tânisi nitôtêmak?
As you probably know, I have been actively fundraising in the hope of setting up three separate endowments for students at the Faculty of Native Studies at the University of Alberta. Your ABSOLUTELY AMAZING RESPONSE was honestly unexpected, and has created a sort of tsunami-situation for the University. That’s right folks, this has wonderfully snowballed, but the speed and intensity of interest is burying the Office of Advancement.
I mean, this all started with me musing about setting up a monthly donation myself to support Black students who want to come to Native Studies…and then suddenly we had an anonymous donor offer to match funds up to $25,000!
What we do not have yet, however, are the specific terms of reference for these three endowments set up yet. This means that there are no “containers” to stick all these donations in, which makes money people really nervous. Therefore, I’m hitting pause on fundraising for these three endowments for the next week or so, to let the legal people catch up and get those containers built.
Once we get back up and running, the office of advancement will also be making it easier to donate, and we’ll have an official link on the Faculty of Native Studies webpage to direct you to. Those of you who have already donated directly through the office of advancement, you’re all good.
For those of you who have donated through me, I will be in contact with you once we have that official donation link set up. I will refund your paypal donations, and then direct you to re-donate (your choice, of course) through that official link. It will be fairly no fuss, no muss.
In both cases, those of you who have donated towards the Solidarity in Scholarship fund for Black students will still have your donations matched!
So please bear with me while I tap my foot impatiently after unintentionally unleashing this avalanche on our money people! It’s hard to rein it in after seeing how supportive folks are, but we need some time to get this right, and so that’s what we’re doing.
If you have any questions, hit me up on twitter or through my contact page!
ay-ay!
OMG, this is fabulous. Once this is all set up, I will be glad to donate more again, and possibly if I can do it, on a semi regular basis.
That is what I’m going to do as well, set up a monthly deduction straight from my paycheque, I’m super pumped!
thanks for the update. was going to call the office of advancement today. I’ll wait until next week.
Hi. I’d be happy to donate to the Black Students in Native Studies. Can we donate now? Best, Debra Helmer
The office of advancement is still working on the terms of reference for that endowment. This is apparently breaking some new ground in Alberta, so it’s taking longer than it otherwise would. The second it’s available, I’ll be posting about it, keep it tuned!