,” he also said. “The School of Accounting is on the verge of being ranked in the top 10 accounting programs, and I want to help make this happen.”
No gift is too small, according to Dawkins.
“Every dollar counts and makes a difference in the lives of students, staff and faculty,” he said. “I know that my contributions are being used to improve my university, for both current and future students, staff and faculty.”
Last year, faculty, staff and retirees at UGA contributed almost $3 million to the university, bolstered by more than $2 million in gifts from 612 retired UGA employees.
Current employees contributed more than $975,000. David Jones, director of annual and special giving, said 222 of the 1,354 currently-employed donors were first-time donors to the university.
Since the campaign began, faculty, staff and retirees have contributed more than $22 million toward the more than $500.7 million raised to date.
Jones said that during the faculty, staff and retirees campaign in fiscal year 2006, 14.3 percent of the currently-employed population at UGA made gifts.
The contributions from UGA faculty, staff and retirees in 2006 helped the university break the $100 million mark for private giving in a year for the first time, with total private giving to UGA reaching $108.3 million in 2006.
Faculty and staff have the unique opportunity of seeing the results of their contributions first hand and can designate their gifts to any department at UGA, Jones said.
The Archway to Excellence Campaign, which runs through 2008, has three themes: Building the New Learning Environment, Maximizing Research Opportunities and Competing in a Global Economy.
