Day of Giving 2024: Donor Dollars at Work

Note: This article is accurate as of its publishing on Oct. 18, 2024.

This year’s Day of Giving celebrated our nine Founders, the five-year milestone of the campaign, and how the ZTA Foundation puts donor dollars to work to make a positive impact on our sisterhood with a “9 to 5” theme.

Our Zeta Tau Alpha sisters put in overtime to make the fifth annual Day of Giving a great success! The ZTA Foundation is incredibly grateful to everyone who clocked in to participate. This year, there were 1,528 donations totaling $359,036! There were also 126 first-time donors - a very appropriate number on ZTA’s 126th anniversary!

They say “team work makes the dream work” and our sisters showed up to prove that is true. New this year, Sisterhood Circles let individual sisters team up and collaborate to raise funds. Sisters created Circles for their collegiate and alumnae chapters, for the officer positions and for local friendship groups. All together, there were 49 Sisterhood Circles who collectively raised $63,015!

While the final totals are certainly impressive, the ZTA Foundation couldn’t succeed without every contribution made, no matter the amount. These donations make a significant impact in the lives of our members, as well as the breast cancer survivors we champion, by supporting scholarships, educational programming, leadership training and philanthropy efforts.

Here’s a look at this year’s campaign and the synergy ZTA created throughout the day.

Employer Match Sponsor

A special thanks to Marnie Marlar Frazier for clocking in early for the Day of Giving. Before things officially kicked off on Oct. 15, Marnie amplified her impact by adding an employer match to her generous gift.

As the Employer Match Sponsor, Marnie has this advice for other donors, “The match from my employer is an added bonus and I encourage everyone to look into their benefit package and see what is offered!“

Open for Business

To kick off the day, our three Presidents (of the Fraternity, Foundation and Fraternity Housing Corporation) poured their cups of ZLAMbition to motivate sisters and set the tone for a productive day.

• National President Dinah Jackson Laughery (Beta Gamma, Florida State University)

• ZTA Foundation President Carolyn Hof Carpenter (Theta Tau, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

• ZTA Fraternity Housing Corporation President Natalie Yingling Lisko (Delta Omega, Westminster College)

Coffee Break

This year, every donation also served as an invitation to join a short online sisterhood event. At 11 a.m. ET, former barista and current IO staffer Jasmine Hunt (Beta Theta, Franklin College) hosted an informative Coffee Break that helped attendees get in-the-know and order a delicious treat every time.

Thank you to these sponsors for making the Coffee Break possible!

• Debbie Buscher (Zeta Mu, Jacksonville University)

• Michelle Macartney (Delta Delta, Baldwin Wallace University)

• Stacey Verkest Voigt (Gamma Tau, Texas Tech University)

Founders’ “Nine to Fives”

This year's theme had us wondering what our Founders might be like if they were around today. About halfway through our “work day,” we explored the theories. Check out this video that speculates how the Band of Nine might spend the hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the year 2024!

Thank you to our sponsors for making this fun video possible!

• Cynthia Byars Courtney (Gamma Tau, Texas Tech University)

• Kay Dill Kreutzer (Eta Rho, The University of North Alabama)

• Jenni Zottola Leger (Zeta Sigma, The University of Texas at Arlington)

• Stephanie Arnette Powell (Gamma Pi, University of Georgia)

• Shamim Syed Wu (Theta Omega, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona)

Happy Hour

To celebrate the end of this long (and fun!) day, every donor was invited to a special Happy Hour with Amateur mixologist and IO staffer Hannah Grissom Keith (Alpha Xi, Indiana University. She shared special ZTA cocktail recipes (including a mocktail), as well as tips on how to put the "happy" in your own Happy Hour!

“Cheers” to our sponsors for making this event possible:

• Lucia Prenzel Knudsen (Theta Chi, George Mason University)

• Heather A. Siscel (Eta Theta, Missouri University of Science and Technology)

• Marty E. Sik (Alpha Chi, University of Kentucky)

Clocking Out

At 5 p.m. HT (Hawaii time, in honor of Founder Alice Grey Welsh, who is buried in Honolulu), it was time to clock out for the day.

