New Personal Fundraising Platform Brings UCSF Community ‘Together’ in 2019

Fighting misinformation with health-policy research. Providing amputation-prevention training. Stemming teen e-cigarette addiction. Bringing music to faculty members and staff. These are just a few of the 40-plus campaigns launched by and for our community on Together at UCSF in 2019.

These fundraisers provide a snapshot of the tremendous compassion, skill, and commitment of our people, as well as the diversity of ideas on our campuses.

The platform – which makes it easy for anyone to create a personal fundraising page to honor a friend, remember a loved one, or campaign for a cause – launched in May 2019.

“It has been so inspiring to see our community come together to support such a wide range of projects and people,” says Megan Smith, UC San Francisco’s senior director of Annual and Special Giving. “These fundraisers provide a snapshot of the tremendous compassion, skill, and commitment of our people, as well as the diversity of ideas on our campuses.”

UCSF fundraisers can now launch campaigns to support any UCSF program or project they care deeply about, tapping into networks of friends, family, and colleagues to raise funds. Every personal fundraiser sets their own goals, ranging from $500 for a memorial fundraiser to support the UCSF School of Medicine to $100,000 for a fundraiser to make childbirth safe for all women.

For faculty members and staff, these fundraisers are an especially powerful way to give and receive thanks. Kate Danziger, a one-time UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital bedside nurse, is a model example: her former patient, Zoe Babikian, created a Together at UCSF fundraiser to help Danziger realize her dream of creating a yoga and breathing program for pediatric cancer patients and their families. Babikian’s fundraiser – launched in partnership with her father, Jeff – raised an astounding $104,130 from 189 donors, hitting its $100,000 goal in just five weeks.

“It feels really good to have these incredible people standing behind me and this program,” Danziger said. “I mean, when in your life have you heard, ‘I want to make your dream come true’? Those were the sweetest words I have ever heard.”

What comes next for Danziger’s program? Now that the two-year pilot project is fully funded, she is working with colleagues in the Integrated Pediatric Pain and Palliative Care Clinic – where her new program will be housed – to solidify the research arm of the initiative.

When the Restorative Yoga and Breathing Program launches in 2020, it will be Danziger’s full-time focus; she left her role as a pediatric oncology and bone marrow transplant nurse in the summer of 2019 to concentrate fully on launching this ambitious, community-funded program.

See more Together at UCSF fundraisers – or start your own – today »