Foundation 2016 Elizabeth & Lee interview

Curt Bright Author

04/04/2016 Added

164 Plays

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Interview with NU Foundation staff

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[00:00:00.203]Last name is spelled so I can get the mic set.
[00:00:02.017]'Kay.
[00:00:03.179]Elizabeth Kraemer.
[00:00:04.481]Do you need me to spell Elizabeth?
[00:00:06.134]Yeah.
[00:00:06.731]E-L-I-Z-A-B-E-T-H.
[00:00:09.057]Kraemer, K-R-A-E-M-E-R.
[00:00:12.054]Was she looking at you?
[00:00:13.537]I wasn't (laughs)
[00:00:14.881]No, she wasn't.
[00:00:16.086](laughs)
[00:00:17.505]I failed.
[00:00:18.806]It's okay.
[00:00:19.713]What's your job title, what do you do?
[00:00:20.875]I'm the director of alumni programs.
[00:00:22.635]Okay, and then...
[00:00:24.961]whoever you are.
[00:00:25.910](laughs)
[00:00:27.403]Say your first and last name--
[00:00:28.630]I'm not Randall, I'm not Buffy.
[00:00:29.631]That's what I always say.
[00:00:30.953]I am Lee Denker and I am
[00:00:32.489]the executive director of UNO alumni engagement.
[00:00:34.463]Go ahead and spell that for me.
[00:00:35.967]Your name, not everything else.
[00:00:37.503](laughs)
[00:00:38.548]Lee, L-E-E.
[00:00:39.753]D-E-N-K-E-R
[00:00:42.036]Oh, okay.
[00:00:44.031]Let's go back.
[00:00:45.609]Elizabeth, give me your name again
[00:00:47.071]because I had the mic set backwards.
[00:00:49.023]Oh.
[00:00:50.367]Elizabeth Kraemer.
[00:00:51.743]There we go.
[00:00:52.969]Do you need me to spell again.
[00:00:54.057]Go ahead and spell it again.
[00:00:55.060]E-L-I-Z-A-B-E-T-H.
[00:00:57.033]K-R-A-E-M-E-R.
[00:00:59.284]Oh, okay.
[00:01:01.076]Randall now, okay, we're rolling.
[00:01:03.092]All right, so in the examples
[00:01:04.489]you previously provided,
[00:01:05.599]you talked about board involvement
[00:01:07.199]and awards as to the key mechanisms
[00:01:09.684]for engaging alumni.
[00:01:11.401]Will you please give an example of each
[00:01:12.916]and explain how the experience has made the donor feel
[00:01:15.657]and how did you ensure these interactions were appreciative,
[00:01:18.505]professional, personal, and entwined.
[00:01:21.839]Who goes first?
[00:01:22.744]Go for it.
[00:01:24.067](laughs)
[00:01:25.176]All right.
[00:01:26.712](sighs)
[00:01:28.078]All right, let's get ready for this, right?
[00:01:31.027]Well, in our, blah.
[00:01:35.160]I'm gonna share an example of a person who
[00:01:38.341]served on our board of directors
[00:01:40.180]for the UNO Alumni Association.
[00:01:41.876]This is a person that I did not know.
[00:01:43.796]And there was one person on our board
[00:01:45.865]who knew this individual at the company that he worked.
[00:01:49.044]And when he knew there was need
[00:01:50.697]for a legal advisor on our board,
[00:01:53.364]he recommended this person to our nominating committee.
[00:01:56.318]We're glad he did.
[00:01:57.897]It was a woman who had an undergraduate degree from UNO
[00:02:01.076]but went on to get her law degree at Columbia University
[00:02:03.444]in New York.
[00:02:04.276]Previously, she had no connection to UNO
[00:02:06.526]other than this individual who knew her and worked with her.
[00:02:10.036]So we met with her as a nominating committee
[00:02:12.500]and we instantly formed a great relationship.
[00:02:15.422]We saw her passion for UNO
[00:02:16.884]and the nominating committee invited her
[00:02:18.772]to serve as our legal advisor.
[00:02:20.489]That was her fist connection to UNO in years, in years.
[00:02:23.689]She became so passionate about it that she became involved
[00:02:26.868]with the College of Arts and Sciences
[00:02:29.054]which is where her undergraduate degree was from.
