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Yes. I gave back when I was younger, but I am busy saving hundreds of dollars a month for my kids tuition now, so I feel like that's enough contribution for me.
I haven't gotten a phone call since we got rid of the land line. I do get quarterly donation envelopes.
My phone calls stopped once I got rid of the land line as well. I think I received a few calls a year until that point.
One of the factors used to come up with national rankings is the number of alum who donate, so one hundred 1 dollar checks are worth a lot more than one 100 dollar check. If you want to try and keep (or get) your college's ranking where it is at (or higher), an annual check of any amount will count you as a donating alum, which factors into total percentage of alum who donate, which factors into ranking.
Between my husband and I, we have four alma maters, so we get sent solicitations quite often. With the exception of my Undergrad institution, we have never given any money to any of them, and yet, they always, always seem to have our current address, despite the fact that we have lived in several states (sometimes at multiple addresses within those states). And I don't mean with the USPS forwarding label on it, I mean they always seem to proactively get our new addresses within weeks of moving there.
Between all of us, we have 7 alma maters. They all solicit, some by mail, some by phone and mail. Soon there will be 8 schools in total. A few years ago, I started to give to my undergrad for a small alumni organization to get started and to stay alive. We get a lot of big glossy magazines from them.
Last year I got a phone call from my alma mater. It was a rep wanting me to make a donation for the college. I am a jobless while still paying off that good-for-nothing loan. I told the rep this and she still kept trying for that donation.
I told Cox that I couldn't do cable tv because I was unemployed. Even THEY backed off after that!
I like my alma mater, but fire whatever reason, they do not allow designated given unless you are giving a very large amount. If I were able to designate, I have specific programs I'd donate to.
Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
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Originally Posted by TabulaRasa
I like my alma mater, but fire whatever reason, they do not allow designated given unless you are giving a very large amount. If I were able to designate, I have specific programs I'd donate to.
Yeah, I've heard that, I understand it though from an admin standpoint. Not sure it is wise, I can donate generally to my program at least. Having worked at a few universities, one rather well off one, people assume that when the hear the size of the endowment that they could fund everything... well, the reality was almost all that endowment was in dedicated gift form and could be spent on very very narrow things. It became a big problem, hundreds of millions (and the money generated from it) couldn't actually be spent at all since the gift terms were so restricted. During the last market downturn the board of overseers constructed a committee to approach original gift givers (or their heirs) to engage them in conversations about loosening the terms of the gifts so that the money generated could actually be spent. Very tricky business. I found the workings of endowments to be fascinating; much more complex than I ever imagined. What most schools really need is undedicated funds for student financial aid, and that is some of the hardest money to generate. Endowed chairs are relatively easy.
Of course, when I saw the entire budget of the school I was at, then the number of students... and the tuition, and realized that even if every single student paid full tuition (which of course didn't happen), it wouldn't cover the cost to run the school for the year.
YES I do. Not too much but $50/year, every year. I give back because I was a recipient of Alumni scholarship. I figure I should give back so another sets of students can receive this scholarship
Yeah, I've heard that, I understand it though from an admin standpoint. Not sure it is wise, I can donate generally to my program at least. Having worked at a few universities, one rather well off one, people assume that when the hear the size of the endowment that they could fund everything... well, the reality was almost all that endowment was in dedicated gift form and could be spent on very very narrow things. It became a big problem, hundreds of millions (and the money generated from it) couldn't actually be spent at all since the gift terms were so restricted. During the last market downturn the board of overseers constructed a committee to approach original gift givers (or their heirs) to engage them in conversations about loosening the terms of the gifts so that the money generated could actually be spent. Very tricky business. I found the workings of endowments to be fascinating; much more complex than I ever imagined. What most schools really need is undedicated funds for student financial aid, and that is some of the hardest money to generate. Endowed chairs are relatively easy.
Of course, when I saw the entire budget of the school I was at, then the number of students... and the tuition, and realized that even if every single student paid full tuition (which of course didn't happen), it wouldn't cover the cost to run the school for the year.
Yes, I went to a very small school with a huge endowment. There are certain underfunded programs I'd gladly donate to, and a number of programs I don't care to.
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