{"id":97844,"date":"2014-11-14T08:00:43","date_gmt":"2014-11-14T13:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=97844"},"modified":"2014-11-21T16:46:07","modified_gmt":"2014-11-21T21:46:07","slug":"uconn-alums-charmed-life-at-alex-and-ani","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2014\/11\/uconn-alums-charmed-life-at-alex-and-ani\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn Alum’s ‘Charmed’ Life at Alex and Ani"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was first published in the Fall 2014 print edition of\u00a0<\/em>UConn Magazine<\/a>. To access more stories like this, visit\u00a0s.uconn.edu\/fall 14<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/a> or download\u00a0<\/a><\/em>UConn Magazine’s<\/a> free app<\/a>\u00a0for iPad.<\/em><\/p>\n

While at UConn, Nicki (Castonguay) Maher \u201900 (SFS) set records and earned acclaim as an All-American in field hockey\u00a0\u2013 a team that just this past year won its third national championship. Today, Maher maintains her own winning streak as the leader of a very different team.<\/p>\n

Since 2010, Maher has been thriving as vice president of lifestyle brand Alex and Ani\u2019s Charity by Design<\/a> division. Named one of the nation\u2019s 100 fastest-growing private companies in 2013 by Inc. Magazine, Alex and Ani has seen revenue skyrocket from a million dollars in 2010 to $288 million last year.<\/p>\n

\""When<\/a>
“When I was told, \u2018You can\u2019t have it all,\u2019 it made me want to push harder,” says Nicki (Castonguay) Maher \u201900 (SFS), vice president of lifestyle brand Alex and Ani\u2019s Charity by Design division. (Photo courtesy of Alex and Ani)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As Maher can attest, however, her focus in Charity by Design reaches far beyond jewelry sales. Charity by Design produces an Alex and Ani collection of customized, symbolic charm bangles that support select nonprofit partners nationwide. For every Charity by Design bangle sold, the company donates 20 percent of sales to the designated charity\u00a0\u2013 while also offering support to thousands of additional nonprofits through sponsorships, volunteerism, and more.<\/p>\n

In just four years, Maher\u2019s division has achieved upwards of $30 million in revenue and has coordinated donations in excess of $12 million to more than 1,500 charitable organizations\u00a0\u2013 from the American Heart Association to Farm Aid.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe smarter we are as a for-profit business, the more we can give back each year,\u201d Maher says.<\/p>\n

With a corporate philosophy centered on such principles as positive energy, spirituality, and empowerment, Alex and Ani seems the perfect fit for Maher and her own can-do attitude. \u201cI have a confidence in life, a faith that everything happens for a reason,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
For every Charity by Design bangle sold, Alex and Ani donates 20 percent of sales to a designated charity \u2013 from the American Heart Association to Living Water International, which is working to supply clean water to communities in developing countries around the world. (Photo courtesy of Alex and Ani)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cLife is so short, and we, especially women, have so many things in life that are expected of us\u00a0\u2013 to be friends, daughters, mothers, wives, as well as career women \u2013 that sometimes we hold back or are afraid to ask for more.\u201d But, she adds, \u201cWhen I was told, \u2018You can\u2019t have it all,\u2019 it made me want to push harder \u2026 Everybody\u2019s \u2018have it all\u2019 is different. Why hold somebody back from their potential dreams?\u201d<\/p>\n

Visit s.uconn.edu\/alexandani<\/a> to see how UConn alum Nicki (Castonguay) Maher \u201900 (SFS)<\/em> and Alex and Ani\u2019s Charity by Design division are inspiring and educating their customers\u00a0<\/em>\u2013 while supporting causes that are bettering the world around us.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As VP of Alex and Ani\u2019s Charity by Design division, former field hockey All-American Nicki Maher brings her winning streak to a different kind of team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":98443,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[49],"class_list":["post-97844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-04 10:31:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97844"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98722,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97844\/revisions\/98722"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/98443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97844"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=97844"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=97844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}