Tuck News and Events - Tuck GIVES community auction raises record funds

Tuck GIVES community auction raises record funds

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—May 7 , 2007

CONTACT: Kim Keating - 603-646-2733

HANOVER, N.H.—Each April, students, faculty, staff, and alumni of the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth come together to participate in the Tuck GIVES (Grants to Interns and Volunteers for the Environment and Society) auction, a student-organized event that supports student participation in nonprofit and public-sector summer internships. The school's seventh auction was held April 16-19, and raised a record $129,270 through a combination of silent and live auctions, direct alumni donations, and gift from the dean's office.

"It is remarkable to watch the entire community rally around such an important cause," said Ryan Murphy T'07, co-chair of the event. "Tuck's ability to support its students' endeavors in the nonprofit world is truly unique."

"What makes this event special is the excitement it draws," said Patricia Palmiotto, director of the Allwin Initiative for Corporate Citizenship at Tuck, a sponsor of the event. "Everyone gets involved—a student auctioning homemade cupcakes, our parking officer donating maple syrup tapped from his trees, our dean and his wife teaming with students to offer a New Orleans crawfish boil, and an overseer donating a night on her boat in Manhattan Harbor."

This year's live auction had a black-and-white theme, and bidders dressed in costumes ranging from tuxedos and evening gowns to golf caddies and wizards. A Texas barbeque with Professors Richard Sansing and Kent Womack kicked off the night's festivities, which also saw the auctioning of such items as an evening of Bollywood dance, music and food, and an authentic Mexican dinner party with Tuck's Mexican students and partners.

"Tuck GIVES is a huge part of why I wanted to come to Tuck in the first place," said co-chair Timothy Cleary T'07. "I remember thinking that with students so committed to an event like this Tuck must be filled with students that did not fit the stereotypical business school student mold."

Last year's auction raised $100,000 and funded 12 nonprofit and public-sector internships in the Republic of Georgia, Switzerland, and throughout the United States. Students worked for organizations including Building Excellent Schools, Grassroot Soccer, Medicines for Malaria Ventures, Public Broadcasting Service, The Wilderness Society, and the U.S. National Park Service.

"I worked for the National Park Service last summer for two reasons," said Lyndsey Erickson T'07, Tuck GIVES co-chair and recipient of a 2006 Tuck GIVES scholarship. "I wanted to gain valuable consulting experience doing a project that offered significant autonomy and allowed for creativity. More importantly, I was drawn by the prospect of working for an organization I strongly support and believe in. The opportunity to shape the future of one of our country's precious natural and historical resources, to help to ensure its sustainability for generations to come, was something I could not pass up. Tuck GIVES helped make it financially feasible for me to accomplish these aims."

Officially begun in 2001, Tuck GIVES was formed as an effort of the Tuck Nonprofit Club and is a formalization of an annual Tuck-wide solicitation process to support nonprofit and public-sector internships. Tuck GIVES is organized by students, with support from Tuck's Allwin Initiative for Corporate Citizenship, Career Development Office, MBA Program Office, Dean's Office, and select alumni. Students who will have completed their first year of study at Tuck and have an offer from a nonprofit or public-sector organization are eligible to apply for funds.

Founded in 1900, Tuck is the first graduate school of management and consistently ranks among the top business schools worldwide. Tuck remains distinctive among the world's great business schools by combining human scale with global reach, rigorous coursework with experiences requiring teamwork, and valued traditions with innovation.