A new website will serve as the central location to coordinate charitable giving by Vanderbilt faculty and staff to the university, to Vanderbilt University Medical Center and to the Nashville community, Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos announced Sept. 22.
Vanderbilt Gives consolidates the annual Community Giving, Faculty-Staff and Partners in Health campaigns into one online location. All of the same giving opportunities supported in the past will continue to be available through two simplified components – Community Giving and Vanderbilt Giving – that are now paperless and therefore more environmentally friendly for making contributions. The new site allows employees to give to the Middle Tennessee nonprofit agencies of their choice and to Vanderbilt at the same time, versus in the past, when the campaigns occurred at different times throughout the year.
“Many of our faculty and staff members have expressed a desire to reduce the number of communications soliciting charitable contributions,” wrote Chancellor Zeppos in a letter to the Vanderbilt community Sept. 22. “Vanderbilt Gives combines the traditional internal campaigns … into one convenient online location for employee giving.
“Vanderbilt is a ‘giving’ institution,” Zeppos continued. “It is the giving nature of each of you in your daily work and financial support that solidifies Vanderbilt as a world-renowned learning and care-giving institution. This new approach is designed to make the process better and easier for all involved.”
Community Giving provides valuable support to Vanderbilt’s neighbors through organizations such as United Way of Metropolitan Nashville, Community Health Charities of Tennessee, Community Shares and the Nashville Public Education Foundation and the agencies they represent. Hundreds of these agencies may be designated to receive gifts through Community Giving.
Vanderbilt Giving allows employees to make a gift to any area at Vanderbilt. As a nonprofit institution, Vanderbilt relies on charitable gifts to help support work and research done at the university and medical center and to provide financial assistance to undergraduates. Giving to Vanderbilt shows employees’ commitment to and belief in the institution, in addition to their commitment to come to work each day.
“Vanderbilt Gives allows the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of our neighbors and the work of our colleagues,” said Jeff Balser, vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine. “I encourage you to support the programs that hold meaning for you.”
A link to the Vanderbilt Gives website will be included in all Open Enrollment materials and on the Open Enrollment website Oct. 1-14. If you participate in Vanderbilt Gives during the Open Enrollment process, be sure to return to the Open Enrollment website and complete your benefits selection for 2012.
Employees may give through payroll deduction in lump sums or by spreading out payments over 12 months, as well as by credit card, cash or check. Gifts through Community Giving can be made October through December 2011. Vanderbilt Giving will continue throughout the academic year.
To participate, visit vanderbilt.edu/vanderbilt-gives.