Experiential Learning through Courses and Activities Underscore Urban Engagement

Boston – September 10, 2008 – Northeastern University’s Human Services Program, in collaboration with the university’s Center of Community Services, were selected by Campus Compact and the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund to participate in the 2008-2009 academic year’s Students4Giving program. As part of the program aimed at inspiring and educating future philanthropists, Northeastern will teach students about non-profit organizations and fundraising as part of a series of courses and activities that involve community outreach and partnerships with Boston-area nonprofit organizations.

Financed by Fidelity, the Students4Giving program provides each of the schools with a $15,000 Giving Account, a donor-advised fund, which will be managed by the students enrolled in the courses. Northeastern students will learn about and be involved in a variety of activities that teach them how to meet community needs by researching local issues, evaluating IRS-qualified 501(c)(3) public charities and assessing where a donation would make the most impact.

“We are eager to continually enrich the learning experience of our students through community engagement that support the efforts of our partners to create new valuable services, and Students4Giving will allow our students to see, first-hand, how they can positively impact the community,” said Dr. Lori Gardinier, the Principal Investigator for this program and the Director of the Human Services Program at Northeastern.

Under the collaboration between Northeastern’s Human Services Program, Center of Community Services and the university’s community partners, the program will focus on topics from how nonprofit organizations function to actually going through the process of reviewing and choosing organizations to award funds. The Fall 2008 course, Nonprofit Program Design and Fund-Raising, offered through Human Services, will determine the grant criteria and funding priorities for the 2009 fundraising cycle. Students in future semesters will assume the responsibility for managing and growing the account as well as identifying community partners for grant awards.

“Northeastern truly values the relationships that we have with our community, and the organizations that we have the opportunity to work with in Roxbury, Mission Hill, the South End and the Fenway,” said Kristen Simonelli, Associate Director and Service-Learning Coordinator of Northeastern’s Center of Community Service. “We are honored to have been chosen as a Students4Giving grant recipient and look forward to working with our students and providing a rewarding service-learning experience to them and to our community.”

For more information about the Students4Giving program at Northeastern, please contact Jenny Eriksen at (617) 373-2802 or via email at j.eriksen@neu.edu.

About Northeastern’s Human Services Program

The Human Services Program is an interdisciplinary major in the College of Arts and Sciences at Northeastern University. The mission of the Human Services Program is to provide students with the theoretical and skill based background necessary to practice in macro, mezzo, and micro arenas such as political advocacy, community development and direct service.

About the Center of Community Service

The Center of Community Service supports Northeastern University’slong tradition of service to the community and commitment to civic engagement. The CCS is where students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community-based organizations can exchange information, resources, and referrals for community service and service-learning opportunities. The CCS coordinates community service and service-learning programs and events and AmeriCorps partnerships so that all members of the campus community have opportunities to contribute to the health and well-being of our communities.

About Northeastern University

Founded in 1898, Northeastern University is a private research university located in the heart of Boston. Northeastern is a leader in interdisciplinary research, urban engagement, and the integration of classroom learning with real-world experience. The university’s distinctive cooperative education program, where students alternate semesters of full-time study with semesters of paid work in fields relevant to their professional interests and major, is one of the largest and most innovative in the world. The University offers a comprehensive range of undergraduate and graduate programs leading to degrees through the doctorate in six undergraduate colleges, eight graduate schools, and two part-time divisions. For more information, please visit www.northeastern.edu.

About Students4Giving

Administered by the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund and Campus Compact, Students4Giving is a program designed to advance philanthropic education efforts at colleges and universities across the country by engaging students in strategic grant making activities within the context of community-based learning and in partnership with local nonprofit organizations. The annual program, funded by Fidelity, provides students at each of the ten selected schools with a $15,000 Giving Account^® that students will oversee while participating in their non-profit and philanthropy courses.

About Campus Compact

Campus Compact is a national coalition of more than 1,100 college and university presidents –representing some 6 million students – who are committed to fulfilling the civic purposes of higher education. As the only national association dedicated to this mission, Campus Compact is a leader in building civic engagement into campus and academic life. For more information, visit http://www.compact.org/.

About Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund

The Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund is one of the nation’s largest public charities and has the largest donor-advised fund in the country[1]. The mission of the Gift Fund is to further the American tradition of philanthropy by providing programs that make charitable giving simple and effective. Since the Gift Fund’s inception, more than 52,000 donors have recommended grants totaling more than $8 billion to more than 122,000 nonprofit organizations nationwide, as of June 30, 2008. For more information on the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, visit www.charitablegift.org.

[1] – Chronicle of Philanthropy Rankings, 2006.