Features/News Archives
Past News and Articles
Matching Gifts - Another Easy Way to Give
There are currently hundreds of companies in existence that will match the financial contributions their employees make to institutions of higher education. Matching gifts continue to be a vitally important source of funds for colleges and universities, not to mention numerous additional nonprofit charitable organizations. They also are an increasingly important way for companies to allow employees to direct a portion of the monies for charitable contributions.
Ways to Give
There are many different ways to give back to Michigan Tech.
The staff here at the Michigan Tech Fund will work with you to find the best way for your gift to benefit both the you and the University. Gifts can come in many different forms. This includes corporate gifts, matching gifts, endowments, planned gifts, and even real estate. You can donate money towards various areas of our University including scholarship funds, towards buildings, to our annual fund, to our parent's fund, or to various giving societies.
Decide Your Planned Gift Goal
Deciding your goals is the best way to determine which planned giving method will benefit you the most. If you continue reading, on the next page are nine goals common to most contributors. Choose the planned gift that best meets your personal goals.
Tech Parents Annual Fund
In 1998-99 the Michigan Tech Fund launched the Tech Parents Annual Fund program with the goal of establishing a consistent means of support for student activities at Michigan Tech. During the course of this program, donors to the Tech Parents Annual Fund have made the effort a tremendous success. The Office of Student Affairs administers this fund, and uses these gift dollars to support a wide variety of student programs and organizations. Many student groups are able to attend national competitions with the help of the Parents Fund.
Reminder: Deadline for Year-End Donations to Michigan Tech Dec. 31
Many donors make year-end gifts to the University in order to benefit from a tax deduction for the current year. As soon as possible after you receive a contribution intended for credit in 2007, please forward it to the Tech Fund and include the envelope and supporting documents. Credit card donations and gifts of cash or checks will be accepted at the Tech Fund office (Citizens Bank Building, seventh floor) until 3 p.m. on Dec. 31. A credit card contribution can be made online until 11:00 p.m. on Dec. 31.
A Message From the Michigan Tech Fund
We will be closed on December 24, 25, 31 and January 1 for the Holiday Season. If you would like to make a donation, credit card donations can be made on our secure 'Make A Gift' web site. Or it is not too late to mail your donation in. For immediate assistance, please call 906-487-2310. We hope you have a safe and happy Holiday!
Dow Corning Makes Major Contribution to Support Chemical Engineering at Michigan Tech
Michigan Tech's Unit Operations Lab, a chemical processing facility located right on campus, will remain among the nation's best, thanks to a significant donation from Dow Corning Corporation. The lab provides chemical engineering students the latest industrial technology, giving them skills and experience that enable them to move seamlessly from the classroom to the workplace. "We are very grateful to Dow Corning for their generous gift," said Komar Kawatra, chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering.
Tax Advantages of Giving
One major bonus to making charitable contributions to the Michigan Tech Fund, besides the pride you feel from helping, is the tax benefit. Properly deducting your gifts can lead to considerable savings for you. The federal government, by providing certain benefits in the tax laws, encourages gifts to educational institutions and other nonprofit organizations such as the Michigan Tech Fund.
Retirement Income You Can Depend On
With all the ups and downs in the financial markets, many of our older friends are turning to the Michigan Tech Fund's gift annuity program to create a steady, dependable stream of lifetime income. They like knowing that every quarter they will receive the same amount, year in and year out. They like the other benefits, too. Things like a good payment rate (up to 12% for a single-life annuity to a person aged 90 or older) and income that is partially tax-free. To learn more, fill out our online response form. Once we know a little information, we can prepare an easy-to-read gift illustration.
Giving Areas - Michigan Tech Departments
Make a gift to any of Michigan Tech's many departments or giving initiatives. Simply choose a department and click on their departmental link and you can help make Michigan Tech a better place today.
Need Data? The Fund Can Help
If you did not already know, the Michigan Tech Fund does a lot more for the University than solicit and collect charitable contributions. One of these important tasks is to manage the data that we collect on our 100,000 alumni, friends and supporters. The data entry and information services staff here at the Fund are in charge of this data, and it is no simple task to keep it organized and useful. There is a laundry list of services available to University staff through the Michigan Tech Fund's Information Services Department.
Annuity Helps Donor and Michigan Tech
Albert Mickus is long removed from his childhood days in South Range, Michigan. "Those were Depression days," he recalls, "and everybody had it tough--although we didn't feel that as kids."Times are now much more comfortable for Al. Late last year he established a generous charitable gift annuity with the Michigan Tech Fund. He says the annuity ideally fits his current state of affairs, which includes both providing for his wife and helping Tech financially. Al, a soft-spoken man, enrolled at Tech in 1942 but was drafted into the Marines a year later. After serving until 1945, he returned to Tech on the GI Bill.
Michigan Tech Annual Fund
The Michigan Tech Annual Fund is dedicated to securing crucial, unrestricted contributions that benefit today's Michigan Tech students. Annual Fund support may be directed to a particular academic department (each department has its own unrestricted account), or it may be directed to the University's general unrestricted account.
