Posts Tagged: Development and Gifts
Donors dig deep to give UC ANR $99,000 for Big Dig Day
BIG congratulations! Together we raised over $99,000 in new support across the state with our second annual Big Dig Day campaign. This is an increase of more than three times the individual giving tally from last year. In these unprecedented times, this show of support demonstrates the impact UC ANR is having in our communities and the value that donors place on our work.
More than $82,000 of support was designated to 50 counties and research and extension centers. We received 843 gifts from 738 donors.
We thank all of our donors for their participation, which extends our reach and helps us fulfill our mission for a healthier California. Please view our thank you video and share it with your contacts!
The following are the top recipients of Big Dig donations.
Top 5 counties:
1. San Luis Obispo
2. Sonoma
3. Contra Costa
4. Orange
5. Sacramento
Top 5 programs:
1. UC Master Gardeners
2. California 4-H
3. UC ANR
4. UCCE
5. California Naturalists
Find your 2020 gift reports by county and by program at https://ucdavis.box.com/s/opup3bdtb98nrntqzzxs6s5pjb6h3b6r.
Happy McGivins thanks you for sharing your Dig Deep messages! With several outstanding entries in these counties, Happy is sending gift cards to these winners!
1. Lauren Hull, UC Master Gardeners
2. Ventura County, 4-H
3. Stanislaus County, MG
4. San Mateo/San Francisco, 4-H
UC ANR supporters give over $85,000 on #GivingTuesday
Thanks to everyone who participated, UC ANR's #GivingTuesday campaign was a tremendous success.
“We surpassed our goal of $60,000, raising $85,168,” said Mary Maffly Ciricillo, director of Annual Giving and Individual Gifts. “This is close to a 24 percent increase over last year's Giving Tuesday total of $68,322.”
As an added incentive to potential donors, ANR received over $37,000 in donations toward match challenge funds supporting all of UC ANR programs.
The California 4-H Foundation alone brought in over $32,000. Compared to 2016, there was a 250 percent increase in giving to UC ANR programs – including Master Gardeners, Master Food Preservers, IPM, the REC System, and county offices – totaling over $15,000.
The number of gifts received also rose, from 224 gifts in 2016 to 318 gifts this year. “We even received a gift designated to urban horticulture!” Ciricillo said.
In addition to raising money, the #GivingTuesday social media campaign helped raise the visibility of ANR programs. The Master Gardener Program team made a video of the unselfies posted on social media by their supporters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xI_tVcNhBcQ.
“We appreciate everyone's cooperation in this fundraising effort and hope we can continue to build on our success for the next #GivingTuesday,” Ciricillo said. “These private funds will help us expand UC ANR's reach.”
Below is a list of funds donors selected to receive Giving Tuesday their gifts:
ANR - Master Gardener Annual Giving Fund |
Alameda County Master Gardener Endowment Fund |
Elkus Ranch Fund |
San Mateo - 4-H Program - Various Donors |
Statewide Master Gardener Endowment Fund |
Sacramento County UCCE - Master Gardener Fund |
Los Angeles County UCCE Fund |
Orange County UCCE Fund |
El Dorado County UCCE - Rangeland Fund |
San Mateo/San Francisco UCCE - Master Gardener Fund |
ANR - Giving Tuesday Match Fund |
San Mateo County UCCE - MG Greenhouse |
KREC - Kearney REC - Fund |
SFREC - Sierra Foothill Research and Extension Center Fund |
Sonoma County UCCE - Citizen Science Projects |
"urban horticulture" |
Los Angeles County UCCE - Master Gardeners |
LREC - Lindove Field Station |
El Dorado County UCCE - Master Gardeners - Various Dnrs |
San Mateo/SF UCCE - Master Food Preserver |
Fresno County UCCE |
4-H Undesignated |
"REC System" |
Riverside County UCCE - Master Gardeners |
Sutter-Yuba Counties UCCE - Master Gardeners |
Merced County UCCE - Master Gardener Fund |
UC California Naturalist Program |
Ventura County UCCE - Master Gardener Fund |
HREC - Hopland REC - Fund |
"Marin Master Gardeners Opportunity Fund" |
IPM - Program Fund |
4-H Foundation UC Donor Funds |
DREC - Desert REC FARM SMART Fund |
Merced County Agriculture Extension and Research Endowment |
Alameda County UCCE - Master Gardeners |
UCCE Master Gardeners of Orange County |
Orange County UCCE - Master Food Preserver Fund |
Kern - 4-H Program - Various Donors |
Colusa County UCCE - Master Gardener Program |
Central Sierra - UCCE |
Ventura County UCCE Fund |
"Ventura County Master Gardeners" |
San Joaquin County UCCE - Master Gardener Fund |
ANR - California Naturalist Scholarship Fund |
Statewide Program - Nutrition, Family and Consumer Sciences Program |
ANR Informatics and GIS Fund |
Nutrition Policy Institute General Fund |
Plumas County UCCE - Project Learning Tree |
ANR - Master Food Preservers Fund |
California Institute for Water Resources |
San Mateo County UCCE Fund |
Santa Barbara County 4-H - Various Donors |
Contra Costa County UCCE Fund |
UC ANR goes to Washington
“We visited offices of 26 of California's 55-member congressional delegation in two days!” said Lucas Frerichs, government and community relations manager.