To recognize the incredible work our sisters did throughout the day, the Day of Giving Completion Sponsor, Kelley E. Moulton made a very special donation. Thank you for working overtime for the Foundation, Kelley!

Thank you to all of our sponsors!

The Day of Giving could not be what it is without the generosity of so many sisters. We’d like to extend an especially warm thank you to the following women who sponsored various parts of the campaign:

Total Donations

Thank you to these sisters who sponsored the overall efforts of the day, recognizing that every donor dollar matters!

• Anonymous

• Dana Slovacek Bryant (Theta Gamma, Texas A&M University)

• Dr. Rachelle J. Douglass (Alpha Psi, University of Missouri)

• Bridget Higginbotham (Eta Omega, Louisiana State University in Shreveport)

• Keri Jones (Eta Alpha, Georgia Southwestern State University)

• Katerina Vaitkus (Iota Zeta, University of New Mexico)

First-Time Donors

A big thank you to the following Challenge Donors for honoring all our first-time donors this year:

• Honoring First-Time Donors Sponsor:

  • Ann Johnson Conn (Gamma Iota, University of Florida)

• Honoring First-Time Donors:

  • Jennifer Speidel Baker (Eta Theta, Missouri University of Science and Technology)

  • Kris Fleming (Eta Theta, Missouri University of Science and Technology)

  • Sarah Duvall Gilstrap (Mu, Drury University)

  • Sara Hays Johnston (Alpha Upsilon, Oklahoma State University)

  • Dr. Darcy L. Russell (Sigma, Baker University)

  • Malaea Nelms Seleski (Eta Rho, The University of North Alabama)

Honor a Founder

The Day of Giving campaign takes place around Founders’ Day every year to celebrate and support the sisterhood our Founders created. A special thank you to these sponsors who supported the Day of Giving by recognizing one of ZTA’s nine Founders!

• Mary "Cammie" Campbell Jones Batte

  • Susan Canady (Beta Theta, Franklin College)

  • Susan Werner Geiger (Epsilon, University of Arkansas)

• Alice Bland Coleman

  • Kerry Diminuco (Alpha Omicron, The University of Iowa)

  • Jill Burrows Levine (Beta Omega, Union University)

  • Leanne M. Puia (Zeta Lambda, Rider University)

• Helen May Crafford

  • Janet Graab-Miller (Alpha Theta, Purdue University)

  • Leigh Ann Pruitt McClain (Alpha Upsilon, Oklahoma State University)

• Maud Jones Horner

  • Antoinette Rizzuto Bearden (Theta Eta, Stephen F. Austin State University)

  • Prahba Parameswaran (Alpha Kappa, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

• Della Lewis Hundley

  • Carla Martin Cobb (Theta Tau, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

  • Mandy Pierce Scott (Theta Eta, Stephen F. Austin State University)

• Ruby Leigh Orgain

  • Franci Rocco Bayes (Alpha Chi, University of Kentucky)

  • Sara Jasper Clark (Iota Xi, Christian Brothers University)

  • Heather Matthews (Delta Kappa, Louisiana State University)

  • Bobby Seitz Turnbull (Alpha Theta, Purdue University)

• Frances Yancey Smith

  • Dana Brasington Atkinson (Delta Omicron, Lenoir-Rhyne University)

  • Kendra Davis Moyses (Zeta Omega, Ferris State University)

  • Kim Knight Rice (Omega, Southern Methodist University)

• Ethel Coleman Van Name

  • Kathy Cook Apogée (Zeta Pi, Woodbury University)

  • Beth Sipek Cothron (Beta Zeta, Iowa State University)

  • Shari H. Robins, MD (Gamma Alpha, University of Miami)

• Alice Grey Welsh

  • Colleen O'Reilly Hann (Delta Upsilon, West Virginia Wesleyan College)

  • Michelle Norris Montalbano (Alpha Upsilon, Oklahoma State University)

  • Denise Frissell Rogers (Alpha Pi, Ohio University)

All gifts made on the Day of Giving are undesignated. This allows the Foundation to direct the funds to the most current and essential educational programming needs of our chapters and the financial needs of our members.