All alumni are strongly encouraged to support the Annual Fund each year. It is Michigan Tech's #1 priority for ongoing, yearly support!
About the Michigan Tech Fund
The Michigan Tech Fund is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt corporation established in 1965 under the laws of the State of Michigan. Existing solely for the benefit of Michigan Technological University and its students, the Tech Fund promotes, receives, invests, and disburses gifts for the University's goals and needs.
Gift Matching - Giving Back Time and Money
Terry Hardie, class of '64 and '66, last visited the campus thirteen years ago, for his 25th reunion, but he has an ongoing impact on Tech: He is the corporate agent at StorageTek, a Colorado firm that matches 50 percent of its employees' charitable gifts. StorageTek sells data storage devices for computers, servers, and other intensive data storage applications. Hardie oversees a staff responsible for managing his company's relationships with other computer manufacturers.
The Michigan Tech Fund is more than just gifts
When many people think of the Michigan Tech Fund, they think of giving to the University. While solicitation and collection of donations to Michigan Tech is their primary function, the Tech Fund also does much more.
For instance, the Michigan Tech Fund is the "keeper of the data" for alumni, friends and supporters of Michigan Tech. "In our fast-paced, mobile society, it's a challenge to keep track of where people live, where they work, their email address and their cell phone number. The staff here at the Fund does a great job of managing the vast amount of data we deal with every day," says Mary Jane Lowney, Director of Information Services.
Estate enhances donor's legacy
The estate of Robert M. Anderson, class of 1943, has more than doubled the late supporter's endowed scholarship fund. The University received $2.8 million from Anderson's estate in 2003, raising the total of the Robert M. and Virginia Mercer Anderson Endowed Scholarship Fund to $4 million.
Gift Planning
The Michigan Tech Fund offers a wide range of gift planning options to benefit Michigan Tech's faculty, students, and programs -- while also allowing you to take maximum advantage of federal tax laws to accomplish your financial and charitable goals. Selecting the best gift plan depends on your personal financial situation, assets, and financial goals.
Strategic Plan
Michigan Tech will be a nationally prominent and internationally recognized technological university which bridges technology and business and will meet the needs of a global and technologically rich society through excellence in undergraduate and graduate education, scholarship, and research.
Join the Huskies Club
Your membership will help the Huskies Club raise funds for the Athletic Department's general scholarship account, as this is the sole funding source for the grant-in-aid program for all varsity sports. The continued success of our athletic teams depends not only our coaching staff and student athletes, but also on you!
Endowments Create a Legacy for Michigan Tech
John and Jane Husky have been giving to Tech for years. We consider them partners in our mission to prepare students to create the future. In fact, we've grown downright dependant on their annual gifts. Consequently, when they are gone, we will feel the absence of their giving. John and Jane realize this and are taking steps to ensure that their giving never runs dry.
Planned Gift Types
The Michigan Tech Fund offers a wide range of gift planning options to benefit Michigan Tech's faculty, students, and programs — while also allowing you to take maximum advantage of federal tax laws to accomplish your financial and charitable goals. Selecting the best gift plan depends on your personal financial situation, assets, and financial goals. The staff of the Office of Gift Planning will be happy to work with you and your professional advisors to guide you through the many options listed here and develop a gift plan that fits your priorities.
Who Donates to Michigan Tech?
Over 30,000 individuals have contributed to Tech since 2003. From alumni to students, employees to friends, all kinds of people have been touched by Tech and wish to give back. We are truly grateful for each person who gives to the Fund. From large gifts to small gifts, each and every gift is important.
Donor Recognition
Michigan Tech and the Michigan Tech Fund offer a number of honor societies to recognize contributors whose high level of support helps maintain the University's excellence. Alumni and friends who give at specified levels are listed in the Fund's Annual Report each year. Donors are recognized for what they contribute annually (Giving Clubs), and for what they give over a lifetime (Giving Societies). Contact us about joining a club or society today.
Gift Matching - The Right Thing to do
Jack Guillaumin has seven good reasons to support Michigan Tech: That's the number of scholarships that he helps to fund by facilitating donations from alumni and arranging for matching gifts from their employer, in his case DTE Energy, the parent company of Detroit Edison Co.
Endowments--Attractive, Important, And Enduring
As a friend of Michigan Tech, you probably make at least one annual gift to support our worthy mission. The Michigan Tech Fund's endowment program allows you to make sure that these annual gifts continue in perpetuity after you are gone. Endowment funds are basically investment funds that preserve principal and provide annual interest earnings to Michigan Tech.
Donors Give $7 Million
Two families have donated major gifts to Michigan Technological University that will fund three endowed faculty chairs and an endowed professorship, as well as several other projects. Richard and Bonnie Robbins, of Seattle, have created the Robbins Chairs of Sustainability, including a Chair in Sustainable Manufacturing and Design, a Chair in Sustainable Use of Materials, and a Chair in Sustainable Management of the Environment. A total of $6 million, the primary endowment for the chairs, has been committed through a charitable trust that will ultimately come to Michigan Tech.
