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At second ‘Notes from the Nest’ gratitude event, new digitized system makes it even easier for students to thank donors
Editor’s note: Hey, UND Today readers! We’d like to introduce you to our new reporting interns. We’re happy to have on staff Vanessa Washington of Marietta, Ga., Madi Dame of Rapid City, S.D., and Elizabeth Bylander of Maiden Rock, Wis. They’re hard at work already and, in fact, Washington and Dame contributed to this report. Watch for their own bylines coming soon. For now, happy reading!
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Psst . . . UND students don’t say a word when they can say 460,000 words of gratitude instead!!
That’s the message that came across loud and clear in the second Notes from the Nest gratitude event hosted Oct. 14-15 by the UND Alumni Association & Foundation — along with the support of more than 70 other campus volunteers.
“We’ve always said we have the best students around, and this is just one more way they’ve shown it,” said Janelle Kilgore, UND’s vice provost for Strategic Enrollment Management.
Gesturing to the crowd of enthusiastic students taking part in the giant thank-you event in the Memorial Union, Kilgore added: “We always tell our incoming freshmen this is what it’s like to be a University of North Dakota student.
“We have incredibly generous donors and awesome students at UND. This event shows how hard our students work and how important it is to give thanks.”
Jenn Lukens, director of Stewardship & Donor Appreciation for the Alumni Association & Foundation, said 2,714 students showed up in person to pen nearly 4,000 personal thank-you letters to their scholarship sponsors.
The tally for additional emailed notes — written by long-distance learners and others unable to make it to campus for the two-day event — was 600 (and counting) as of Wednesday.
“Our pilot year was such a huge success, so we knew — well, we hoped — it was going to be even bigger,” Lukens said. “But we never could have imagined it turning out this great. We’ve been absolutely blown away by the eagerness and gratitude of UND students.”
About 70% of invited scholarship recipients participated either in person or via email, Lukens said. That’s up 11% over last year — and the notes are still rolling in.
And Lukens said the students have been just as quick to thank the organizers for arranging the event.
One of the reasons they believe it’s becoming so popular is because it allows the students to come to one place at one time, whereas in the past, students with multiple scholarships often had to go to different departments at different times to get the information they needed to write their letters of thanks.
“It’s so easy because we have all the donor names and the branded thank-you cards ready for them. We even mail them out,” Lukens said. “For many students, this might be the only way they get to connect with the donor who funded their scholarship, so they value that opportunity to reach out.”
And there’s no question that the donors appreciate it, too.
“Over and over again, they tell us how much they love getting the old-school, handwritten thank-you notes in the mail. They put them on the fridge, they put them in scrapbooks, they talk about it with our development officers. Showing gratefulness is important to everyone, so we’re so happy we can make this a new tradition at UND.”
Added Chad O’Shea, associate director of Stewardship Communication with the Alumni Association & Foundation and who also managed the majority of promotion for the event: “They get to learn a little bit more about the students who received their scholarships. It gives them proof they’re making an impact at UND — it puts a face on their gift and makes them feel better about supporting the next generation.”
Kilgore and Lukens credit part of this year’s success to a new streamlined platform developed by Data Transfer Analyst Jeffrey Hemming of the Alumni Association & Foundation.
“He built a digital platform, and it has been a game-changer,” Lukens said. “The partnership from our entire Operations team has helped take this event to the next level.”
Last year, the process of matching students to their scholarships and donors was manual and somewhat time-consuming as volunteers sorted through files of paper records.
“I think I still have PTSD from all the paper cuts,” Kilgore said with a laugh.
But this year, Kaitlin Lockett — financial aid advisor with Student Finance, and one of three volunteers working the student check-in table the second morning — seemed to have put to rest any worries of paper pandemonium.
She was proof enough the digital system was a revolution for efficiency.
As she ushered students along at a steady clip, she barely had time to greet senior Biology major Lucas Weigel before she had his personal scholarship info printed and in hand. All he had to do was log in to the platform via laptop and student ID. Five seconds more was all it took to rattle off a few simple instructions:
“There are notecards on the table. Here’s who you will address it to. Fill out why you’re grateful. If you get stuck, there are helpful prompts on the big screen and the table.” Enough said.
