Causes We Care About: Community Fund Drive a Success

The School of Dentistry community recently rallied together to support the 2025 University of Minnesota Community Fund Drive, the University's annual giving campaign for the causes we care most about. As stated in this year’s theme, “Give Where Your Passion Leads,” the drive allows individuals to donate to specific colleges, departments or research initiatives. The funds that are gathered help hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans overcome poverty and injustice, find cures for chronic diseases and make higher education more accessible and affordable.

The Community Fund Drive includes four federations that represent hundreds of agencies and charities — Creating Healthier Communities, Greater Twin Cities United Way, Open Your Heart to the Hungry and Homeless, United Negro College Fund (UNCF), and the University of Minnesota Foundation. The Fund is a 90-year tradition that also supports student-focused initiatives like removing financial barriers and supporting campus resources and also funds community-focused initiatives like the Nutritious U Food Pantry.

For the purpose-minded community here at the School of Dentistry, this year’s drive was another example of how much we’re committed to taking care of one another. This year, the school raised $2,163 through a silent auction, M&M “guessing jar” and donations.

Unaysah Azam, dispensing and sterilizing technician, was the winner of the guessing jar—her guess of 420 M&Ms was just four off from the total of 416. For her perception, Azam gets to keep the jar. Other popular, high-bidding items included a hug, a “cozy night in” basket donated by the Office of the Associate Dean for Research and Discovery, and a “’local lunch” basket, with restaurant gift cards, donated by the Department of Primary Dental Care. Other fun items in the auction included hand-painted mandalas and 3D-printed “tooth buddies.”

Natalie Peterson, DDS, clinical associate professor and Assistant Dean for Patient Care & Clinical Services, contributed some of her artwork to the silent auction, and she had this to say: “Donating to the silent auction gives me another way to get pieces out there for people to enjoy. It’s fun to see people get excited about something that brings together people from around the school. It’s also a way to contribute to the fund drive in a way that’s more interactive and personal than just clicking a link and donating.”

Speaking about the deeper meaning of the month-long effort, department administrator Rosemary Burns Velez said, “I donate to the Community Fund Drive each year because I want to do something good for the community that does so much good for the UMN. Here at the School of Dentistry, we benefit from grants and other funding that comes from taxpayer funding, corporations, and our Minnesota community. I believe that if we wish to thrive and continue to be supported in our community work, we can't always be receiving, so we must also give back. Every dollar that enriches our community, enriches us.”