UTEP Wins International Award for Endowment Management System
Last Updated on July 17, 2020 at 12:00 AM
Originally published July 17, 2020
By UC Staff
UTEP Communications
The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) recently awarded The University of Texas at El Paso a Circle of Excellence Grand Gold Award for its Endowment Management System (EMS).
Developed by the University’s office of Institutional Advancement and the Creative Studios department in Technology Support, the EMS provides the UTEP community with greatly improved management of the University’s more than 850 endowments.
CASE is a global association for professionals in the fields of alumni relations, communications, development, marketing and general advancement services. Each year, their prestigious Circle of Excellence Awards recognize the industry’s most innovative, inspiring and creative ideas in institutional advancement. The Grand Gold award is reserved for institutions whose entry is a “game-changer” in its category. UTEP’s Grand Gold Award was given in the category: Advancement Services Improvement.
“The EMS platform is unlike any I’ve seen in my more than 15 years in higher education advancement,” said Jake Logan, vice president for institutional advancement. “Not only are we better meeting UT System compliance standards, we are also better honoring donor intent. And, we are maximizing the time of our endowment signatories – our chairs, deans and administrators – because we want to be respectful of the many other roles they have on campus.”
Before the creation of the EMS platform, endowment-related information was scattered across multiple systems. Navigating each of those systems and connecting the dots related to the endowment was cumbersome and time-consuming.
The new EMS platform gathers endowment-related information from four existing systems into one central location. Using the University’s single sign-on feature, users can see account overview and financial data from The University of Texas Investment Management Company (UTIMCO), gift history from The Raiser’s Edge (database software), income and expense information from PeopleSoft (financial management software), and student award information from Banner (higher education administrative software).
Additional features include endowment management and communication tools and quick access to endowment compliance guidelines, announcements, Endowment Compliance Committee bylaws and membership listings, and annual reports.
Through collaboration with relevant personnel across campus, teams from Institutional Advancement and Creative Studios were able to create the platform using available resources. The only costs incurred were those related to existing staff and student salaries associated with the project.
Chelsea Lamego, director of operations for institutional advancement, spearheaded the project.
“UTEP is required to comply with UT System Board of Regents compliance standards, and the EMS is expected to significantly improve the University’s compliance rating,” she said. “We’ve been using the EMS for a less than a year, and we’ve heard from several faculty who have told us that the platform has drastically improved their ability to effectively and efficiently manage the endowments they oversee. I’m excited that we have been able to create a tool that benefits everyone tied to it – our donors, our campus partners and the UT System.”
CASE reported that 587 member institutions from 28 countries throughout the world submitted more than 2,700 entries in 100 different categories for its 2020 Circle of Excellence Awards. UTEP was one of 26 institutions to earn the prestigious Grand Gold Award. This marks the second consecutive year that UTEP has received top honors for its work in Advancement. Last year, the University was recognized with a gold-level award for the “Thank You for 30” campaign case statement.