Recapturing that touch of gold
Jamie Russell, Husky hockey coach, is a realist. He has nine recruits joining the team this year. "How good are they?" he is asked. "I'll tell you in four years," he responds, only partly in jest. Russell is also a dreamer. Beginning his fifth year as coach, Russell is encouraged so far.
Alumnus supports civil and environmental program
Donald Tomasini describes himself as "a low-profile man." But he is front and center about Michigan Tech, where he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering in 1954. The owner of a public works construction firm in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Tomasini says Tech paved the way for his success.
Michigan Tech Fund Merit Award Nominees Sought
If you know an outstanding senior student at Michigan Tech, consider nominating them for a Michigan Tech Fund Merit Award. The awards are presented annually to a senior man and woman who have demonstrated extraordinary leadership and service to the university. Recipients are given a personal memento and a cash award.
Ross Roeder - A Leader on Many Fronts
Ross Roeder's leadership talents have been widely recognized - and widely used. Michigan Tech, too, has benefited from his leadership. In addition to serving as a member and president of the Tech Fund board, Ross helped to take the lead as a founding member of the Phi Kappa Tau Chapter at Michigan Tech and later as a charter member of Tech's McNair Society.
A man who made a difference, and a model of deferred giving
The life of John Edgar McAllister, 1870-1959, is a model of how to handle success: Pass it on. A native of Canada, McAllister recognized that his education provided independence, so he helped many students to attend Michigan Tech and gain that edge in life. He did so through the Michigan Tech Fund, which administers the McAllister Scholarship Program. The program is a touchstone of McAllister's philosophy of life. He recognized, an admirer says, "that there are times when one needs help, and there are times when one can and should offer help."
Governor's Higher Ed Budget: Funding Hike Next Year, Payment Delay this Year
Governor Jennifer Granholm?s budget proposal, released Thursday, recommends delaying a portion of the August 2007 higher education payment until fiscal year 2008 to help balance the current year?s budget. If the proposal is adopted by the legislature, the state would withhold half of its August 2007 payments to the state?s 15 public universities.
Michigan Tech Announces New Online Alumni Community
What better time than Winter Carnival to connect with old friends? Over 50,000 Michigan Tech alums are being invited to join a new secure online community where they will be able to update their directory information, email, chat and post photos and class notes. In addition, they will be able to build mini-sites for clubs and groups from within the larger alumni community. The site will also be a place to register for alumni events in their area, check out news about the university or post classified ads. It's a great opportunity to connect with other Michigan Tech grads.
New Alumni Relations Director Named
Brenda Rudiger has been named director of alumni relations, Vice President for Advancement Shea McGrew has announced. Rudiger comes to Michigan Tech from the University of Windsor in Ontario, where she has served as alumni officer since 2003. This followed two years at Windsor as a communication officer for electronic media.
Stackhouse Named Director of Corporate Development
Steve Stackhouse has been promoted to the position of director of corporate development from his current post as associate director, Shea McGrew, vice president for advancement and executive director of the Michigan Tech Fund, has announced. In addition, Brian Hannon has been named assistant director. They join Adam Johnson, also an assistant director, and Office Assistant Jeanne Fricke to form the Corporate Development team. Stackhouse has served Michigan Tech in corporate relations for a number of years.
Greenlee Named CFO of Tech Fund
Dan Greenlee, MTU's chief financial officer and treasurer of the Board of Control, has agreed to also serve as CFO and director of operations of the Tech Fund. Greenlee will direct the Fund's financial and administrative operations, including finance, investments, accounting, budgeting, gift reporting & receipting, scholarship administration, and office staff supervision.
Important Year-End Closing Info from the Michigan Tech Fund
Thank you for contacting the Michigan Tech Fund and the Office of Development. We will be closed on December 25, 26, 29 and January 2 for the Holiday Season. If you wish to make a donation, credit card donations can be made on our secure web site by clicking on "Make a Gift Today". Or it is not too late to mail your donation in. If you require assistance, please call 906-487-2310. We hope you have a safe and happy Holiday.
Young couple looks ahead
When he graduated from Tech in 1982, David McBride expected to work in the corporate world as preparation for starting his own business. The economy at the time, however, was in the doldrums, and the job market dried up, so he started his own construction firm right away. "From adversity came one of the best things that ever happened to me," he says in retrospect.
Donor and spouse repay a debt
Donald Lehman knows about lean times and hard work. When he attended Michigan Tech from 1959 to1963, he received a football scholarship, but he also had to work. He remembers one term when he had six jobs besides his schooling-ranging from washing dishes in the dorms, doing laundry in the gym, to bartending at the Douglass House. You name it, he did it-for the going rate at the time, a buck an hour.