On March 6-9, a UC ANR delegation attended the 35th Annual Council on Agriculture Research, Extension and Teaching (CARET) meetings in Washington D.C. CARET is part of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU). They also made congressional visits to explain the importance of science and research to California.
“Our primary purpose for the visits was to show the members of Congress all the good work UC ANR is doing throughout California, whether it's through our Cooperative Extension efforts, 4-H Youth Development program, nutrition programs, Integrated Pest Management, Master Gardeners, etc.,” Frerichs said, “and the value that Californians receive from the money Congress allocates to the university for UC ANR programs.”
Vice President Glenda Humiston was joined by AVP Wendy Powers, UCB College of Natural Resources Dean Keith Gilless, UCR College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences Dean Kathryn Uhrich, Nutrition Policy Institute Director Lorrene Ritchie, UC Cooperative Extension Specialist Clare Gupta, Chief Innovation Officer Gabe Youtsey, and Frerichs. Industry partners Bill Frost, former UC ANR AVP; Cher Watte, executive director of the California Asparagus Commission; Mike Mellano, fresh cut flower grower; Dina Moore, Humboldt County rancher; and Jean-Mari Peltier, managing partner of Environmental Solutions Group, served as CARET delegates from California.
The group split up into teams to visit the offices of Senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris, agriculture committee members, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Minority Leader of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and other California representatives.
Although no U.S. secretary of agriculture had been confirmed at the time of their visit, members expressed their support for agriculture.
“One thing that members of Congress – Republicans and Democrats – can certainly agree on is that the support for agriculture and the University of California is strong,” Frerichs said.
Read more about the CARET visits in Powers' ANR Adventures blog.
Names in the News
Bell named Vice Provost–Statewide Programs/Strategic Initiatives
Mark Bell will join UC ANR on May 1 as Vice Provost–Statewide Programs/Strategic Initiatives position. Bell is director of the UC Davis International Learning Center, a position he has held since 2007.
In this newly created position, Bell will provide leadership for a unified UC ANR program with strong statewide, campus and local presences. He will oversee the California Institute for Water Resources, Nutrition Policy Institute, the five UC ANR Strategic Initiatives and the nine UC ANR Statewide Programs. In addition, he will coordinate the Division's participation in the UC Presidential Initiatives, including the Global Food, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, UC-Mexico and Carbon Neutrality initiatives.
“Mark's record of success working with international extension systems in the combined roles of manager and field researcher makes him the ideal choice to serve as Vice Provost–Statewide Programs/Strategic Initiatives,” said VP Humiston in announcing his hiring.
“UC ANR can benefit from his skills and experience in leveraging research-extension linkages, adult education and information technology for agricultural development,” she said. Prior to joining UC Davis, Bell, who speaks Spanish, worked for nine years at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico and 11 years at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines.
