SHOW TOPIC
Learning about the Seneca Valley Foundation
SPECIAL GUEST
Ms. Annie Mersing, Seneca Valley Foundation Director of Development
Ms. Annie Mersing earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a Concentration in Management from Robert Morris University.
Ms. Mersing has been in the Seneca Valley School District since 2019, first serving as the Executive Assistant to the Superintendent of Schools.
Now in the role as the Director of Development for the Seneca Valley Foundation, Ms. Mersing also serves as the District's Director of Advancement and provides assistance with securing and writing District grants.
IN THIS EPISODE, WE WILL REVIEW
USEFUL INFORMATION
www.svsd.net/SVFoundation
https://www.mightycause.com/organization/Seneca-Valley-Foundation
https://twitter.com/SVSDFoundation
https://www.linkedin.com/company/seneca-valley-school-district/
SHOW TOPIC
Learning about the Seneca Valley Foundation
SPECIAL GUEST
Ms. Annie Mersing, Seneca Valley Foundation Director of Development
Ms. Annie Mersing earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a Concentration in Management from Robert Morris University.
Ms. Mersing has been in the Seneca Valley School District since 2019, first serving as the Executive Assistant to the Superintendent of Schools.
Now in the role as the Director of Development for the Seneca Valley Foundation, Ms. Mersing also serves as the District's Director of Advancement and provides assistance with securing and writing District grants.
IN THIS EPISODE, WE WILL REVIEW
USEFUL INFORMATION
www.svsd.net/SVFoundation
https://www.mightycause.com/organization/Seneca-Valley-Foundation
https://twitter.com/SVSDFoundation
https://www.linkedin.com/company/seneca-valley-school-district/
FULL TRANSCRIPT (with timecode)
Voices E20 Annie Mersing
File Name: Voices E20 Annie Mersing.mp3
File Length: 00:10:16
00:00:02:23 - 00:00:07:25
Introduction: Welcome to Voices, a Podcast brought to you by the Seneca Valley School District.
00:00:10:15 - 00:00:29:05
Jeff Krakoff: I'm Jeff Krakoff here with Annie Mersing. Annie is the director of advancement for Seneca Valley and the director of development for the Seneca Valley Foundation. Thanks for joining us today. So I know the Foundation's been around for a while. Can you tell us about when it was founded and what the foundation does?
00:00:29:21 - 00:00:59:24
Annie Mersing: Sure. Thank you so much for having me today. I'm very excited to be here. The Seneca Valley Foundation is the non-profit arm of the school district. It's a 501c3 dedicated to making the Seneca Valley School District the place to be. I'm the director of development. My role is to grow the Foundation, to expose it for all the great things it does and to build amazing relationships with our students, staff and community.
00:01:01:05 - 00:01:11:13
Annie Mersing: Since its inception in 2012, the goal at the Foundation has remained to provide the students and staff of Seneca Valley, the gift of hope and the promise of excellence.
00:01:12:13 - 00:01:18:04
Jeff Krakoff: Well that's a great charge you have in front of you. So how exactly does the Foundation do that?
00:01:18:13 - 00:01:24:08
Jeff Krakoff: What how does the money you're raising benefit the students and all the programs of the district?
00:01:25:11 - 00:02:03:05
Annie Mersing: So traditionally the Foundation operated to provide extras, whether through classroom enhancements, STEM initiatives or international education trips. We fund things like this to set us apart from other schools in the region. We know that students who engage in extracurricular activities perform better academically, and we know that teachers who are supported and energized by the administration are better educated. Since COVID-19 struck, though, our priorities shifted to a more organic approach to providing simple essentials: food, financial assistance, and PPE.
00:02:04:03 - 00:02:35:13
Annie Mersing: In the spring, we focused a lot on our graduating seniors. We tried to do everything we could to make their year brighter and we anticipate having to do that again this year. We are readying ourselves for that and we are ready to pivot again if needed in response to COVID-19. We also connected folks that wanted to help and to give to those who are struggling. We had an outpouring of support for our local health care heroes and essential employees.
00:02:35:27 - 00:02:43:00
Annie Mersing: We even had two volunteers make over 8,000 homemade mask for our students and staff so that they would be ready to come back in the fall.
00:02:44:17 - 00:02:45:02
Annie Mersing: I know
00:02:45:04 - 00:02:46:12
Jeff Krakoff: That's a lot of work.
00:02:47:10 - 00:03:19:18
Annie Mersing: Yeah, we funded tents outside of our a few of our schools and picnic tables so that we will create more outdoor learning spots. These are things the Foundation never anticipated having to do, but we had to step up to the plate to make sure our students and staff were taken care of. Most recently, we even hosted a fundraiser with a local organization called Neighbors for Neighbors. They provide or they fulfill a holiday wish lists for students in need.
00:03:20:21 - 00:03:30:19
Annie Mersing: And so we did a Mighty Cause fundraiser. We set a goal of just $2,500 and within days we blew that goal out of the water.
00:03:32:10 - 00:03:39:14
Annie Mersing: So while we're doing things that look different right now, we still have this tremendous support from the community. And that's just amazing right now.
00:03:39:16 - 00:03:54:21
Jeff Krakoff: Almost seems counterintuitive. You mentioned a shift in focus to the basics during the pandemic, but has it affected you in any way negatively and the ability to to raise funds over the last half, year or year?
00:03:55:14 - 00:04:05:09
Annie Mersing: So. Actually, no. Although you would think that that would have been the case. We are fortunate to be in an affluent district
00:04:06:27 - 00:04:13:18
Annie Mersing: and I have seen more people give than more people that need. And so that has been just amazing.
