With vision and leadership, Deirdre Weaver ’89 has helped Carleton raise millions of dollars while rekindling meaningful, lifelong bonds between friends, classmates, and the College. Having volunteered on the Alumni Annual Fund (AAF) Board since 2012, Weaver helped develop a new strategy to dramatically increase annual giving during the historic Every Carl for Carleton campaign. As part of this work, she helped design and structure the brand-new Three Oaks Society to recognize leadership gifts to the AAF. From 2018 through 2021, and through significant challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic, Weaver served as the Three Oaks Society leadership giving chair, making hundreds of individual contacts each year. More than 2,300 Carls made a leadership gift to the AAF at least once during Every Carl for Carleton, totaling more than $42.7 million in support of the College’s operating budget.
Weaver has been an AAF class agent since 2008, and for four years prior to that, she was an assistant class agent. Nominators attest to her ability to build enduring personal relationships, which translates
to a strong community and truly brings out the joy in giving. She is a skilled communicator, tailoring her outreach to individuals, normalizing conversations about fundraising, and recruiting and mentoring new volunteers. She has stepped forward to help plan and fundraise for her class’s 20th, 25th, 30th, and 35th Reunions. Knowing the importance of planned giving, Weaver also encouraged her peers to join the Joseph Lee Heywood Society, Carleton’s planned giving recognition society, resulting in the Class of 1989 having the second-highest number of Heywood members of any pre-50th Reunion class.
Weaver continues to volunteer as a class agent and serves as an alumni admissions representative and a Three Oaks Society volunteer. In 2017, she created the Deirdre C. Weaver ’89 Internship Fund to help students prepare for life after graduation.
A history major at Carleton, Weaver earned her master’s degree in European history from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and is now the Director of Campaign Strategy and Communications at The Jackson Laboratory. She lives in Farmington, Connecticut.