Senior Director of Development
Linda Wyckoff
lwyckoff@coe.montana.edu

As Senior Director of Development for the College of Engineering, I work with the Dean of Engineering and the MSU Foundation in planning and orchestrating the following types of activities for the College:

• Fund Raising

• Alumni and External Relations

I hope you will call or contact me if you would like someone from the COE to visit your company, if you are interested in providing scholarship support for our students, if you have questions about making charitable gifts to the COE (cash, stock, gifts-in-kind), or if you wonder about tax advantages of certain types of giving. It is a great honor for me to work on behalf of such a prestigious college at MSU, and to have the chance to meet and work with so many of our loyal alumni.

Fund Raising

This aspect of my work gives me an opportunity to work directly with alumni, corporations, and Foundations around the US. Building towards gifts or funds from external sources (versus the State of Montana) is a priority for the College of Engineering, as the cost of education in engineering is relatively high (equipping labs, hardware, software, attracting and retaining excellent faculty) and state support for engineering education diminishes every year.

Some of our alumni make annual gifts in response to our phonathon and mail appeals. Others are able to establish endowed scholarships and other types of funds to benefit the COE in perpetuity. Corporations fund annual scholarships (Conoco-Phillips, Boeing, 3M, Micron, Zoot Enterprises, Morrison Maeirle, Pecchia and Associates - to name just a handful); some companies provide the college with significant gifts of equipment, computers, and software, which we call "gift-in-kind."

Each of these types of gifts helps COE students directly and strengthens our engineering and computer science programs considerably, helping ensure we provide the best education possible.

Alumni and External Relations

I have the chance to travel and meet with alumni and corporate representatives to build relationships between the college and our important constituent groups. Visiting companies like Tektronix; Micron Technology; 3M; Engineering, Inc.; and American Express allows us to better understand how our graduates serve the marketplace and also enhances internships, scholarships, and recruitment opportunities for COE students.

When not visiting with COE friends and donors, Linda enjoys hiking, fly fishing (a new hobby), skiing (a new hobby), cooking, and learning about life from her two children, Tom and Katie. She is also a wine enthusiast and enjoys travel.

Return to regular view	Text-only	Updated: 11/30/05