Alumni Relations
1. How can we get a list of our Department’s alumni?
A: Please contact Katy Wallander in the Dietrich School Development Office, kdw40@pitt.edu or 412-624-7283.
2. How can our department send an email to our Department’s alumni?
A: Please contact Katy Wallander in the Dietrich School Development Office, kdw40@pitt.edu or 412-624-7283.
3. Who do I contact about creating an alumni newsletter?
A: Please contact Katy Wallander in the Dietrich School Development Office, kdw40@pitt.edu or 412-624-7283.
4. How can our department recognize a distinguished alumna/us?
A: Some departments have the resources to develop an annual or biannual distinguished alumni program that involves committees. Others recognize alumni as they are identified and calendars permit. Most frequently, departments use existing events to recognize an alum. To discuss what makes sense for your department, please contact Katy Wallander in the Dietrich School Development Office, kdw40@pitt.edu or 412-624-7283.
5. Is there any funding available through the Pitt Alumni Association for our Department’s alumni event?
A: Possibly. Please contact Katy Wallander in the Dietrich School Development Office, kdw40@pitt.edu or 412-624-7283, to discuss your event. The Alumni Association offers small grants, $500 - $1,000. There is an application process and there are application submittal deadlines.
Fundraising/Gift Stewardship
6. How can we do a crowdfunding campaign?
A: Experience has demonstrated that crowdfunding campaigns are most successful when they focus on very specific projects or the purchase of a specific item (e.g. the purchase of a kayak for the Pymatuning Laboratory of Ecology) and engage friends and family who will benefit from the project or purchase. For more information about the application process to conduct an EngagePitt campaign, contact Katy Wallander, kdw40@pitt.edu or 412-624-7283.
7. How do we establish a gift fund in memory of a faculty member/alum or in honor of someone?
A: Our office is very familiar with helping to navigate these situations and will be happy to discuss and provide the step-by-step guidelines. Please contact Fay Lauro, fml@pitt.edu or 412-648-3365.
8. What is required for our department to proceed with a multi-donor campaign?
A: The University has very specific requirements for multi-donor campaigns. These campaigns must be approved by the Department Chair, Dean, Institutional Advancement, and the Provost. Please contact Tom Golightly, Sr. Executive Director of Development, twg3@pitt.edu or 412-624-3201.
9. How can I tell if our department is receiving any gifts?
A: The Dietrich School Development Office manages the report of gifts that is emailed to each department, program, and area each month. No reports are sent in months when no gifts were made. Please contact Fay Lauro, fml@pitt.edu or 412-648-3365 with any questions about the reports or to make changes to the distribution list.
10. Should our Department be sending gift acknowledgment cards/letters to our donors?
A: Acknowledgements are always welcome and Fay Lauro, fml@pitt.edu or 412-648-3365 can help review an existing system or advise on creating a new one. Donors to the Dietrich School and CGS already receive a variety of acknowledgments depending on the amount of the gift and we can provide those details on request.
11. How can our faculty members work with your team to identify potential foundation support for a project?
A: Your faculty can work with Andy Falk and Emily Witthohn our Foundation Relations staff. Andy and Emily serve as the central relationship managers and record keepers for foundation interactions within the Dietrich School. They are here to assist your faculty in preparing their narrative application, connecting with Sponsored Projects Administration to complete a budget, navigating the necessary A&S approval process, and completing submission to any local, regional, national, and international foundations.
Whether you are interested in exploring the potential of foundation support for your work, or you are already working on an application, Andy and Emily are here to help. Many times, they are familiar with the intricacies and quirks of particular proposal processes and can advise you based on their experience with the particular foundation and other university stakeholders. They can also assist in gathering letters of support from University leadership, boilerplate language, facts and figures about the University, and other required documents.
To begin working with us, please complete the questionnaire in the appendix below, which you can email back to Andy Falk, Executive Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations for the Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences, adf23@pitt.edu.
12. Who do we contact if we receive correspondence related to an estate gift?
A: Please forward to Tom Golightly, Sr. Executive Director of Development, 917 Cathedral of Learning.
13. We are not sure if a gift account can be used for a certain purpose. Who can help us?
A: It depends on the fund. Some are discretionary and provide great latitude in what they can be used for, others are restricted in one or more ways. While your fiscal administrator should have documentation for these accounts in the form of Account Create Request Forms or Fund Data Sheets, you may always contact Fay Lauro, fml@pitt.edu. Fay welcomes any inquiries and will be glad to review and assist with the determination.
14. How do we get copies of the Account Create Request Forms or Fund Data Sheets for our gift accounts?
A: Please contact Fay Lauro, fml@pitt.edu.
15. Do we lose the balance in our gift accounts if they are not used by the end of the fiscal year?
A: No. Balances in 04 gift accounts can roll forward from one fiscal year to the next. The expectation is that, whenever possible, at least 60% of the balance is expended each year.
16. How do we get information about a specific alum/donor or a donor list?
A: Please contact Tom Golightly, twg3@pitt.edu, and provide a brief description of the intended purpose so that we can best serve you.
17. How do our endowments work?
A: Two accounts are created for each endowment; the corpus which holds donor’s gifts and is invested by the University, and an associated income account that receives the distributions from the corpus on a monthly basis. Our office is happy to provide further information and detail. Please contact Fay Lauro, fml@pitt.edu.
18. How do we know what the projected income is for our endowments next year?
A: Projected endowment incomes for the upcoming year are provided each spring by the Office of Finance and distributed by the Office of the Dean. Our office is happy to provide further information and detail. Please contact Fay Lauro, fml@pitt.edu.
19. Do we have to wait for the end of the fiscal year to spend an endowment’s distributions?
A: No. As long as the expenditure in a fiscal year does not exceed the actual distribution plus any forwarded balance, the entire annual income may be used on July 1. Deficits for Income accounts are not permitted; the balance must be at or above zero by the end of the fiscal year.
Updated: August 25, 2020