[00:02:31.561]Became friends with the dean and was ultimately asked
[00:02:34.164]to serve as the arts and sciences commencement speaker
[00:02:37.246]over the next, I believe it was, two years
[00:02:39.433]after she joined our board.
[00:02:41.225]And ultimately, through the work of the development officers
[00:02:43.454]became a donor to the college.
[00:02:45.428]Her term's expired, she's left our board
[00:02:47.742]but she still continues to be a friend and a donor
[00:02:49.694]to the College of Arts and Sciences at UNO.
[00:02:56.105]And we have lots of people that we've been able
[00:02:59.614]to help reconnect with through award recognition.
[00:03:03.817]Young alumni as well as
[00:03:07.996]other outstanding achievement awards
[00:03:10.673]that we've been able to maybe help the foundation,
[00:03:14.854]development officers as well as other folks
[00:03:18.353]at the university reconnect with those people
[00:03:20.934]as using awards as a way to reconnect with them
[00:03:25.884]and to start that relationship and to potentially
[00:03:30.652]lead to a better relationship down the road.
[00:03:38.086]Can I jump in an awards one now?
[00:03:40.316]Are you getting both of us, by the way, at the same time.
[00:03:42.310]I'm on a two shot, the whole time
[00:03:43.942]so you're both on camera all the time.
[00:03:45.980]So we have to behave no matter what we do?
[00:03:48.209]Yes.
[00:03:49.254]I think I was looking all over when you were talking.
[00:03:50.972](laughs)
[00:03:52.038]Try to look interested.
[00:03:53.158]All right, got it.
[00:03:55.036]Awards are a great opportunity for us to
[00:03:58.129]further a relationship with alumni.
[00:04:00.028]We had a gentleman who was a donor to the university
[00:04:03.302]and a very successful businessman.
[00:04:05.233]And probably about six or seven years ago
[00:04:07.132]he was chosen for the UNO Alumni Association
[00:04:10.204]Citation for Alumni Achievement Award.
[00:04:12.913]And we asked the chancellor to call him
[00:04:15.238]and make that known to him and ask if he would come back
[00:04:18.652]to UNO for commencement to receive his award.
[00:04:21.372]Just by chance, he was going to be on campus the next week
[00:04:23.804]so we went to meet with him in person
[00:04:26.172]in the chancellor's conference room
[00:04:28.241]and after we had a chance to talk with him,
[00:04:30.449]both the chancellor and I,
[00:04:32.049]he respectfully declined the award.
[00:04:34.716]He said, you know I just contributed
[00:04:37.084]to this program at UNO,
[00:04:39.281]I have no idea if it's going to be successful
[00:04:42.268]and I am certainly not deserving of an award at this point,
[00:04:45.180]so please just remove me from consideration.
[00:04:48.614]And as much as we tried to talk him into it,
[00:04:50.865]he was firm in his decline
[00:04:53.585]and said, no, I'm not going to accept it.
[00:04:56.017]So we let it go for a few years.
[00:04:58.086]His career continued to do very very well
[00:05:00.273]and obviously the program that he supported
[00:05:02.642]did equally well and it made opportunities available
[00:05:05.169]for students to get their education at UNO.
[00:05:07.953]So, just this year,
[00:05:10.694]after asking him every year if he would come back,
[00:05:13.830]he finally accepted the award.
[00:05:15.900]And this is now, after he's contributed more
[00:05:18.865]to the university and his career has done even more.
[00:05:21.212]So we're gonna have an opportunity to showcase him
[00:05:23.462]in front of our graduating class in May of 2016
[00:05:26.758]and let them know about the great things he has done
[00:05:29.756]and we'll, at that point, be able to tell 'em
[00:05:31.921]about his philanthropic service to UNO
[00:05:35.164]through his contributions and the programs
[00:05:37.649]that he's helped to fund.
[00:05:38.950]So it was an interesting relationship
[00:05:40.369]and it continues to be an interesting relationship.
[00:05:43.132]And the key message for us is,
[00:05:45.105]just don't give up.
[00:05:46.268]This is a guy who told us no.
[00:05:48.220]But six years later, we have an opportunity
[00:05:50.172]to have him on the stage in front of our students
[00:05:52.401]as one of the first alumni awards winners in Baxter arena.
[00:05:55.580]So, really it's a win-win for everybody.
[00:06:00.945]Awesome.
