2025 Awards & Achievements
June 3, 2025
The Delta Tau Delta Fraternity and Educational Foundation were recognized with three awards of distinction from the Fraternity Communications Association in May 2025 in Denver, CO.
The Fraternity and Educational Foundation received the following awards:
1st Place for Best Video Presentation (Short Video) – What Future are You Forging: This award recognizes outstanding achievement in short-form video production (up to three minutes) on a topic relevant to a defined audience. It honors entries that demonstrate excellence in video and audio quality, effective organization and concise storytelling, and a high level of creativity and originality. The award celebrates compelling content that engages and informs viewers while remaining highly relevant to its intended audience in a condensed format.
2nd Place for Best Video Production (Long Video) – Find Yourself at COMPASS: This honor recognizes outstanding achievement in long-form video production on a topic relevant to a defined audience. It honors entries demonstrating excellence in video and audio quality, effective organization and concise storytelling, and a high level of creativity and originality. The award celebrates compelling content that engages and informs viewers while remaining highly relevant to its intended audience.
3rd Place for Best Annual Report – Foundation Year in Review, Forging the Future: This recognition celebrates outstanding achievement in effectively communicating complex information through a combination of informative, well-organized content and engaging, visually compelling design. Judged on the organization and relevance of content, the attractiveness and impact of the report’s design, and the quality and consistency of its writing, the honor reflects Delta Tau Delta’s commitment to transparency, creativity, and audience engagement.
2024 Awards & Achievements
In 2024, the Delta Tau Delta Fraternity and Educational Foundation was recognized with five awards of distinction, earning two from the Fraternity Communications Association and three from the Foundation for Fraternal Excellence.
Fraternity Communications Association:
3rd Place for the Annual/Biennial Report – Delta Tau Delta Educational Foundation: 2023 Year In Review and Annual Report
3rd Place for Best Writing (Short) – Delta Tau Delta Fraternity: Go Placidly Amid the Noise and Haste, Desiderata Enters Public Domain
Foundation for Fraternal Excellence:
Best Operations Improvement Effort: Delta Tau Delta Educational Foundation
Previously operating on separate CRMs, Delta Tau Delta’s transition to a single Salesforce database ensures all staff have access to the same membership information across all enterprise entities. Since switching to Salesforce, Delt has taken advantage of powerful automation, reduced tedious tasks, and allowed staff to focus on more impactful items. Data visualization via Salesforce dashboards has been helpful for fundraising efforts, as they can view giving data through many lenses quickly. This includes year-over-year comparisons, summary information by fund, specific portfolios for each fundraiser and more.
Best Planned Giving Effort: Delta Tau Delta Educational Foundation
With more than 70 individual donors and nearly $12,000,000 in new planned gifts since the launch of their Forging the Future Campaign, the Delt Foundation used a strategic omnichannel approach that included face-to-face solicitation, email, direct mail, social media, web, and print media, their audience receives consistent messaging across every Delt platform.
At the outset of the campaign, they set an initial planned gift goal of $5,000,000 based on the results of a feasibility study. Due to the overwhelming response, however, they soon realized that this goal would be surpassed. Incredibly, their planned gift effort resulted in the single largest documented planned gift in the Delt Foundation's history, at $5.3M.
Best Major Gifts Development Effort: Delta Tau Delta Educational Foundation
The Forging the Future Campaign is the largest comprehensive effort in Delt fundraising history, resulting in gift commitments of more than $26,000,000 and counting. With major gifts defined as donations of $10,000 or more, these gifts account for over $9.3M in total cash commitments from 285 unique gifts.
2023 Awards & Achievements
Fraternity Communications Association:
2nd Place in Specific Purpose Website – Delta Tau Delta Educational Foundation: Forging the Future Campaign Microsite
3rd Place for the Fred F. Yoder Award for Overall Excellence – Delta Tau Delta Fraternity: The Rainbow
Foundation for Fraternal Excellence:
William D. Jenkins Outstanding Foundation Professional: Maurie J. Phelan, Delta Tau Delta Educational Foundation
A leader in fraternal fundraising with an exceptional ability to drive growth, Maurie J. Phelan has a passion for the members she serves. A true champion of Delta Tau Delta (DTD) Educational Foundation’s mission and vision, she served on their team for two decades. It is for her energy, focus, loyalty, integrity and ingenuity that Maurie was recognized as a 2023 William D. Jenkins Outstanding Foundation Professional. She is genuine, honest and driven by relationship building, fundraising and stewardship. She carries out her various responsibilities with patience, grace, and a willingness to ensure that donors and those who benefit from DTD grants are put first.
Known for streamlining and updating procedures to benefit the entire organization, some of Maurie’s accomplishments during her time at Delta Tau Delta include:
• Administered $24.6M in grants to the Delta Tau Delta Fraternity, its chapters and members
• Eliminated an operations deficit in 2015, leading to the Foundation’s current financial success
• Wrote 500+ executive committee motions
• Planned and executed 41 Foundation board meetings, taking minutes for each
• Developed and oversaw 18 annual budgets; managed 20 successful audits
• Provided staff leadership for four comprehensive fundraising campaigns
• Directed the Foundation’s transition from a volunteer investment committee to an Outside Chief Investment Officer
• Served as a valued advisor to Ken File and Steve Vedra during their service as Foundation President
• Developed and maintained significant relationships with key donors and board members, resulting in confidence within the organization that led to multiple leadership gifts, including those of more than $1M
2022 Awards & Achievements
Fraternity Communications Association:
2nd Place for Best Writing (Short) – Delta Tau Delta Fraternity: Rising Above
3rd Place in Specific Purpose Website – Delta Tau Delta Fraternity: Delt Stories
About FCA
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About FFE
To learn more about the Foundation for Fraternal Excellence, visit the button below:
For more information, please get in touch with the Central Office at Delts@Delts.org or 317-284-0203.