SUNY Oswego - Alumni Association - November E-Newsletter

November 2010 • Vol 6 No 8

Honor Roll of Appreciation Posted

Thanks to 7,533 alumni, faculty and staff, parents and friends of SUNY Oswego, The Fund for Oswego raised $3,053,171 from July 1, 2009, to June 30, 2010.

Honor Roll of Appreciation cover

These donors to The Fund for Oswego, who are making an immediate and positive impact on the lives of students, are recognized in YOUR Impact: 2009-2010 Honor Roll of Appreciation, which now appears online.

“We are grateful for your support. We appreciate your financial assistance and also your continuing advocacy on behalf of Oswego and the State University of New York,” said President Deborah F. Stanley. “Every day I witness the immediate and profound impact your philanthropy has on the lives of our students.”

In a continuing effort to carefully steward donations to the college and the planet's natural resources, the Oswego College Foundation has moved from a printed honor roll of donors to an online listing. This switch will save more than $7,132 in printing and design costs and $2,128 in postage — resources which can be put to better use enhancing the SUNY Oswego educational experience for students and faculty.

These savings mean more books for the library, more computer equipment in labs and more support for cutting-edge academic programs that will better position Oswego's students to compete in the current tough job market.

In addition, by not printing 7,500 copies of the 40-page honor roll, the college is saving precious trees, water and fuel, not to mention additional carbon savings from not transporting and mailing the copies to donors' homes.

A significant factor in the move to an online honor roll was to protect our donors’ privacy. A Google search of any individual’s name will not link to the donor listing.

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Oswego Alumni Association, Inc. • King Alumni Hall - SUNY Oswego • Oswego, NY 13126
315-312-2258 • 315-312-5570 (fax) • E-mail: alumni@oswego.edu • Web site: oswego.edu/alumni

Who doesn’t want to save the world? Michael Kite ’02 does that for a living through World Wildlife Fund.

As marketing specialist for one of the world’s leading conservation organizations, Kite and his team of three work to raise more than $5 million each year. The majority of that money comes from licensing partnerships and promotions with the likes of Barnes & Noble, Gap, Hewlett-Packard, Dial and Coinstar.

Retail partnerships help WWF spread its message to the general public and raise funds for its conservation work around the globe. For example, Bank of America contributes $100 for every special Visa account opened and Nabisco is supporting WWF’s “Year of the Tiger” initiative with special packaging and a $100,000 donation. The new CVS Green Bag Tag program rewards reusable bag-toting customers, and generates five cents for WWF for each tag sold.

All support WWF’s mission of protecting the future of nature, down to the finest details, Kite said.

“We like to see that the product is made from recycled material and is recyclable itself, and somehow ties into our mission,” Kite said. The Green Bag Tag, for instance, is made from a corn-based material and features a 100 percent recycled silicone lanyard.

As a broadcasting major at Oswego, Kite got involved with WRVO-FM and WNYO-FM.

“I think it gave me a lot more confidence in talking to people,” he said. It was an important part of his early career in broadcast sales and remains an important piece in the message he “sells” today.

“The best part of my job is seeing a product in the store with the WWF logo after months of working with a company to launch it,” said Kite, who joined the organization in 2006. “It’s rewarding to give people a fun, unique way to protect our planet.”

— Shane M. Liebler