September 1st, 2010 by spefnews
You ever sat there and looked at the calendar and wonder, “Where did the year go?” That is what I felt like driving into the office today. Just last week I attended the NIC Foundation Seminar with our Vice-Chair of Administration James Jennings in Indianapolis, IN. This is a conference for foundation professionals and board members in the Greek Industry. We had a great deal of sessions taught by world-renowned fundraising professionals along with sessions facilitated by other fraternal foundation staff on best case strategies and techniques they implore. It was a great time for networking and discussion with our counterparts in the industry for benchmarking purposes . We received a plethora of great ideas from the conference to aid us in becoming better stewards while at the same time re-affirming that we are on the right path with what we have implemented ourselves.
Our recent mailing of a simple bi-fold postcard has garnered many great compliments due to its look and content. This was part of our communication strategy that we anticipate will increase our donor base and build trust with our supporters. The piece was simple, colorful, educational and a great start to our annual campaign this year. The best part was the phone calls, emails and text messages from people about how much they loved the brochure and look forward to supporting the foundation. During my seven years working for the Fraternity arm of our organization I do not recall this type of buzz about the Educational Foundation and we look forward to this continuing. Without our supporters and their contributions we could not carry out our mission, thus leaving us unable to provide the positive impact that we do for members of Sigma Pi Fraternity.
Speaking of impact, have you been to our website recently to see the testimony of two scholarship winners from this years Convocation. It truly is amazing to see how powerful our donors gifts are when we hear it first hand from those who receive the benefit. In regards to testimonials here is a quote from an anonymous brother who attended our Mid-Year Leadership Conference this past February “The entire conference was well prepared and I learned a lot. I felt that the best presentations were the ones in front of everyone. (Values based leadership, What makes Sigma Pi unique, etc.)” It is your support as donors that make these testimonials a reality and prove that you do make an impact on lives. This October we will be conducting a phone-a-thon to raise funds for the Annual Mid-Year Leadership Conference and we look forward to you joining others this year in being an undergraduate sponsor or chapter sponsor. Please join me as a sponsor in making this a great leadership conference for our new officers.
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August 23rd, 2010 by spefnews
Last week brought with it plenty of excitement and phone calls. On Friday August 13, I had the opportunity to visit and golf with the Columbus Area Alumni Club members and students from Ohio State, Ohio University and Miami University. This was a great event and the three brothers I rode with all day made sure I felt welcomed and shared lots of stories with me. It was amazing to see that these three men have kept such a close friendship all these years (22 years they have known each other). The fraternal experience is sometimes hard to explain to people but these men epitomized it with their fellowship and concern they had for each others personal and family well-beings . It was also good for me as only one of these men is a current donor, so it gave me the opportunity to discuss our goals and direction and invite them to some of our upcoming events.
Speaking of events, we have some good ones coming up that we are planning. After lots of discussion this past week we are seeking to host a reception at Sigma Pi Fraternity Executive Director Mr. Mark Briscoe’s home in Franklin, TN. He has offered to host this event in conjunction with our VC of Administration Mr. Jim Jennings to thank those who have donated to the Educational Foundation. These types of events are beginning to become more and more common by our board members as they are seeking to each host one in their respective cities. This allows us to not only say thank you, but to meet our donors and for our donors to meet us. Future receptions will be in Montpelier Station, Virginia and another one in Nashville, TN this coming November Details are being worked on now and information will be coming out shortly.
We also held our first of many Strategic Planning Committee Conference Calls. The Board of Directors and I are very serious about the future of our Foundation and are working diligently to develop plans that can be implemented with the use of our volunteers and staff. We have a list of 45 potential committee volunteers that we are looking to speak with to help us reach our goals. I believe we will develop a great plan throughout this year which can be fully implemented next fiscal year that will have the proper goals and objectives in which we can measure our success and communicate to our donors. It is our job as alumni to ensure the future of our Fraternity and by building up the Educational Foundation we can do this. I thank all of you who are involved through your time, talents and treasures!!
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August 11th, 2010 by spefnews
Yesterday the Executive Director of Sigma Pi Fraternity Mark Briscoe and I joined many CEO’s in the Nashville, TN area at the CEO Cafe. This is a luncheon sponsored by the Bank of Nashville that included a speaker, Jim Lackey, Former President & CEO of Passport Health Communications. Mr. Lackey spoke on transitions and knowing when to leave a position of leadership. Although he was discussing leaving a position, it made me reflect on the Educational Foundation as we have been transitioning into new leadership with my position as COO and the election of our new Board of Directors. Mr. Lackey mentioned some key items: checking your ego at the door, discussing with your spouse, being sure it’s what you want.
