The Diane Thompson Award is an annual award presented to a senior annual giving professional who, in the opinion of the Northeast Annual Giving Conference committee, has exhibited excellence in annual giving practice and commitment to the profession. First presented in 2015, the award is named after Diane Thompson, a founder of the Northeast Annual Giving Conference back in 2003.
Twenty years ago in 2006, eight years before the first Giving Tuesday and well before anyone had a giving day (or platform), Sylvia Racca at Dartmouth College launched an “April Challenge” to motivate alumni giving. It was one of the first short-term “challenge” fundraising appeals that used the energy of real-time immediacy. ⏰ Featuring email messages, “internet giving” and some new “social media” fundraising channels, the April Challenge attracted 4,000 donors in a month, along with $400,000 in matching funds from five alumni donors. The results she collected, reported to constituents each Monday morning and showing the day-by-day growing numbers of gifts 📈 and enthusiasm for achieving the April Challenge goal, had not been seen before in education fundraising. (Mostly just on-the-air at PBS.) It’s an origin story for what would become the giving day – an idea that remains a fundraising engine for many annual giving programs. (She’s even a chapter in the CASE book “Online Innovations in Annual Giving.”)
Today, Sylvia is in her 23rd year as Executive Director, The Dartmouth College Fund, and we’re thrilled to honor her with the Diane Thompson Award 🏆 at the 2026 Northeast Annual Giving Conference in appreciation of her service to the profession. In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the April Challenge, as well as a career full of good fundraising ideas, join us as we salute one of annual giving’s Greatest of All Time. (And thanks to Colin D. Hennessy, Ed.D. for the thoughtful nomination.)
2025 Recipient:
Dominique Matteson
Associate Vice President of Creative Digital Strategy and Constituent Engagement at the University of Connecticut Foundation, Inc.
2024 Recipients: Stephanie Rasamny and Andy Bernstein
2023 Recipient: Skylar Beaver
2022 Recipient: Bob Burdenski
2020-2021 Recipient: Angie Myers
2019 Recipient: Colin Hennessy
2018 Recipient: Tammy Schlafer
2017 Recipient: Lishelle Blakemore
2016 Recipient: Tammie Ruda
2015 Recipient: Diane Thompson