Renee Sweeney

Background
I grew up in Iowa, which was no fun at all. I came to the area in 1997 to attend Mount Holyoke College. There, I studied Politics and Philosophy, and sang with the V-8's a cappella group. Between my junior and senior years there, I had a summer job doing coding and data entry with their Office of Development. I had never imagined that someone's actual job was to raise money for my school, but I found the work so interesting that I pursued a job there after graduation. I worked there in Development for nearly five years, doing data entry, report generation, and database conversion work.

Next I spent a year and a half working for Political Research Associates, a progressive think-tank based in Somerville, MA. I wore several hats there, including data manager, webmaster, development, communications, and circulation management for their quarterly journal, The Public Eye. They are a cool organization, but I found myself missing higher ed and not being "an army of one." I was very excited to return to higher ed fundraising and the Pioneer Valley in January of 2008.

My work at Hampshire
I work with our database (Datatel) to ensure that we have accurate information about our external constituencies. I create and maintain reports that track our relationships with those constituents and help guide and measure our fundraising efforts. I work with the website areas for Giving and Alumni, and administer Hampshire's Alumni Online Community. I also do a fair amount of e-communications and data for mailings and events.