“I’m hitting the ground running which is nice. You always want to make sure that you’re maintaining the culture that was left by your predecessors to some degree – taking care of your donors,” says Daniel Sims. “I’m really starting to find out who is the donor pool and what they look like and how we can lean into ideas identifying as diverse of donor pool as possible.”
Starting this week, Sims is responsible for leading fundraising efforts alongside a team in UW’s College of Engineering, while also providing leadership development and skills support to team members across the foundation, as its new senior director of development.
“There are some great opportunities to grow and maximize the donor experience in the College of Engineering, specifically, where I’ll be working,” he says. “But also with a lot of the work that I do outside of my 9-5 in advocating for racial equity in the fundraising process and reimagining philanthropy — how we think of philanthropy and non-white people as donors who are giving to their churches or in giving circles or other ways that are out of the purview of a lot of develop professionals.
“This is a great opportunity to marry those interests together in a functional way by raising money but also as a model for higher education institutions and for non-profits in general and how we can do this work more effectively,” he adds.
Sims, who is also the founder of The Sims Group, had previously been the donor relations director for Salvation Army’s Wisconsin and Upper Michigan Division and a program analyst and grants specialist for the Urban League of Greater Madison.
Sims officially started on Monday at the University of Wisconsin Foundation, which raises, invests and distributes funds for the benefit of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is looking forward to really getting to know the donors, hear their stories, and understand their backgrounds and how that ties into why they give.
“What I’m looking forward to most with the job is getting to know the donors and understanding their passion and their philanthropic vision,” he says. “That opens up the opportunity to hear a lot of very cool stories about their UW experience if they are an alum or somebody connected to them went through one of the programs at UW really ignited their excitement to either encourage innovation or because they care about students going through the rigors of an academic program.”
Sims, who was recently named to the 2021 40 Under 40 Class for InBusiness Magazine, is originally from Arkansas.
“I grew up in Helena, which is a small city on the Mississippi River an hour southwest of Memphis. I spent most of my early adult life in Little Rock,” Sims says.
Sims is a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Monticello and now a second-year student enrolled in Clinton School Online where he is pursuing his master’s degree.
Fun fact about Sims: He was on the TV game show Jeopardy! back in 2012.
“It was extremely nerve-wracking. That was a culmination of a more-than-two-year journey to get on the show,” Sims remembers. “I did the online audition in 2010, 2011, and 2012 … the third time was a charm. Then they invited me to a live audition, which I did in Chicago and took another test and did an interview with the producers.
“I finally got the call to fly out to California in July of 2012 and taped in August. It was very nerve-wracking. I studied a lot. I studied six hours a day for many days. I watched many hundreds of episodes of Jeopardy! in preparation to get an idea of trends and patterns,” Sims adds. “They don’t give you anything to study with when they tell you you’re going to be on the show.”
How did he do?
“I won $1,000. I kinda bet the farm in Final Jeopardy! and that didn’t end well for anybody in that particular episode, but for me most of all. But it was still a once-in-a-lifetime experience getting to be up close to Alex Trebek, talk with him and throw some snarky barbs out – which I guess is kind of a badge of honor,” Sims says. “He was so talented and so good at what he was doing. He had such control … and knowledge, too. That was very clear as we were taping. It was an absolutely amazing experience.”
Sims has been in Madison for almost three years and he says that he likes that it reminds him of Little Rock.
“With the set-up of both being college towns and state Capitols, some of the avatars of the cast of characters are the same,” Sims says. “So it was easy to find my niche spots. I’m on the board of Access [Communit Health Centers]. I’m on the board of the Foundation for Madison Public Schools. I’m on others, too.
“I think what I like the most is that no matter who you meet, there is a real inherent pride from being from Madison — both for people who grew up here and for transplants like me who find themselves at UW and then stay or a job opportunity brought them here,” he adds. “This is home for me. I’m raising a family here. I’ve been welcomed by folks who, like me, want to make Madison the best possible place – the most equitable, the most just place to live…. And that means a lot.”
With his new job as senior director of development of the University of Wisconsin Foundation, he has been starting to do some of the homework on what some of the racial and cultural backgrounds are of donors and alums and find out how they are actually engaging them on a regular basis.
“If we’ve missed the mark; if we’ve failed them in the past, what kinds of messages and stories do we need to be telling that resonate in traditionally underrepresented communities that have a propensity to give?” he says. “I know I have a lot of support from the leadership on this and I’m happy to be able to start doing the work to bring this to fruition.”
