NDNU: Reorganization Will Help Relieve Burden of Rising Tuition

The following is a news release from Notre Dame de Namur University:

In a move to diversify its sources of funding to better support educational access and student services, Notre Dame de Namur University Vice President for University Advancement Dino Hernandez announced a sweeping reorganization of the university’s advancement division. The University Advancement Division is responsible for raising non-tuition dollars from private sources of support: donations from individuals, corporations and foundations, grants, testamentary gifts and other sources.

“NDNU’s mission is to offer educational access to underrepresented populations and like most small, private universities, we are heavily dependent on tuition dollars to operate,” Hernandez said. “However rising costs have forced us to raise tuition significantly over the last 10 years, increasing the burden on low-income students and threatening to price them out of higher education. So we are redoubling our efforts to increase non-tuition sources of funds and to do that we need a better, more strategically organized and slightly larger advancement division.”

The reorganization adds two new positions to the department responsible for corporate and foundation relations and major and planned gifts. The new university advancement team:

• Dino Hernandez, vice president for university advancement
• Manny Nungaray, executive director for major and planned gifts
• Maureen Freschet, senior director of philanthropy
• Reginald Duhé, director of corporate and foundation relations
• Elizabeth Valente, director of alumni and parent relations
• Denise Winkelstein, director of advancement special events and stewardship
• Nicole Nielsen, director of advancement services and prospect research
• Marianella Rosales-Orellana, executive assistant to the vice president of advancement

“The new university advancement team is already making significant progress in generating new private philanthropic support for the university as evidenced by today’s announcement of a $6 million challenge grant from Tad Taube and Taube Philanthropies,” Hernandez added.

Notre Dame de Namur University is a Catholic, not-for-profit, doctoral, coeducational institution serving 2,000 traditional aged and adult students from diverse backgrounds. Established in 1851, by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, NDNU maintains a strong commitment to access for diverse populations, academic excellence, social justice and community engagement. The university is fully accredited and offers 40 undergraduate, graduate and credential programs. The historic, 50-acre campus is located on the San Francisco Peninsula in Silicon Valley. For more information, visitwww.ndnu.edu.