OUR COMMITMENT
The UConn Foundation is committed to fostering an inclusive culture for our team by affirming multiple and intersecting identities, nurturing our development from a holistic perspective, and promoting cultural competence.
We inspire philanthropic support for UConn and UConn Health by engaging with alumni and supporters across diverse backgrounds, highlighting their unique perspectives and amplifying new voices.
Our mission drives positive change by securing philanthropic resources to elevate, among other things, equitable education, research and innovation, and community impact.
Fostering an inclusive culture
- A taskforce comprised of more than 20 staff volunteers helps shape and direct our organization’s ongoing learning and training resources and supports our talent management and new hire onboarding practices that are reflective of our core values.
- We collaborate with DEI practitioners to continuously assess our team’s DEI focus, opportunities, and areas of growth that inform our goals.
- We maintain a central resource hub and offer ongoing opt-in learning opportunities to enhance our team’s awareness and individual education.
- We advise our leadership team on the necessary comprehensive training and professional development opportunities for staff.
Inspiring philanthropic support
Bridging the Alumni Community
We connect our alumni community together and with the University by supporting volunteer led identity and affinity-based networks.
Creating Impactful Opportunities
Our donor and alumni community are an increasingly powerful voice in directing funds toward programming, scholarships, and other initiatives that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion at UConn and beyond.
Diversity and Inclusion
We partner with the University and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion to offer impactful programming, such as the #ThisisAmerica virtual social justice series, which provides a forum for crucial dialogue for alumni, donors, and the University community at large.
Representation for all Communities
This community of supporters stands as allies and partners to our traditionally underrepresented communities, and in turn, strengthens the UConn Foundation’s unique position as a motivating influence in this work.
Driving positive change
In fiscal 2023:
- $50.5 million raised for DEI-related funds
- 3,746 donors made 5,529 gifts to DEI-related funds
Environmentally and Socially Responsible Investing: The UConn Foundation is dedicated to addressing issues regarding environmental sustainability and its impact on economic growth, asset value, and financial markets and is committed to making investments that have positive effects on society. We have a longstanding commitment to evaluating investment opportunities based on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risk factors, with ESG risk factors weighed alongside other material risk factors that influence investment decision making.
Our Core Values
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Integrity
Courageously choosing what is true and correct over what is comfortable, fast, or easy
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Empathy
Being sensitive to and considerate of others’ feelings, viewpoints, or individual circumstances and framing one’s own words and actions accordingly
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Kindness
Genuinely and intentionally connecting with others through words and actions that have a positive impact
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Accountability
Individually and collectively taking ownership for our words, actions, and performance
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Collaboration
The achievement of a shared goal through honest communication that promotes active participation, careful listening, and acceptance of diverse perspectives..
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Transparency
The practice of being open and honest, through appropriate, timely, and clear communication in support of our commitment, our people and our work.
Highlighting Our Impact
Finding a Home in the Asian Cultural Center
Fahd A. Vahidy ’95 (CLAS), ’98 MA and Monika Doshi ’99 (CLAS) know what it’s like to feel like an outsider at college. Both were raised by immigrant families and were newcomers to the American college experience at UConn in the 1990s. Both were grateful to find a home on campus at the Asian American Cultural Center.
New scholarship helps give underrepresented students a sense of belonging at UConn Law
Addys Castillo and Akia Callum, both social justice activists who have long dreamed of going to law school, are in their first year at UConn School of Law thanks to a new scholarship. Castillo and Callum received a scholarship from the Constance Belton Green Diversity Fund, which supports diversity, racial, and social justice initiatives at UConn Law.
UConn’s BOLD program turns women students into leaders
In five short years, the BOLD Leadership Network at UConn already has helped 46 women students develop into dynamic leaders and launch impactful careers.
The program uses a combination of mentoring, networking, scholarship funds, peer support, and the experience of running their own service project to give students the confidence and career skills to develop into leaders.
UConn Health will dramatically expand the dental services for patients with special health care needs
Thanks to a $250,000 grant from the Delta Dental Foundation. The three-year grant will enable the School of Dental Medicine to hire faculty, provide training, offset dental expenses, and offer more flexible hours, including weekends, to treat patients.