Heather McCaw UBC Vice-President, Development & Alumni Engagement
Heather McCaw (see bio) is the Vice-President, Development and Alumni Engagement (DAE), a portfolio that came into being in 2008, aligning the development (fundraising) and alumni engagement functions under one umbrella.
DAE champions UBC’s visions and values, and engages alumni and donors in support of the institution. In September 2011, DAE launched the most ambitious fundraising and alumni engagement campaign in Canadian history, start an evolution, which exceeded its goals by raising $1.624B and engaging more than 130,000 individual alumni over the entire campaign.
Today, DAE ‘s annual goals are to engage 55,000 individual alumni in the life of the university, and to raise $200 million to enhance student learning, faculty research, and resource development at UBC. This continuing effort has helped UBC become one of the world’s 40 top universities, enabling staff and faculty to challenge convention, lead discovery and explore new ways of learning towards ideas that can change the world.
alumni UBC brings together the alumni-focused activity of the university with that of the UBC alumni association which was founded in 1917 and recently celebrated its 100th anniversary. To find out more about all alumni UBC activity go to alumni.ubc.ca.
In the fall of 2017, DAE announced the Blue & Gold Campaign for Students with the aim of raising $100 million in funding for student awards over three years. Supporting our students will help them reach their fullest potential – so they can make their own contributions to our communities. Change their world, so they can change ours. https://give.ubc.ca/blueandgold To find out more about all the giving opportunities at UBC, go to give.ubc.ca
Generations of faculty, staff, students, alumni, donors and community supporters have built this outstanding university. With the aligned functions of development and alumni UBC under one portfolio, we will continue to benefit from their foresight, cultivate their enthusiasm and maximize their investment in the university’s future.