Many Benefit When Many Give
“You don’t even feel like you’re convincing someone because it’s such a great cause,” says Miranda Booth, a 4th year UBC student who works part-time in the Annual Giving Call Centre. Along with dozens of other UBC students, Miranda works part-time, evenings and weekends, phoning alumni to raise funds for UBC.
These collective gifts provide direct financial support for students in the form of scholarships and bursaries. Funds can also be directed towards research, teaching and learning applications, better classrooms and laboratory spaces, new computers and books. In 2009-10, over 23,000 donors came together to raise $5.6 million for these purposes.
Miranda is also a bursary recipient, and she understands how important Annual Giving is to students in need. “Bursaries help us get through our university education and pay for tuition, which means that we don’t have to spend so much time at a part-time job, and we can spend more time focusing on studying, so it’s really essential.”
Alumni donations account for 70% of bursary funds, while the Parents Campaign gives specifically to the Library Fund. “Parents who make a donation can write a personalized inscription at the front of a new textbook in their child’s area of study, which will be put in the UBC library,” explains Miranda.
As a UBC student, Miranda has experienced many of the needs that she campaigns for. “It’s pretty easy to ask for funds if you yourself are experiencing those same challenges as a student.”
Students who work in the Call Centre can continue their employment there for up to four months past their graduation, an option that Miranda is seriously considering. “It’s been such a great job; I don’t want to leave. It sort of gives you this rush at the end of the phone conversation. I got this person to donate to something great, and it’s going to make them feel good and it’s going to benefit the university. That feels really wonderful!”
