This week marks the beginning of an annual program which raises nearly $200,000 in university donations each year — an amount which will be gathered entirely by Oakland University students.

Starting Sept. 26, students will begin making phone calls for OU’s annual fall fundraising event, the OU Telefund.

This program, which is organized by the Annual  Giving Department every fall and spring, employs OU students at $9 per hour to call alumni and past donors in order to gather university donations. Beginning this year, the duration of the Telefund will be extended from six to 11 weeks to allow more time for fundraising.

According to Annual Giving Assistant Donna McVay, the university employs RuffaloCODY, a third party fundraising company, to set up a call center in Kresge Library and train students to begin making calls for donations.

As of two years ago, RuffaloCODY employees made calls in an off-campus location; however, telefund donations spiked “tremendously” when students replaced the third-party caller, McVay said.

Jimmy Opperman, this year’s RuffaloCODY’s program center manager for OU, said the use of students positively impacts the university, and students.

“Students are able to be an ambassador to a university,” he said. “You gain a lot of knowledge about the university that you might not have known, and the job looks great on a resume.”

Sophomore communication major Arkeem Scott is a returning Telefund employee who worked as a caller this past spring.

According to Scott, this job stood out from other employment opportunities on campus because callers are able to learn about the university directly from former students.

McVay explained this is one of the main reasons the program started using student callers.

McVay said applications are still being accepted because more callers means more opportunities for fundraising.

“The Telefund is growing in donations as well as growing in size,” she said. “The more people that know about this opportunity, the more doors that will open up.”

Contact Staff Reporter Jennifer Holychuk via email [email protected] at or follow her on Twitter @jholychuk