The Cal Parents Fund

When Cal Comes Calling

By David Peterkofsky

Students from the Calling Center gather on Sproul Plaza to celebrate their success in bringing $2 million in contributions to UC Berkeley. (Ben Ailes photo)

Winter 2007 | It’s early evening, and your phone rings. On the other end of the line, a college-age voice greets you from Berkeley. Could it be a call from your long-lost son or daughter? Possibly, but it might be an important call of a different sort  — an enthusiastic student at the Cal Calling Center asking you to support The Cal Parents Fund.

The students who work at the Calling Center genuinely enjoy their conversations with parents, offering a student’s perspective on the Berkeley experience. They also know how important private gifts are to the student programs that enrich their years at Cal: Their calls have encouraged parents and alumni to invest more than $2 million each year in today’s Berkeley students.

The Calling Center, which operates Monday through Thursday nights and on weekends, is where much of the outreach for The Cal Parents Fund takes place. Armed with headsets and ample school spirit, the student callers reflect the student body’s broad diversity, areas of study, and interests.

Lending his voice to the call for support is one of the things David Lam ’07 enjoys most about his work. A political science major from Oakland, Lam began working at the center during his sophomore year. Surrounded by students who were passionate about fundraising for Cal, he quickly realized that his efforts directly benefit important student programs, including the freshman and sophomore seminars, improvements to the library, and campus safety programs.

Student callers hope to help the Cal Parents Fund meet its 2007 goal of $1.5 million in contributions to aid student programs. (Peg Skorpinski photo)

Lam enjoys speaking with parents and telling them what’s new on campus before he invites them to become donors.

“There’s always something about Cal that they don’t know,” he says about the parents he calls. “You’re the one to inform them of what’s going on here. That experience is really rewarding.”

He also reassures parents that any gift they make to The Cal Parents Fund, regardless of size, helps close the gap between UC Berkeley tuition and fees and the actual cost of their student’s education. “I really try to break it down for them,” he says. “I talk about how important The Cal Parents Fund is and how big an investment they’re making in the university.”

Like Lam, Maricel Dela Cruz ‘07 especially enjoys the calls she makes for The Cal Parents Fund, because she feels she can be of service to the parents she contacts. “They’re so energetic and excited, especially parents of freshmen,” says Dela Cruz, an integrative biology major from Vallejo, Calif. “They always have questions I’m willing to answer, and I like to give advice if their child is in my major.”

It was that conversational approach that helped her nab her first major pledge: $1,000 to The Cal Parents Fund in 2005. The generous donor was a parent who “had so many questions” about Berkeley, but Dela Cruz answered them all — and followed up with an earnest Cal Parents Fund pitch that resonated with the parent.

She is constantly impressed by how many parents are receptive to the idea of giving, “especially when they find out how important their gifts are to their son’s or daughter’s experience,” she says. “As long as they know the funding goes to support their child’s education, they’re really happy to give.”

To make your gift to The Cal Parents Fund this year (before the Calling Center contacts you), visit
calparents.berkeley.edu/gifts or call 510/642-4138. Otherwise, enjoy the call!