July 17, 2006

Student callers raise nearly $1 million

Months of calling alumni and parents of UCSC students have paid off: Nearly $1 million has been raised for people and programs on campus.

Run by student callers, the Telephone Outreach Program starts shortly after fall quarter begins and ends right before the summer. Under the program, donors decide where to direct their contributions, with the Chancellor's fund, the Colleges fund, and the Student Affairs fund among the more popular choices. Overall, contributions go to scholarships, student-oriented events, core classes, programs at the colleges, and departments and divisions across campus. The final tally for the 2005-06 academic year was $991,844.

"What really stood out this year was the number of people who pledged for the first time,” said Peter Stults, assistant director of the Annual Fund. “Every year we get our regular donors who love supporting the campus, but this year we had more new donors than regular donors.”

Stults said the students contacted more than 15,000 people, about evenly divided between alumni and parents of students.

Additional details on the Telephone Outreach Program are available online at: http://giving.ucsc.edu/