Business Associates recognized for donations to university

The Business Associates, a group consisting of more than 100 business and investors that donate money to student causes, has been given the 2008 Distinguished Achievement award by the Association of Fundraising Professionals’ (AFP) San Joaquin Valley Chapter of California.

The award, presented on Nov. 18, as part of the AFP’s “National Philanthropy Day” luncheon was accepted by the Chair of the Business Associates, Larry Johanson.

“It’s been 28 years of giving back to the Craig’s School and we have been recognized for that,” said Johanson in regards to the AFP’s award.

The AFP is an international organization with many chapters. The Central Valley’s chapter stresses its main goals in a mission statement found on its Web site.

The statement reads, “The San Joaquin (Central) Valley is among the world’s most fertile regions, supplying fresh fruits and vegetables to the rest of the nation. Ironically, the area is also highly impoverished and under-served. AFP’s California Valley Chapter exists to unite area non-profits and fund development professionals, in order to fund the vital services that keep our region growing.”

The Business Associates act as a volunteer board that works directly with the Craig School of Business to provide money for various needs. The program was created in 1981 by Helen Smades, a real estate business owner in Fresno. The group’s members will donate an annual sum of either $1,000, $2,500 or $5,000.

The group’s board, consisting of 17 members, will then decide how to spend the funds. The faculty and students of the Craig School do have a say, however. They give direct proposals to the group on what they feel should be funded.

“We think when you can fund a student’s project or group project, it helps the classroom experience,” Johanson said. “It’s a critical piece of the learning experience.”

Johanson has been on the group’s board for several years and has been the chair for about a year. His term will extend from this year until next year. While the group gets funding from companies around the Central Valley, Johanson is president of Johanson Transportation Services.

The award was given in response to the appropriation of the group’s funds last year, which was more than $86,000 total. The funds helped pay for field trips such as a bus trip up to the Business Information Systems meeting in San Francisco, as proposed by Kathleen Moffitt of the information systems and decision sciences department.

The funding also helped make the Human Resources Games happen for Fresno State students. This “Jeopardy!”-style competition between HR majors from numerous colleges has been organized by the Craig School’s Dr. Rudy Sanchez, who couldn’t do it without the group’s financial support. Similar funding went into a department-organized cleanup project.

Internships are also paid for and provided by the group. Roughly $30,000 is given each year to the internship program, which finds places for more than 300 interns a year. Interns are placed in several different companies during the internship’s duration.

These internships not only provide practical experience within the student’s focus area, but also contact information that can be crucial in the business world. The businesses that participants have interned for also find it as a new way to find prospects for new employees.

The Craig School’s Assistant Director of Development, Tracy Newell, said “They’re funding things that state dollars don’t fund, and it helps all of the students at the Craig School.”