Gift Fairy Joins UConn Foundation

From the March 2011 issue of Our Moment, the UConn Foundation's e-newsletter.
Originally published on February 22, 2011, in The Daily Campus (link).

Republished with permission.

By Megan Anderson, The Daily Campus

Early one morning, a very benevolent fairy leapt out of bed. He pulled on his UConn socks, his UConn shoes, his UConn vest, his UConn oven mitts and his pretty pink tutu and flew out the door to shower all of UConn-land in glittering grants.

Meet the University of Connecticut Foundation's shiny new mascot – the Gift Fairy.

Digital Media students have produced a video that not only thanks university donors, but is already raising the Foundation's profile and signalling the beginnings of a new Digital Media Center at UConn.

"The Adventures of the UConn Gift Fairy" depicts an animated fairy who magically revitalizes clubs and departments across campus and pays tribute to the donors behind these dazzling transformations.

Already, the video has attracted over 8,850 views on YouTube and praise from alumni and similar college foundations across the country.

Not bad for a group of students who admit its knowledge of the Foundation had been pretty hazy.

"I didn't know they even existed before this project," said Director of Photography Calvin Anderson.

The collaboration between Professor Tim Hunter's fall Digital Media class and the UConn Foundation has been a unique venture for both the Foundation and the university.

In addition to state funding and tuition fees, UConn currently relies on external funding for 36 percent of its budget. The Foundation, which solicits and administers gifts and grants from donors to the university, is currently in the midst of a $600 million fundraising campaign that began in 2009.

Hunter had been involved in discussions with the Foundation about the development of a new Digital Media Center, and approached the organization with the idea to build on this relationship in a way that would profit students and the Foundation alike.

"[W]e found ourselves exploring the idea of working together to create a piece that would leverage all the good points of the [Digital Media] Center in celebration of our students' education and the alumni who give so generously to support their educations," Hunter said.

Traditionally, the Foundation sends an end-of-year message to thank donors. Director of Annual Giving Karen Santasiere said that this year they "wanted something a little different."

Hunter's class was called in for the job, bringing together 16 students from a range of departments within the arts, dramatic arts and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences programs. The group worked with the Foundation on a client-basis, pitching ideas and meeting regularly to discuss the video's progress.

Lead editor Mark Novick said this interaction was good for the students, too.

"One of the great things about the project is that, in a lot of ways, [the Foundation] was just like any other client," he said.

Santasiere said the foundation was impressed and surprised by the students' level of professionalism.

"Our communications staff agreed that the experience was like working with an advertising agency," she said.

Despite a rocky start, Anderson said by the end the whole group (consisting of storyboard, photography, technical, animation and editing teams) was working as one well-run machine.

"There was a hiccup in figuring out that there was an order to the system, but once we figured out the order it went really, really smoothly," Anderson said.

While working on the video, the group interacted with departments and clubs across campus, many of which appeared in the video.

"The whole university was really cooperative with everything," said Allison McGrath, who worked on storyboard and animation. "We had to film with every department, so we really had to branch out and communicate with everyone."

Not only did the group convince the marching band, the nursing department and the men's rowing team to appear in the video, but they also recruited the support of the Co-op, which lent enough UConn merchandise to bombard the opening scenes of the "Gift Fairy."

Colleen McLaughlin, who worked on the film and editing teams, says the project opened a few eyes in the process.

"I think it really raised everyone's awareness that there are all these great things at UConn and […] that they're coming from the donors," she said.

Anderson said that the experience also highlighted some of the programs in need of support. "For example, the men's rowing team. They are hardcore, they practice at, like, 5 a.m. and they practice well after dark, and they're working with older equipment.

"But the whole time, they were like, ‘Yeah, this is what we have, and maybe this will bring awareness to what we need.' So it gave them exposure.

"Hopefully the story of the video that we've created goes out to the rest of the student body and they find out about the Foundation as well."

For McGrath, working on the video was also a way to thank donors indirectly.

"I get scholarships from the uni [and] you don't always know where those are coming from," she said.

John Sponauer, the Foundation's assistant director for e-marketing, is enthusiastic about the quality of the work the group have produced.

"It's the first time we've really had something that has been driven start to finish by students," he said. "The response has been phenomenal."

Already, said Sponauer, the Foundation has received dozens of e-mails from donors who have been struck by the video. It has also directly contributed at least one gift to the University.

Santasiere said "Gift Fairy" has also drawn praise from colleges and universities across the country.

"The University of Iowa even posted the video on their Facebook page with a congratulations message to the UConn students who created the concept," she said.

Both Santasiere and Sponauer agree that the success behind the video is driven by it being an entirely student-run venture.

"The fact that the video was conceived and created by students really sets it apart," Santasiere said.

While the Foundation is still reviewing the success of the video, they are enthusiastic about taking the idea further.

"We hope to continue our partnership with UConn's Digital Media Program to help raise awareness of the need for fundraising for UConn's many schools, colleges programs and activities," Santasiere said.

The students enjoyed the project for its own sake, too.

For executive producer Grace Alpert, it meant putting the finishing touch on her last semester in the dramatic arts program.

"As an aspiring producer, I had never actually worked on a film in this capacity," she said. "It was an amazing opportunity that I could not pass up on."

By the end of filming, enthusiasm for the project had grown so high that an over-zealous extra lost his pants in the grand thank you scene atop the library roof.

"He was jumping up and down, and so excited that his pants fell down," Anderson said.

The success of the video also marks the beginning of a new digital media era for UConn – a venture all of the creators of "Gift Fairy" are deeply involved in.

"It's beginning," McGlaughlin said.

For more information about supporting UConn, please contact the Foundation's development department.