The first statement, checking your ego at the door, began my reflection on the Educational Foundation. The Sigma Pi Educational Foundation is bigger than one person or small group of persons. It is about our mission and providing support for programs and the education of current and future Sigma Pi students. This is another reason we created our survey last summer that allowed us to find out what our constituents wanted. Through this we have been able to improve our communication and reporting mechanisms as well as making it easier for donors and potential donors to contribute where they would like. Our website donation page lists all the various options that are at their disposal for them to provide financial support where they have the strongest affinity. It has also urged us as a collective group to recruit more volunteers who bring various talents and skill sets that can help us improve in other capacities as well.
The second item, discussing with your spouse, made me think of my fiance as well as the spouses of the men who are on our board. I remember talking with Jill before I took the position as I knew it would take effort and hard work to help build us to the level we want to be. Not only work but travel, conference calls, late nights at the office and my own personal financial commitment. The men on the board also had to discuss this with their wives as they too are giving of their time, talents and treasures to make a difference. With such an ambitious and important goal as ours, it will require us to have the support of our loved ones. I am fortunate as Jill believes in what I am doing and knows it is my passion, so as she may sometimes wish I simply worked 9-5, she knows that it requires it more than that to provide for the future of our organization and stands beside me in this venture. I know after discussing with our board and committee members their spouses feel the same way.
And finally, being sure it is what you want. I remember preparing to graduate from the Jennings A. Jones College of Business at MTSU with my MBA and thinking, all this hard work is paying off now as I have been offered the COO position with the Foundation. Then I took a look at my years with the Executive Office of Sigma Pi as the Assistant Executive Director and how much we could really use additional funding for the programs we were trying to develop and the impact the foundation could make if our donors knew of the increased need in our organization. I spoke with members of the board and remember asking them how much flexibility I had to make sure we get to the $15 million dollar portfolio: as any person in a leadership capacity knows, you need the flexibility and ability to work and be innovative. When I was assured of this flexibility as well as their support, I made the commitment. It has not been a cakewalk and these next few years will not be easy, but I understand what Mr. Lackey said when he stated “be sure you are committed, because once you start it is hard to stop.” We are helping to generate as the book Good to Great mentions a “flywheel effect” which is beginning to turn. Through our recruiting and reporting efforts we are creating a train and we anticipate getting many others on board either as volunteers or donors. It will take all of us to get to our goal and as a united team we can and will accomplish it. It was interesting to take his speech and put it in reverse and rather than view it from leaving a leadership position, viewing it from stepping into one and how the similarities are the same.
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August 3rd, 2010 by spefnews
The 2010 Annual Corporate Meeting of Sigma Pi Educational Foundation and the 50th Convocation of Sigma Pi Fraternity has ended. The Foundation held its election of officers and we want to congratulate the following men:
Allen Yee (Georgia, ‘99) – Chairman
James Jennings (Murray State, ‘93) – VP of Administration
Joseph Palazzolo (Monmouth, ‘03) – Treasurer
Gary Dvorchak (Iowa, ‘86) – VC of Investments
Gary Grubacich (UC-Santa Barbara, ‘68) – VC of Legal Affairs
Ian Itschner (Oregon State, ‘93) – Secretary
Todd Miller (UT-Martin, ‘87) – Trustee
John McCann (NJIT, ‘83) – Trustee
John Merino (Cal-State Long Beach, ‘58) – Trustee
Dr. Jay Joern (Missouri, ‘76) – Trustee
PGS George Hakim (Detroit-Mercy, ‘78) – Trustee
GS Chris Brown (Rutgers, ‘81) – Trustee
These gentlemen along with myself worked diligently this weekend to meet with our consultant Dr. Jim Vaillancourt from the Center for Non-Profit MGMT for their Board Training. This training focused on governance and board roles/responsibilities. During our awards luncheon we had the opportunity to give out $3,000 in scholarships to deserving students and used the time to recognize our donors from the past year. We also launched our smart phone giving application helpsigmapi.mobi. This application allows for the growing number of smart phone users to have another way in which to make contributions and support the Educational Foundation. After the announcement of this application we raised $1,000 in two days.
Overall, the weekend went very well and we raised over $5,000 in gifts and pledges over the 3 day weekend. We also were able to recruit three more potential volunteers to aid us in the growth of our committee structure. The Board of Directors will continuing their conversations with these men and we anticipate them joining us in our quest to transform the lives of future members of Sigma Pi. We also had many people coming up asking about the Foundation and how they can help and spread the word of what we are doing to support Sigma Pi Fraternity. We anticipate a great year as we continue to fully implement our systems to allow us to continue our efforts at improved reporting and communication. Thank you everyone for your support at the 50th Convocation!!
