Michele Martin BA ‘88, MA ‘90
Michele Martin, BA ‘88 (PLS), MA ‘90 (Theo), had dutifully given to the Sorin Society since graduation as a means of supporting the University, in the only way she was aware of to do so. While life moved quickly with a fast-paced career, she began thinking about what her legacy would be, and for what she would ultimately be known. “Three years ago, I started reflecting on my career, as most people do when you consider ‘graduation’ to retirement,” Michele shared. “I had worked hard to secure my financial future and began shifting from ‘chasing income to chasing impact,’” Michele continued. “I really started to ask myself the question, ‘for what?’ What is my legacy?”
I her quest “for what,” she met with Dylan Reed, Regional Director of Development at Notre Dame, and together they embarked on an exploratory journey to “[meet] all the cool people who are doing cool things at the University.” Since that initial meeting and those that followed, Michele has been able to shape her philanthropic vision with Notre Dame. At first, she established a Donor-Advised Fund (DAF), making a smaller gift to test the waters, and was thoroughly impressed by the University’s follow-through and understanding of the value of each dollar she put forward.
When contemplating her longer-term estate planning, Michele sees the University as a steward of the donation today and in the future. “With the power of the return percent of the endowment in which the donation is invested, I wasn’t just going to see impact dollar-for-dollar; I was going to see my gift become eight- to ten-fold impact. And that made my decision easier to make.” This led her to boldly leave her entire estate to Notre Dame.
In addition to her personal financial contributions, she played a pivotal role in establishing the Notre Dame Health Equity Data Lab Project with a gift from Accenture, her employer. She helped create the Notre Dame Health Equity Business Forum with major U.S. Healthcare/Retail/Pharmaceutical employers, non-profits, and state medicaid agencies. Bringing her background in innovation, she has mentored and supported the Hesburgh Mandela Washington Fellows Program in the Keough School, and students in the McCloskey Innovation Competition at the IDEA Center. She helped ideate the “Imagine a World…” program in the College of Arts and Letters and regularly meets with students to advise on careers in consulting. She has also become a leader on the University’s Gift Planning Advancement Committee, a role in which she introduced an additional expectation for members to leverage their “ties” in addition to the oft-cited three Ts of “time, talent, and treasure.”
Michele often says we can widen the perception of the word “philanthropy” from solely enormous gifts that are rare, to also include gifts that make both an immediate impact and will continue to do so well beyond our lifetimes.
“I think sometimes it is hard for women to overtly talk about their vision for philanthropy. Maybe it’s tied to not wanting to discuss finances, but I personally think that the more we celebrate all gifts, the more we share our passions, the more we can do together! I’m a philanthropist. My ‘for what’ quest has transformed into Notre Dame’s mission to do everything ‘For Good.’”
Now, Michele M. Martin serves as the Executive Director of the Lucy Family Institute for Data and Society and is the Managing Director, Data, AI, and Computing Initiative at the University of Notre Dame.