Student after student, Lockett ended with a smile and reminders to sign up for a chance to win a $1,250 scholarship and to grab a “UND green”-drizzled doughnut on the way out. The first day, the treat was pizza.
Writing sincere thank-you notes apparently can work up quite an appetite, but Lukens said the students had no problem eating their way through 240 boxes of donated Deek’s Pizza. And at least 500 doughnuts had disappeared before the event wrapped up by noon on the second day.
“This is really an important exercise in thankfulness,” Kilgore said. “We are so grateful for our school, our donors and all the scholarships. We know affordability is a huge consideration when students are thinking about attending a university, and these gifts allow us to make higher education much more attainable for all students.”
Student Weigel seconded that: “The scholarship is a huge financial help to a lot of students on campus — especially me. I think it’s very important to recognize those who’ve helped you out.
“It’s important not just for scholarships, but really for anything you do in life. Just letting others know that you’re appreciative of them is a major (must) — it’s just the easiest thing you could do and the least you could do that’s super appreciated by everyone.”
>> Did you wonder how we managed to count those 460,000 handwritten words of gratitude? Well, we cheated. Lukens told us the students didn’t skimp on the sincerity and length of their notes. So, we figured — unlike that one chintzy birthday thank-you to Grandma in the fourth grade — the students wrote an average 100 words per note. If you count 4,600 notes in all, that comes to 460,000, give or take.
>> If that’s not impressive enough, consider this: If you attempted to read EVERY WORD on the cards lined up end to end from the Memorial Union down University Avenue, you wouldn’t finish reading until you passed the Chester Fritz Performing Arts Center. (You’re going to have to take OUR WORD on that. We’re writers after all, not math wizards.)
Wyatt Stellrecht, freshman in Commercial Aviation: “I think it’s really important to take part in this event. The donors are out there looking at just a few things about you and deciding that they’re going to put their faith in you with a super generous donation to help you get through college. They’re helping you, and they’re helping the whole community.”
Carter Matushek, junior in Commercial Aviation: “This helps us show our gratitude to the donors who are funding our futures.”
Jolea Kraft, third-year student in Kinesiology and Nutrition: “I think this is important because it gives us an opportunity to express our thanks in a personable way. It also helps us think about how much they’re impacting our academic careers.”
David Manzke, senior in Commercial Aviation and Aviation Management: “This is a good exercise in thankfulness and in being appreciative for what we’ve received as students. It’s good to know there are people out there who are willing to support me in my career ambitions. It would be cool to someday be able to give back to UND students of the future.”
Nikki Anderson, junior in Social Work: “It’s important to give thanks and acknowledge what their contribution means to us. The donors probably feel that same sense of gratefulness when they receive a personal, handwritten note from us.”
Kaitlyn Twedell, junior in Nursing: “It’s important for the donors to hear how their contributions are making a positive impact.”
Regina O’Brien, senior in History, Global Studies, Political Science and Public Affairs: “It’s another way to form a personal connection. Our donors probably aren’t able to interact with all 13,000 students on campus, but this allows them to get a little bit more of the story behind the student receiving their gift. … This whole event is awesome because it’s flexible for both students on campus and online. We all get to share our gratitude by letting the donors know they’re making a positive impact here at UND.”
Hailey Sorensen, junior in Finance and Psychology: “I think it’s super important to show our appreciation because that gift of money is super helpful in paying for college and other expenses. They put a lot of time, effort and money into that scholarship, so when they see a personal thank-you, it shows how much they’re actually making an impact.”
Abby Redeske, sophomore in Pre-Occupational Therapy: “That personal thank-you allows them to see firsthand the human side of where their money is going. It’s more than just cutting a check, saying bye-bye and possibly getting a tax write-off. No, that gift is actually helping a student who is super thankful. We want them to know just how much it means to us.”
Janelle Vonasek is a 1989 graduate of the University of North Dakota, where she earned degrees in both News-Editorial Journalism and Public Administration. The longtime design editor and writer at the Grand Forks Herald is now the special projects editor for UND Today. She lives in East Grand Forks with her husband, James, and they have three daughters, all graduates of UND.
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