{"id":28775,"date":"2017-07-07T12:19:48","date_gmt":"2017-07-07T16:19:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/?p=28775"},"modified":"2017-10-17T11:12:20","modified_gmt":"2017-10-17T15:12:20","slug":"college-of-business-ignites-for-a-record-100-percent-fiu-campaign-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/2017\/07\/college-of-business-ignites-for-a-record-100-percent-fiu-campaign-support\/","title":{"rendered":"College of Business \u201cIgnites\u201d for a record 100 percent FIU campaign support."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FIUShortly after Dean Joanne Li came to the College of Business<\/a> in May 2017, she issued a challenge to faculty and staff: help us demonstrate our commitment to the college by participating in Ignite<\/a>, the university\u2019s annual faculty and staff fundraiser. As of late May, only 33 percent of the college had donated to Ignite, which supports over 120 different FIU initiatives, including scholarships, student activities and faculty research.<\/p>\n

At an ice cream social on May 31, Li introduced herself, brought up faculty campaign co-chairs William Hardin and Tim Birrittella, and announced a 30-day dash toward a strong campaign finish. She set a goal: 50 percent participation by the close of the campaign on June 30, a higher participation rate than the college had achieved in the five years since Ignite began.<\/p>\n

\"Dean
Dean Joanne Li<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thirty days later, that goal was left in the dust.<\/p>\n

With 293 faculty and staff members, the College of Business achieved 100 percent participation. It was first time in FIU Ignite history that a degree-granting college put its full support behind the campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am overwhelmed by your show of commitment,\u201d Li told members of the college. \u201cThrough your participation, each and every one of you has made a statement: we will put our own resources behind the work we are doing at the College of Business and FIU. This is a very powerful message.\u201d<\/p>\n

Achieving full participation came from a concentrated effort that included a sharp focus on the purpose of the Ignite campaign, ongoing strategic reminders to donate, and the invocation of a healthy dose of competitive spirit.<\/p>\n

Ignite: a single campaign in support of FIU\u2019s many goals. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was really great about this year\u2019s campaign was that people were educated on what Ignite is really about,\u201d said Yanyn San Luis, interim director of Alumni Relations for the college, who led the initiative. \u201cIt\u2019s just a matter of participation, to show that, as faculty and staff, we are engaged in our mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Birrittella, a faculty member in the Department of Marketing and Logistics<\/a>, found that in the course of sending out personal emails and speaking to colleagues, he was able to discover why people hadn\u2019t yet participated. Many had seen Ignite emails and meant to donate, but never followed through. A few strategic nudges over the course of 30 days helped get more participants on board, he said: \u201cWe all lead busy lives, and sometimes, we just need a reminder or two.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tim
Tim Birrittella<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The next step was education. Ignite allows participants to earmark their pledge, which gave participants the confidence that their money would support the goals they chose, rather than go to a general fund. And as they learned that there was no minimum amount required to participate, those who couldn\u2019t afford a large donation were able to set aside their concerns and donate.<\/p>\n

By mid-June, a handful of departments started to register 100 percent participation. That started a new phase.<\/p>\n

Each week, as the college\u2019s Ignite leadership team received the lists of participants from the university, they reached out again. Some departments were close to 100 percent; others were running below average. The team called in department directors and chairs to help bring participation up. It was an effective strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all a little competitive here,\u201d Birrittella said. \u201cEveryone wants to achieve. No one wants to be left behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the final days of June, as the goal of full participation by each department became within reach, colleagues were urging each other to donate. Yet no one expected the news of 100 percent for the entire college.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we got the news, it was so good to know that not only did we exceed our goal, but we also exceeded our expectation,\u201d San Luis said.<\/p>\n

\"William
William Hardin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

University praises a job well done. <\/em><\/p>\n

Steve Fain, chair of the Ignite campaign, praised Dean Li\u2019s leadership in helping to set the new Ignite record. \u201cHer enthusiasm was contagious, and her leadership team of Professors Hardin and Birrittella, with the support of Yanyn San Luis, worked tirelessly,\u201d he said. \u201cCongratulations to the faculty and staff in the College of Business for proving once again that, as President Rosenberg has stated many times, \u2018At FIU we turn the impossible into the inevitable.\u2019 ”<\/p>\n

For Hardin, director of the Hollo School of Real Estate<\/a>, one of the first departments to achieve 100 percent participation, the Ignite campaign represented a unique opportunity: uniting to meet a challenge. \u201cBoth faculty and staff are sending a strong positive message of support of our mission and commitment to our community,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a great result driven by many people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Li praised the campaign leaders for rallying the staff and faculty around a critical goal. In the coming year, she said, she looks forward to sharing this example of commitment to the college with the wider community.<\/p>\n

\"Yanyn
Yanyn San Luis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cFull participation makes a powerful statement: we stand 100 percent behind FIU and the College of Business. We are fully committed to the work we do,\u201d she said. \u201cI am thrilled to send the message of our achievement out to our community.\u201d She thanked campaign co-chairs Birrittella and Hardin for their initiative and hard work each day into getting full-participation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoyed the campaign,\u201d said Birrittella, faculty advisor to the AMA chapter at FIU, who pledged his donation to the Student Enhancement Fund. \u201cNo one likes asking for money, but asking for participation to support the College of Business? That\u2019s an easy ask.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shortly after Dean Joanne Li came to the College of Business in May 2017, she issued a challenge to faculty and staff: help us demonstrate our commitment to the college by participating in Ignite, the university\u2019s annual faculty and staff fundraiser. As of late May, only 33 percent of the college had donated to Ignite, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":28786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[4206,4147,2573,3806,2693],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28775"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28775"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28787,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28775\/revisions\/28787"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}