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July 21st, 2010 by spefnews
My apologies to our readers for my time-lapse on our blog. The good news is the falling behind is due to getting our end of year information prepared for our Annual Corporate Meeting and audit. The Educational Foundation is hosting a luncheon on Friday July 30 at the 50th Convocation of Sigma Pi Fraternity in which we will award various scholarships, provide an update on the Foundation and recognize some of our donors. I look forward to meeting many of our new and longtime donors at this conference.
In terms of donor recognition, I would like to thank all of our donors for the 2009-2010 Fiscal Year. We ended the fiscal year with 68 people joining the Brotherhood of the Golden Cross (minimum gift of $1,000), 83 parents accounted for almost $9,000 in gifts, over 40 volunteers provided contributions and another eight undergraduates joined the Delta Society. We did see a 24% drop in annual donors from last year but this was expected with the economic situation. We are very appreciative of the over 1,000 donors who did give and hope to see many of our donors from the past return and new donors to help with our mission this year.
This year our donors and members of Sigma Pi Fraternity will see a change in the Foundation as we have improved our reporting processes and communication channels. We anticipate an increase in volunteers, contributions and receptions to be held throughout North America. We held three receptions this past year to get a feel for how the attendance would be and thanks to those who attended we are putting more of these into our plans. At the same time we are working with our newsletter templates for various communication pieces to be delivered via email for the different giving clubs and societies. We hope you can join us as we look to provide increased support to the members of Sigma Pi Fraternity and continue to impact the lives of our members.
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June 26th, 2010 by spefnews
This week I had the opportunity to join the Executive Director of Sigma Pi Fraternity, Mark Briscoe and his staff for a retreat in St. Louis, MO. My purpose of joining the retreat was to discuss what the Sigma Pi Educational Foundation will be needing in terms of reporting and data collection to help with marketing and verification of the proper use of grant funding. We also spoke about the long-term goals of the foundation and why this information will be critical to helping us to acquire new donors and inform our current ones of their impact. While we were there I was able to join in their planning session for next year as well. The relationship between the two organizations is crucial as we all want to see Sigma Pi Fraternity excel and the contributions of our alumni and parents help to offset increasing costs of the undergraduate membership fees. Currently the undergraduate fees account for approximately 90% of the Fraternities operating and programming income. Our goal is to reduce this to 70% thanks in part to our endowment growth and increase in donor contributions.
The end of our fiscal year is quickly approaching and we are excited about the upcoming fiscal year. These past two years have been trying with the economic situation and decrease in annual donors over the years. However, we are seeing some positive trends that we are hoping to capitalize on: increased parent support, current donors increasing their contribution size, improved communication with our donors and the recruitment of committee members to increase our intellectual capital. We are also beginning to prepare for the 50th Convocation in Danvers, MA in which the Foundation will hold its Annual Corporate Meeting and also conduct elections for Board Directors. At the same time we will be using our luncheon to recognize the 2009-2010 donors and we anticipate also raising over $10,000 dollars during this conference. With the rising costs of tuition for college students and expenses for the Fraternity, we are hoping this conference will be a great start to our 2010-11 Annual Campaign goal of $750,000 to help support members of Sigma Pi Fraternity both next year and in the future.
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June 17th, 2010 by spefnews
Just got back from Murfreesboro, TN where I had lunch with an alumni volunteer and a couple of undergraduate Sigma Pi’s to discuss utilizing them for our future phone-a-thon campaigns. The young men seemed excited as did we; since this will be the first time we have used our undergraduate members for donation calls. We are still in the development stages but plan to go live with them this fall to help raise money for a couple of our portfolio bases. The ability of undergraduate students to talk about their experience with alumni and parents we feel will be powerful. We are thankful they have the desire and a strong volunteer to help out.
AJ Carroll, Director of Alumni Services for Sigma Pi Fraternity left this morning for New York for a reception he and Paul Hansen, Advisor Trustee for the Educational Foundation are hosting. AJ informed me he already had close to 20 RSVP’s and others who said they would make every attempt to be there. I wish them well tonight and thank those who helped out with communicating this event. This will be the first time for this type of reception in the New York area but we hope it is successful. This will be third event like this so far this calendar year and the second in which AJ has been able to join us.
Our Quarterly E-Newsletter went out this week and we have received some good feedback on the information that is provided. We started on this venture to improve our communication efforts with donors and prospective donors to let everyone see what we have accomplished each quarter. This issue we started a new section titled “VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT: Giving More Than Time…” This section will be used each quarter to highlight a volunteer for the Fraternity who also donates to the Foundation. We thank all of our donors, especially those who work with our undergraduates on a daily basis to help them develop and grow into Sigma Pi men. Without mentors, our young undergraduates would be lost and not understand fully what it means to follow our Creed. During my travels working for the Fraternity, I had the opportunity to interview some of these men, and they are truly remarkable. Thank You for your time!!!
