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NIU receives $3M gift for indoor practice facility

CHICAGO – Northern Illinois University football coach Dave Doeren showed his appreciation when the people leading the school's push for an indoor practice facility informed him Tuesday of the $3 million naming gift put toward the project.

"I gave Mike Malone and Jeff Compher and Mark Muhlhauser a giant bear hug," Doeren said, referring to, respectively, NIU's vice president of university advancement, athletic director and associate athletic director for major gifts.

Dr. Kenneth and Ellen Chessick's donation was announced Saturday near the end of the first quarter of NIU's 49-7 loss against No. 7 Wisconsin in front of 41,068 fans at Soldier Field. It is the athletic department's largest one-time donation ever received.

Compher said the university will try to gather an additional $7.5 million. There is no schedule for when the university will break ground on the facility.

Compher said the 80,000-square-foot facility, which will be named the Kenneth

Lord & Taylor Wants You To Give Gift Cards On Facebook

The high-end retailer partnered with InComm to sell pre-paid gift cards on Lord & Taylor’s Facebook page.

The cards sell in pre-determined notes of $25, $50, $75 or $100, or in amounts determined by buyers, are delivered via Facebook or e-mail and can be accompanied by personalized messages.

Networks of Facebook friends can also conveniently purchase group gifts.

This be-where-the-shoppers-are move advances the retailer’s social-media strategy and allows Lord & Taylor to digitally nudge its Facebook fans toward purchases.

It also freshens up the department store’s brand name, which is better known to older generations than the youngest users of Facebook.

“We are thrilled to take this next step in our social media strategy… it offers our customers more options and convenience when shopping from us,” said Amy Avitabile , senior vice president of marketing at Lord & Taylor.

As brick-and-mortar presence of department stores dwindle in number, there’s no better time than right now (other than last year, or the year before that) for department stores to connect with shoppers online.

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