[00:06:02.108]So engagement leading to a more positive
[00:06:03.889]donor experience and advancing and alum
[00:06:05.862]from ignorance to awareness
[00:06:07.793]on that donor commitment continuum.
[00:06:10.545]So lots of our programming is helping on that front.
[00:06:13.895]We're able to move our alums
[00:06:17.169]from the ignorance part of the continuum
[00:06:21.201]to the experience and participation and furthur
[00:06:25.127]just based on
[00:06:27.569]informing them and getting them involved.
[00:06:30.353]And so our Young Alumni Academy
[00:06:32.092]is a fantastic example of that.
[00:06:34.460]It's a program that other institutions have modeled
[00:06:37.137]their own programming after.
[00:06:39.111]And it's an opportunity for us to really engage
[00:06:42.588]with our alums
[00:06:44.636]and get them informed enough about the university,
[00:06:47.537]so that then they can become ambassadors for it
[00:06:51.303]and they know what's going on
[00:06:53.553]and they wanna stay engaged and connected
[00:06:56.273]with what's going on on campus
[00:06:58.364]and then we're able to, hopefully, connect them
[00:07:02.481]in different ways with the university
[00:07:03.847]after they've gone through the program.
[00:07:05.607]And they also, to get to
[00:07:07.335]stay connected with one another.
[00:07:08.817]We have other programming like our outreaches
[00:07:11.228]and also our Golden Circle
[00:07:13.372]that are ways for individuals to reconnect with one another
[00:07:16.785]and also to stay informed with what's going on on campus.
[00:07:20.444]Our Golden Circle luncheon
[00:07:22.375]is a great example of something where
[00:07:24.721]they're able to stay connected
[00:07:26.577]with hot topics,
[00:07:29.020]new issues and trends that are happening
[00:07:31.964]and they're all, usually, in some way, shape or form
[00:07:35.452]connected to a professor or a student
[00:07:37.607]or some sort of research that's happening on our campus.
[00:07:40.903]And for them to be able to know that that's happening
[00:07:44.337]and to have that...
[00:07:47.527]renewed pride in UNO
[00:07:50.097]is really cool to watch.
[00:07:53.351]One way to think about it is
[00:07:54.972]is that our donor prospect list
[00:07:57.095]is 100,000 people.
[00:07:58.759]We have over 100,000 people who've earned degrees from UNO.
[00:08:01.948]The means our alumni base
[00:08:03.708]is our prospect list.
[00:08:05.500]So our team in alumni engagement,
[00:08:06.908]we have to be ready and creatively thinking of ways
[00:08:09.905]to engage that huge prospect list every single day.
[00:08:13.479]Sometimes it's through programming
[00:08:15.783]that Elizabeth talked about.
[00:08:16.807]But other times, it's through a communications.
[00:08:18.844]And, perhaps, a person receiving our UNO alumni magazine
[00:08:22.791]maybe the very first time that an article in there
[00:08:25.553]sparked something that means something to them
[00:08:29.254]based on their experience at UNO
[00:08:31.452]and suddenly, a further relationship is possible.
[00:08:34.662]Maybe it's a Tweet
[00:08:36.476]that our intern sends out
[00:08:38.609]about something that's going on on campus
[00:08:40.401]and they happen to be following us on Twitter.
[00:08:42.673]And they're excited.
[00:08:44.156]So when the annual phone-a-thon person calls
[00:08:47.057]they're gonna answer the phone this time.
[00:08:48.913]Whereas, previously, they wouldn't have.
[00:08:51.100]Maybe it's a Facebook post.
[00:08:53.564]Where we're putting something about a job that's opened
[00:08:56.625]in Omaha and a company has asked us
[00:08:59.366]to put that out there.
[00:09:01.265]So, therefore, we help them find employment
[00:09:03.804]and they're thankful for the university
[00:09:05.350]and they're gonna be open to a relationship moving forward.
[00:09:08.070]You never know what position
[00:09:10.257]a person's going to be in, any given day.
[00:09:12.625]So, we have to always be ready to go.
[00:09:14.716]We have to have our A game ready everyday.
[00:09:17.265]And, again, we have to continue to remember
[00:09:19.708]that our prospect list is huge.
[00:09:21.425]And they live everywhere.
[00:09:23.142]So our creative thinking never stops.
[00:09:24.977]And the innovation is clearly something
[00:09:26.716]that we have to keep in mind
[00:09:28.689]so we can help the development officers do their job.