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June 11th, 2010 by spefnews
This week has been another exciting week for the Sigma Pi Educational Foundation. Just yesterday I was able to interview another alumnus to be a part of our volunteer committee structure. Then this morning I received a voicemail from an alumnus who has also accepted a volunteer committee position. It is great to see the quality of brothers who are interested in serving to help us meet our goals. If I have learned anything in my life it is that I cannot do this alone and these men bring unique talents and skill sets that will be needed to achieve our objective over the next 10 years.
This week we have been busy finalizing our Quarterly E-Newsletter that will go out next week. Currently I am working with a Chapter Director who is a donor for a new section we will be adding to the newsletter “Volunteers Who Give More Than Their Time”. We started this newsletter in September 2009 to inform our donors and alumni membership of the great happenings that are unfolding: between three months there is more than you realize that goes on!! Yesterday I worked with AJ Carroll, Director of Alumni Services on a survey he put together to find out what the men he works with are looking for in order to improve his department. He was just informing me that the responses are turning out great as he prepares to develop Volunteer Workshops next year. One of the goals of the Educational Foundation is to help raise funds to support this endeavor. The more we work together the better we can make Sigma Pi Fraternity.
On a final note for this week, I had the opportunity to thank a donor yesterday who is increasing his monthly $50 donation to $100!!! I think he was more excited than I was on the phone to know he was such a valuable contributor. It is brothers like him and the young man who called in today that make my job great. This morning an undergraduate member called to become a part of the Delta Society. What a way to end a workweek with news like this!!! Thank you to everyone for your support and dedication!!!
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June 9th, 2010 by spefnews
In any non-profit organization many of your most important assets are your volunteers. They are the ones who are out there working and putting in time for your cause and mission and do so for basically no pay. They volunteer to give back to an organization or to see an cause succeed, either way they are very selfless and only hope to see others benefit. It is this reason we have highlighted our volunteers for both the Foundation and Fraternity on our website www.sigmapiedfund.org to thank these men who also make contributions to the Educational Foundation. The list includes Chapter Directors, Province Archons and Board members of both the Grand Council and Foundation Board of Trustees. We thank you all for your time, dedication and contributions.
Another update to our website is for the donors who have given over $1,000 this year and have reached the Brotherhood of the Golden Cross Club. This club is an annual club in which we are beginning to look at providing special newsletters and events beginning next year. We thank these donors for their contributions at this level especially given the current economy. We also understand that not everyone is capable of annual gifts as these and have started two new annual clubs: 1897 Annual Loyalty Club and the Byron R. Lewis Club. The 1897 Annual Loyalty Club was developed this past fall and is in the early stages of being communicated and we have had a few people already join. The Byron R. Lewis Club is a $500 a year club that will begin this next fiscal year. We hope to see these clubs generate great success and help us to continue our mission and aid in impacting the lives of young men.
Thank you again to everyone who has contributed to the Educational Foundation and for more information please contact me at jfrost@sigmapi.org.
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June 4th, 2010 by spefnews
Last night I had the opportunity to have a conference call with our Marketing Committee and get our discussions going about 15 X 20!! The insight and knowledge these men have is remarkable and the Foundation is fortunate to have these men on our committee as consultants. The Educational Foundation has some great goals over the next few years to grow our portfolio and increase our educational programming funds and we are starting to really set the stage about how we will communicate this. The one thing we know for sure as of today is that it will take a team of committed volunteers on various committees to accomplish this and so we are actively seeking those who want to help build something great!!!
In the I Believe Manual is a powerful paragraph: The fraternity man’s self-image considers his relationship with others. John Donna once wrote, “No man is an island, entire of itself.” The fraternity man recognizes this basic truth-that every person exists only as part of society. Each man contributes to and takes from the world in which he lives. His actions, words and attitudes affect those around him. Thus, no man is so independent as to be completely severed from his fellow man. This powerful paragraph is another reason why we are looking to grow our board and committee structure to around 5o people. I learned a long time ago that I do not know everything. And last night on our conference call I was reminded of how little I know in the midst of these dedicated brothers. If you are interested in joining us build our organization to a level it has never seen before send a resume to jfrost@sigmapi.org.
On a final note this week, we have continued to see donations come in and we cannot thank you all enough for your support to our mission!! Your gifts help us to operate and provide the financial resources to impact and change young lives. If you have not donated as of yet, you can do so on-line at our On-Line Donation page. *Your gifts are tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.
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