At IRRI, he led development of the Rice Knowledge Bank – the world's major repository for rice-oriented training and extension materials aimed to help developing countries. He is currently leading development of Ag Extension, eAfghan Ag and e-China Apple at UC Davis International Learning Center.
As vice provost, he will serve on the UC ANR Program Council and collaborate closely with the Vice Provost of Cooperative Extension and the Director of the Research and Extension Center System. He will be located in the offices at 2801 Second Street in Davis.
Bell has a Ph.D. in soil science and bachelor's degree in agricultural sciences from the University of Queensland in Australia and a master's degree in soil science from the University of Reading, U.K.
Swett joins UC ANR as UCCE specialist
Cassandra Swett joined UCCE on Jan. 2, 2017, as an assistant specialist in Cooperative Extension in the Department of Plant Pathology at UC Davis.
Prior to joining UCCE, Swett was an assistant professor and extension specialist at the University of Maryland, College Park, studying small fruit and grape diseases. Previously, Swett worked as a postdoctoral researcher with Doug Gubler, UCCE specialist in the Department of Plant Pathology at UC Davis.
Swett earned her B.S. in plant science from UC Santa Cruz, an M.S. in tropical plant pathology from the University of Hawaii, Manoa, and a Ph.D. in plant pathology from the Department of Plant Pathology at UC Davis.
Swett is located at 260 Hutchison Hall and can be reached at (530) 752-3377 and clswett@ucdavis.edu.
Parreira joins UC IPM as writer/editor
Stephanie Parreira joined UC IPM as a writer/editor on Feb. 13. Parreira will develop new and evaluate existing publications and products such as the "Pest Management Guidelines," year-round IPM programs, online tutorials, videos, identification cards, and other training materials. She will also assist UC IPM's urban and community IPM team with training courses about the principles of integrated pest management for UC Master Gardeners and other extenders of pest management information.
As a graduate student, Parreira sought to fill five major research gaps in honey bee pesticide toxicology: effects on whole colonies, effects on nurse bees (the youngest adult bees in a honey bee colony, which do not leave to collect pollen and nectar), effects of long-term exposure to field-realistic concentrations of pesticides, pesticide interactions, and effects of exposure through multiple routes (such as nectar and pollen). Outside of her research, she took many opportunities to speak to the public about current problems in bee health and what people can do to help bees thrive. She became especially interested in working in extension because of these experiences.
Parreira earned a B.A. in environmental studies and planning with a minor in biology from Sonoma State University in 2013, and earned an M.S. in horticulture with a focus in entomology from Oregon State University in 2016.
Parreira is located at the ANR building in Davis and can be reached at (530) 750-1391 and sparreira@ucanr.edu.
Purnell joins UC IPM as a programmer
Michael Purnell joined the Statewide IPM Program on Feb. 2 as a programmer. He will be working on developing tools for the web that will enhance and add to the existing UC IPM products. Some of these tools include improving and upgrading the plant problem diagnostics tool, IPM decision support tool, bee precaution pesticide ratings, and herbicide symptoms photo repository.
Before joining UC IPM, Purnell was a project manager and technical lead for Intel Corporation in Folsom, CA where he and his team developed code and designed technical diagrams to integrate Intel's administrative systems with third party on-premise and cloud solutions.
Purnell earned his B.S. and M.S. in computer science at North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University.
Purnell is based at the ANR building in Davis, with the IPM IT/Production team, and can be reached at (530) 750-1248 and mdpurnell@ucanr.edu.
UC ANR invites legislators to Ag Day at the Capitol
Ag Day at the Capitol was held in Sacramento on March 22. On Monday, March 20, Lucas Frerichs, Tyler Ash, Pam Kan-Rice and Meredith Turner of UC State Government Relations, visited the offices of all 120 legislators and the governor and lieutenant governor to invite them to visit the UC ANR booth at Ag Day. They handed out bags of UC-developed "Tango" mandarins, explaining that the seedless, easy-to-peel citrus variety is one of many California crops developed with UC ANR research.
We'll have more coverage of Ag Day at the Capitol in the next ANR Report.
To see Twitter coverage of Ag Day at the Capitol, look for the hashtags #CalAgDay and #growCAtogether.