Phil’s Day started bright and early on Thursday, April 28.
Gathering at dawn at the Levitt Center for University Advancement, University of Iowa students and UI Foundation staff members divided themselves into groups and set off to “tag” places on campus where philanthropy—nicknamed “Phil” by the UI Foundation’s Campus Philanthropy Initiative—has made a big difference.
UI philanthropy facts
3,278 UI faculty and staff made gifts in Fiscal Year '15 (with gifts totaling nearly $2.9M).
So far in Fiscal Year ’16 (since July 1, 2015), more than 2,600 UI employees have made charitable contributions to support UI and its people, programs, and facilities.
221 faculty members hold named, endowed positions provided by support from donors.
2,806 students received support from privately funded scholarships last year.
Before most students arrived on campus for their morning classes, more than 60 campus buildings were adorned with black-and-gold Phil Was Here ribbons and posters. These festive adornments indicated places that benefitted significantly from donor support for facilities, scholarships, programs, research, or faculty positions.
There’s no other day during the school year when philanthropy is more visible than Phil’s Day, an annual campus initiative that began five years ago. Students, faculty, and staff could easily spot places where donations had made a difference as they moved through the campus for their usual classes or workdays.
They also were encouraged to sign thank-you cards for donors at more than a dozen locations on campus and were invited to attend the annual “Life With Phil” talk, delivered by UI graduate P. Sue Beckwith, M.D.—a prominent Des Moines surgeon and former Hawkeye basketball player—in the Senate Chamber of the Old Capitol Museum.
Beckwith, who has earned three UI degrees (1980 B.A., 1984 M.D., 2015 MBA), was the first woman to have a University of Iowa building named in honor of her philanthropy—the P. Sue Beckwith, M.D., Boathouse, for which she made a leadership gift in 2010. She encouraged students to make it a goal to be philanthropic in their lives, saying, “We can’t do everything, but we can do something…the more passionate and involved we are, the more we’re going to get back.”
