Alumni, got a quick update on our Gamma Scholars Program.
See below the unique opportunity to have your tax-deductible donation to our Chapter Investment Fund matched by a generous alum for any donations made through Jan 31, 2014.
As some of you are aware, we created a Gamma Scholars program a couple of years ago that awards two annual scholarships from our Chapter Investment Fund. The two scholarships are the following:
Stephen Deftos Memorial Scholarship – Highest award for an active member. Recognizes strong commitment to academic excellence and scholarly pursuits. Outside the class room, they distinguish themselves through contributions to the Chapter, Cal campus and broader community.
Jeff Chang Memorial Scholarship – Highest award for the previous Fall’s pledge class member. Recognizes strong commitment to academic excellence and scholarly pursuits. Outside the class room, they distinguish themselves through contributions to the Chapter, Cal campus and broader community.
This year’s recipients are the following:
Stephen Deftos Memorial Scholarship – Camil Realubit & Frank Dmitri Dimitriou ($500 each)
Jeff Chang Memorial Scholarship – Hunter He ($1,000)
Scholarship funding is provided from available disbursement money from our Chapter Investment Fund. The Chapter Investment Fund is a fund maintained by our National Organization that seeks to grow our funding and provide for educational programs for our undergraduate student members. As of the beginning of 2013, we had a balance of $19,707 in our account. We are currently eligible to withdraw and disburse up to 4% of our Dec 31 balance. For 2013, that was $788.29. We were able to fund $2,000 worth of scholarships due to the generosity of an alum who said he wanted the value to be more significant.
Recently, as I was discussing this year’s disbursements, we had an alum who said he’d like to see us triple our balance so we can fund more than $2,000 in scholarships every year and try to create a third scholarship in honor of another alum (Chris Schad) who also passed away prematurely. In order to achieve this goal, he has put forward the challenge that he will match any donation made to the Chapter Investment Fund through Jan 31, 2014 dollar for dollar up to $20,000. So far we have one alum that has pledged $5,000 and another has pledged $1,000. That only leaves $14,000 more to go. If you are interested in donating you can do so by following one of the three ways below:
1. By Mail: Checks payable to Pi Kappa Phi Foundation. Memo Line: Gamma CIF, Sent to: PO Box 240526, Charlotte, NC 28224
2. By Phone: Donors may call Carrie Clifford at (980) 318-5367
3. By Stock Transfer: Donors interested in donating stock should contact Marvin Hackney, CFO at (980) 318-5303
Note – Although the donation challenge runs through the end of January only donations received before the end of the year will be eligible for disbursement in 2014. All donations after Dec 31 will be eligible for disbursement in 2015.
Hope you will consider this unique opportunity to make a valuable impact on the Chapter.
More information about the awards can be found on our Scholarship page.
Please let me know if you are planning to make a pledge so I can tally up the effort.
Thanks in advance,
Juan Serrano
Pi Kappa Phi Alumni Association
