To Matthew Busby, associate vice president of development at the DMC Foundation, the Employee Giving Campaign isn’t about raising money. It is about what he calls the “why.”
Since as far back as 2005, the foundation has organized the campaign to offer a chance for faculty and staff to support the foundation’s mission of supporting students, not only in terms of tuition and textbooks, but also in their day-to-day struggles.
In 2022, the foundation received 118 donations totaling $52,464. As of Oct. 6 of this year, the foundation had raised $58,218 from 123 donations, Busby said. That number is expected to increase before the end of the year as last-minute donations are processed.
“Employees have been giving though, since the beginning,” Busby said, recounting the founding of the foundation in 1983. “From the beginning 40 years, all the way to today, employees have been one of the primary people who give.”
Many employees continue to give even after their time at Del Mar College comes to an end. On Sept. 29 of this year, retired music professor Imelda Delgado made a $100,000 gift to the Music Department in her will. Busby also mentioned a retired employee named Dwaine, who made a $1.8 million donation to the foundation in his will.
“They do it because they care about the ‘why’ of Del Mar College,” Busby said. “The why of Del Mar College is because education is something that once earned, no one can take it from you.”
The Employee Giving Campaign is one source of the foundation’s funding for over 400 scholarships and program funds that help provide financial aid to students and college programs at DMC.
One such program is known as the Student Emergency Aid Program. The Emergency Aid program is a one-time per student fund to help students overcome short term periods of urgent and unexpected need. The fund does not receive federal funding and is limited, thus it works on a “first come, first serve” basis.
