By Naomi Hofferber
While numbers are still being counted on how much money was raised during We Are Phil week, an estimated 500 University of Iowa employees donated, and more than 200 new payroll pledges have been enrolled this past week.
So far, more than $1.4 million has been donated by UI staff and faculty.
“We are so pleased with how University of Iowa faculty and staff have embraced the annual We Are Phil campaign over the past four years,” Lynette Marshall, UI Foundation President and CEO said in an email to The Daily Iowan. “Not only are more people on campus giving back than ever before, but we are delighted that they are talking with each other about the difference that philanthropy makes at the university.”
Last week was We Are Phil week, which consisted of over 40 events to encourage faculty and staff to give back to the UI, including lunches, musical performances, bag tournaments, and trivia events.
“We take the approach of we are really more about building a culture of awareness and philanthropy rather than focusing on a dollar amount or a participation rate,” said Sara Ring, the associate director of development for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the UI Foundation. “For us, yes, we look at what is going on during Phil’s Week, but we also look at it throughout the year.”
Ring said officials don’t have the final numbers yet for what was raised or the level of overall participation, due to the plethora of events that took place throughout separate colleges within the UI.
This year, the College of Dentistry’s We Are Phil program highlighted a new Wellness Garden fund, which raised around $14,000, and the UI Libraries fundraised for a new scholarship to support their student employees.
More notably, the UI College of Nursing had a 92 percent participation rate — the highest so far.
“The focus was on the participation level, not the dollar level of the gift,” Liz Swanson, a leader for the College of Nursing with the UI Foundation, said. “Our executives said it was important to show support. I think they really took that to heart.”
Swanson said they had tried to make Phil Week fun, with different events planned throughout the week, and this year they tried a new approach, where they had team captains for Phil Week for each floor of the nursing building.
“I think people realize that there’s an ongoing need for things that there’s just not funding for,” Ring said. “I think they feel that this is something that is important to them in their lives and their careers and they want to have some sort of meaningful impact. I think there is a variety of reasons why people do it, for every person they could come up with a different reason.”
More than half of the payroll pledges made are on-going pledges, meaning they will carry on for a cause from one year to the next.
“It’s a marathon and not a sprint — it’s an ongoing thing. We’re building from year to year,” Ring said.