[00:09:30.972]So we can help the university help more students.
[00:09:36.102]Those are great answers.
[00:09:37.329]And with the foundation will improve he donor experience
[00:09:39.676]and alumni engagement.
[00:09:43.366]My wife started getting nervous
[00:09:44.550]that maybe my thing wasn't straight.
[00:09:46.172]Has that been straight?
[00:09:47.665]I don't know.
[00:09:48.636]Is yours?
[00:09:49.564]Not my mic but my pin.
[00:09:50.769]Oh.
[00:09:51.654]Your pin is straight.
[00:09:53.137]I got a new jacket so I didn't put a pin on this one.
[00:09:55.324]A lot of times the alumni is sideways.
[00:09:56.785]I always have a pin on my jacket and, I know.
[00:09:58.620]Sorry, we digress.
[00:10:00.081](laughs)
[00:10:01.340]You're straight.
[00:10:03.270](sighs)
[00:10:04.614]Um...
[00:10:07.676]Can you repeat the question please?
[00:10:09.319]How were we--
[00:10:10.204]Have you seen verging with the foundation
[00:10:12.081]will improve the donor experience and alumni engagement?
[00:10:15.516]The university's alumni base is huge,
[00:10:19.004]it's 100,000 people or more, who live all over the place.
[00:10:22.993]And we're a relatively decentralized university
[00:10:26.524]which means folks in departments
[00:10:28.551]can be talking to alumni and we may not be aware of 'em.
[00:10:30.983]Development officers could be speaking
[00:10:32.657]with folks that we're not aware of as well.
[00:10:34.812]Some of those folks may attend our Golden Circle lunches
[00:10:37.116]or they may attend some of our outreaches in Denver
[00:10:39.697]or Arizona or wherever they may be.
[00:10:42.343]And we just may not be aware of them.
[00:10:44.828]Working together with the foundation
[00:10:46.033]is gonna allow us to not only be aware of those people
[00:10:49.212]and help to further whatever relationship
[00:10:51.004]is already in place,
[00:10:52.785]but also strategically think of ways
[00:10:55.367]we can help the foundation further relationships
[00:10:58.599]that may not...
[00:11:00.199]that may be in the works.
[00:11:01.777]For example,
[00:11:02.865]if we know that there is somebody who is
[00:11:04.348]of interest to UNO, and at this point we know
[00:11:06.257]there is somebody in California,
[00:11:07.975]we're sitting down with some folks at the university
[00:11:10.524]and within the UNO development team right now
[00:11:13.063]to figure out, should we do something in California
[00:11:15.687]from the alumni association
[00:11:17.745]so that we can invite this individual as well as others
[00:11:20.625]to come and be a part of this event.
[00:11:22.599]It's very non threatening,
[00:11:23.580]it's gonna be very fun.
[00:11:24.689]It's gonna be very networky
[00:11:26.300]and social but that could help begin a relationship
[00:11:30.407]which we hope will go further down the road.
[00:11:32.913]So just having access to each other.
[00:11:35.303]Having the ability to walk up and down the hall
[00:11:37.863]and speak with our colleagues in the foundation,
[00:11:40.316]I think already has paid off in a number of different ways
[00:11:43.868]because we're, we're thinking differently now
[00:11:46.097]about the external audience.
[00:11:47.377]We're thinking about it in ways
[00:11:49.116]that fundraisers may think about it.
[00:11:51.655]So we can help put things in place to help you all succeed.
[00:11:56.807]The collaboration already has been awesome
[00:11:58.737]so I'm really excited for what's to come.
[00:12:01.287]And as a small group of four
[00:12:04.583]we had all these big dreams and goals
[00:12:07.996]and things that we really wanted to achieve
[00:12:10.183]in order to better interact with
[00:12:12.732]and serve our alumni.
[00:12:14.289]And now that we're intergrated
[00:12:16.316]and we're all together, I feel like we have more
[00:12:19.484]of that opportunity to do that
[00:12:21.105]and also, being all together now,
[00:12:23.825]we can, hopefully, form a united front
[00:12:26.428]and help to knock out those goals
[00:12:29.585]that are in the advancement agenda
[00:12:31.399]of the awareness component.
[00:12:33.692]Specifically reconnecting alumni
[00:12:36.615]and helping to develop and improve relationships
[00:12:41.052]with non alums.
