Taft College has found a "Rainmaker" in their Director of Foundation and Development, Sheri Horn Bunk and her ability to bring in a great deal of wealth to the campus.
The veteran fundraiser has taken on the responsibility of raising money for the college with a modern and enthusiastic approach. From her involvement with the Bernard Osher Scholarship Endowment to her foray into the world of social networking, Bunk has made a remarkable impact on Taft College in an important position she started in only five months ago.
With coordinating events to entice potential donors and the fundraising for projects like the forthcoming, updated facility for the TIL program, Bunk's job carries a substantial amount of importance. "I raise money for the institution," Bunk explained. "I work on behalf of the students here, making sure that we raise money to support the ongoing programs as well as implement new ones. We bring about support and grow scholarship endowments here because, as we all know, it's getting more difficult to pay for an education." Bunk is also striving to reach out to the alumni. "We've got a lot of alumni from 80 years or so floating around but we don't have a lot of data on those people," she said. "And we would like to hear from them if they're out there and keep them abreast to what the institution is doing."
Bunk brings experience in a variety of fields and also natural talent to her position at Taft College. Starting her career in Los Angeles, she began to get a feel for the business world by working in the entertainment industry. Eventually, she found herself in Bakersfield working for Buck Owens as a sales manager, then at KBAK as a national sales manager and as a general sales manager at Univision Television. After retiring from the entertainment industry, she started up a website with a partner for free classified ads called BakersfieldAds.com, creating an innovative forum for advertising and classified ads on the internet at the time. After selling the website, her money raising ability was recruited by the president of the Bakersfield Symphony and later she moved onto CSUB, remaining there for some time until she came into contact with Taft College President, Willie Duncan, who informed her of an open position at Taft College. "I thought to myself, what a terrific opportunity to help the city of Taft," Bunk said. "When I showed up I thought, I'm not driving to Taft everyday. When I left and I put my hand on my car door I realized, I'm going to work at Taft. I just felt it was such a good match. I feel that it was a very, very good place for me to land."
Bunk has made finding potential donors and raising money for the Bernard Osher Scholarship Endowment her foremost mission. Osher, a philanthropist from Maine, created the endowment in 2008 for all of the community colleges in California with a stipulation that each college match the amount of money assigned to the individual college based on enrollment. For Taft College and Bunk, this means raising almost $110,000. "There are a lot of people that are interested and I'm really optimistic that I'm going to get that money, I don't doubt it at all. I think that this is one of those terrific opportunities," she said. "And this particular gift that he's decided to give to the community colleges in California is truly unique." Osher designed the scholarships for second year students who are going for an AA degree and qualify for the California Community College Board of Governors fee waiver, among a few other requirements. Members of the community can get involved with the endowment by donating a $13,500 scholarship in their name, business or of another honoree. "Whoever gives to this particular scholarship can sit on the committee to help select the student, they can be involved with the student, and they certainly can come to the annual spring scholarship lunch," Bunk said. "The level of commitment is up to the person who donates."
One way that Bunk is able to get the word out about this scholarship fund and other events on campus is the use of the social networking outlet, Facebook. "I think social networking is the way to go", she said. "It has given me such an opportunity. I literally connect with people and I have actually raised money through Facebook, I can't believe it." Bunk started the Taft College Alumni and Friends fan page and is aiming to reach out to the younger generation. "It's important to connect with the young people on campus," she said. "The foundation needs to work on communicating with them and keeping them involved, and keeping them in touch with what's going on." She hopes to move forward with Facebook but also working with the enrollment department on possibly sending text messages to students to keep them informed of the latest news on campus.
With the use of Facebook and other means of marketing, Bunk has helped expose Taft College to a wider variety of people. "We've had several events over the last few weeks that have brought a lot of people into our world that typically aren't in our world." With this exposure, Bunk is able to find more ways to raise money for projects like the state of the art facility for the TIL program that will be breaking ground in the fall. "This is a huge building and a huge endeavor," she explained. "This new facility is going to allow other people to come here and study our program and take it back to their institutions, where ever they may be." Although some state money will be used to help build the facility, she still needs to raise more funds and hopes to do so through opportunities like in naming the building and rooms.
The ground breaking for the TIL building is just one of many new prospects on Taft College's horizon. With the college coming into a new era, new traditions are being started like with the very first Taft College Athletic Barbeque this fall. "It's the night before Oildorado kicks off and the night before the unveiling of the monument so we're working with the Oildorado committee to be involved with us that night," Bunk said. "We want to entice all the people that we have here to continue with the activities for the rest of the week." However, Bunk's main objective for the event is to showcase the college and all of its attributes. "I want the community to come," she said. "We'll be giving tours through our new 40 foot mobile STEM unit. We're going to have some interesting entertainment and great food."
If Sheri Horn Bunk has accomplished this much for Taft College in only five months then it will be interesting to see what else she can bring about in the next five months.