00:04:14:03 - 00:04:33:15
Jeff Krakoff: That's awesome. That's awesome. So we're we're about to head into Thanksgiving. And in addition to shopping deals, it's became known over the last several years for Giving Tuesday where philanthropic organizations from all over do a lot of fundraising on that particular day.
00:04:33:24 - 00:04:36:27
Jeff Krakoff: Do you have any specific plans for the Foundation?
00:04:37:06 - 00:05:09:17
Annie Mersing: Yes. So as you said, the Tuesday after Thanksgiving is nationally recognized as Giving Tuesday. Last year, we felt compelled to start giving back on this day as well, but specifically to teachers, to our teachers who spend their own money to make incredible learning environments for our students. While brainstorming just how to do this, we happened to uncover a website called DonorsChoose.org. This website allows teachers to go on there and start their own little fundraisers.
00:05:09:20 - 00:05:44:29
Annie Mersing: Or their projects within their classroom. When we saw the amazing projects going on, we decided to pay off the balances on those fundraisers. So we spent about $4,000 paying those off. And then we went and surprised each classroom, sort of Publisher's Clearinghouse style, where we just showed up, unexpectedly and announced to the teachers and their students that they have now been given the gift of this project being funded. And the teachers were so amazing, some were moved to tears and it was just a cool experience.
00:05:45:01 - 00:05:54:01
Annie Mersing: So I don't want to divulge what we're going to do this Giving Tuesday, but just keep an eye on some social media posts from us showing what we do.
00:05:54:06 - 00:05:56:13
Jeff Krakoff: And we look forward to seeing what's ahead there.
00:05:56:15 - 00:06:03:26
Jeff Krakoff: So in addition to just that particular day, I know you have an annual campaign. Tell us a little bit about that.
00:06:04:08 - 00:06:40:12
Annie Mersing: Yes. So we have two major fundraisers each year. The first is our Golf Outing, our Gift of Hope Golf Classic, and the second is our annual employee campaign. Our golf outing, while it looked different this year because of COVID, we modified it to be a socially-distanced event, it was extremely successful. And I'm hoping to say the same thing about this employee giving or employee campaign. Historically, our staff is extremely generous. But this year I'm going to challenge them to exceed our expectations, I'm going to challenge them to, quote, give above and beyond.
00:06:41:03 - 00:07:18:06
Annie Mersing: This theme is a play on our districtwide mantra for the school year of "going above and beyond." It goes without saying that these times have been difficult for everyone. We're all stressed. We're pushed emotionally, mentally, physically, financially, both personally and professionally. But I feel it's important to focus on the good going on right now, how administration has been so diligent in keeping us safe, how we've given new meaning to the hashtag #SVTogether, and how a lot of us are able and willing to give now more than ever, in order to help those other folks who are struggling.
00:07:18:26 - 00:07:57:24
Annie Mersing: So in December, I'll launch our campaign with the hopes of engaging all of our staff members. We make it super easy to donate. We have options like giving, contributing through our paychecks. Every paycheck you can give a small amount, you can donate online, or simply write us a check. And I always think about this. We have over five hundred employees, right? If each of us just gave five, ten dollars out of each of our paychecks, which we wouldn't miss, if it's automatically taken out, we would quickly exceed our goal and be able to do so many amazing things.
00:07:57:28 - 00:08:28:07
Annie Mersing: With the campaign, I hope everyone keeps in mind that these donations always come back to the students and staff of Seneca Valley, our the foundation's board of trustees, which is made up of local stakeholders like small business owners, parents, teachers, administrators. They take very seriously what we fund, and they're always diligent in assuring that it goes back to Seneca Valley students and staff.
00:08:29:09 - 00:08:37:04
Annie Mersing: So with that, I'll be asking employees to give above and beyond in order for the Foundation to, quote, go above and beyond.
00:08:37:21 - 00:08:43:17
Jeff Krakoff: You make a great point. Collectively, it only takes a little bit from each person to have a huge impact.
00:08:43:29 - 00:08:49:24
Jeff Krakoff: So you mentioned employees, but what about there's so many more people in the Seneca Valley community.
00:08:50:27 - 00:08:56:16
Jeff Krakoff: If somebody wanted to find out more information about the foundation and wants to donate, how can they do that?
00:08:57:04 - 00:09:27:21
Annie Mersing: Yeah, so we love to include our families, our local business owners, the entire community, because we're all in this together. Right. Hashtag #SVTogether. So if anyone would like more information, they can simply go on to the district website. We have a tab. We have a page under the "Our District" tab. There you'll find information about our board of trustees. There's a list of them, our past initiatives, how to donate to us. My contact info is there.
00:09:27:28 - 00:09:37:15
Annie Mersing: You'll see what we've done in the past, all of our fundraisers, great pictures of things that we've accomplished, so everything can be found there.
00:09:38:02 - 00:09:42:24
Jeff Krakoff: Can people donate directly from the website? Do they need to mail a check? What are the options?
00:09:43:13 - 00:09:56:04
Annie Mersing: So mailing a check helps us because there's less fees involved. But there is an easy process to donate online through Mighty Cause. That's a crowd fundraiser. But yeah, either way works.
00:09:56:22 - 00:10:07:03
Jeff Krakoff: All right. Well, thanks so much for taking the time. Best of luck through Giving Tuesday and the rest of this year and next year. You do great work and support the District in a great way. So thanks again.
00:10:07:11 - 00:10:08:11
Annie Mersing: Thank you so much.
00:10:08:21 - 00:10:09:06
Jeff Krakoff: Take care.