[00:12:43.431]And we are currently doing that in different ways
[00:12:45.799]with some of our programs and some of our events
[00:12:47.729]in our communication but there is all kinds
[00:12:50.257]of opportunity for us to do,
[00:12:52.817]to do it on an even bigger scale.
[00:12:54.620]And to really incorporate that into our engagement plan.
[00:12:58.385]So, we're excited to help
[00:13:00.220]the foundation as a whole get to those goals
[00:13:03.164]and now, as a united front. we'll be able to do that.
[00:13:08.764]Okay, last question.
[00:13:10.161]Misunderstand or do not realize
[00:13:12.038]about how the alumni association contributes
[00:13:14.332]to the donor experience?
[00:13:18.833]One thing that I think we need to make,
[00:13:21.436]I think make an effort to address,
[00:13:23.644]is that through the years,
[00:13:26.033]there has been some feeling by folks
[00:13:28.401]on the university side, on the alumni side
[00:13:30.961]and on the foundation side,
[00:13:32.721]that we're in competition with each other.
[00:13:35.025]We wanna wipe that clean.
[00:13:36.742]We are not in competition with each other.
[00:13:39.132]We're all working together to try and make
[00:13:40.966]the university stronger.
[00:13:42.332]If we, as an alumni engagement team, have a relationship
[00:13:44.700]with an alum or with a friend of the university,
[00:13:47.121]or with a neighbor, or with a student, that's a great thing.
[00:13:50.342]Because that means that we're, hopefully,
[00:13:52.252]strengthening the relationship with the university
[00:13:54.406]as a whole, which can then be even made stronger
[00:13:57.596]by efforts by some of the development team members
[00:14:01.425]going forward.
[00:14:02.705]It's been really interesting though, through the years
[00:14:05.233]to hear how some people feel
[00:14:06.790]that we are competing with one another
[00:14:08.593]and I think that is one thing that is misunderstood
[00:14:10.918]perhaps and could be corrected right away.
[00:14:15.516]I feel that
[00:14:17.841]it's important to make sure that everyone knows
[00:14:20.188]it's really challenging to measure
[00:14:23.249]our success in alumni work
[00:14:26.150]because it's not necessarily
[00:14:28.892]as tangible with, as it would be
[00:14:33.137]as, say, having a gift
[00:14:35.633]or a donation.
[00:14:37.905]We're not able to measure necessarily
[00:14:39.932]our engagement as well
[00:14:42.716]because for all we know,
[00:14:46.033]a program, an event, a communication
[00:14:49.681]could've been incredibly successful
[00:14:51.814]and been something that really just completely
[00:14:55.110]sparked something in an alum
[00:14:56.710]and as a result, there could be a donation
[00:14:59.388]5, 10, 15, 20, years down the road
[00:15:03.004]because of that.
[00:15:04.540]And so, you never know
[00:15:06.310]what it is that creates that spark
[00:15:09.137]and a lot of times it could be what we do.
[00:15:12.060]And we're kind of,
[00:15:13.222]we help to serve as that front door
[00:15:15.057]with the relationship building
[00:15:16.892]and to get to know those alums
[00:15:19.004]and to establish those relationships.
[00:15:21.073]And so, it's really a little bit more challenging
[00:15:25.436]to directly tie it to a measure of success
[00:15:29.660]like a donation.
[00:15:36.348]Let's talk about your egg, you brought it in.
[00:15:38.097]I did bring it in.
[00:15:39.382]I'm very excited about this egg.
[00:15:41.057]Okay,
[00:15:42.956]so this is an egg
[00:15:44.470]that was given to me last fall
[00:15:46.796]by an alum who's a regular attendee
[00:15:49.441]at lots of our, excuse me, lots of our events.
[00:15:52.545]But, she actually gave it to me
[00:15:55.382]as just kind of a reminder,
[00:15:58.518]she got it in Guam,
[00:15:59.884]when she and her husband were stationed there in the 70's.
[00:16:02.860]And she gave to me because eggs symbolize life
[00:16:06.316]and she said that coming to the alumni events
[00:16:09.868]and seeing us when she did
[00:16:13.260]brightened her life.
[00:16:15.030]And so, this was a reminder for us
[00:16:16.812]to know that we help do that for her.
[00:16:19.350]And so, I keep it on my desk
[00:16:20.620]and it's very special.

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Foundation 2016 Elizabeth & Lee interview

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