<p>Thanks, Bluebayou for your explanation in #52. I think these undoubtedly have significance in difference in % of alumni donations between public and private u’s and c’s. </p>
<p>Your Dartmouth example undoubtedly shows that good giving habits start early. If a U doesn’t connect with an alumnus early on, the less likely he/she will donate as time passes.</p>
<p>^^I don’t know if it is an “explanation”, drax but more of an observation. Perhaps it is only a coincidence, (a correlation without causation?), but the fact is that those colleges that have higher alumni giving rates than peer schools have wealthier undergrad student bodies than peer schools.</p>
<p>And that is what prompted by question to xiggi, and whether he has seen any sources that demonstrate that alumni giving truly does represent satisfaction with education received (as USNews purports it to do).</p>
<p>Okay, we’ll call it an explanation of your observation. ;)</p>
<p>Let’s face it, private c’s and u’s will have a greater propensity to game the USN system rather than publics. The real giving of an alumnus would typically not be a consistent yearly happening, but, say, once in a three year span, based on spiked income due to bonuses or whatever. If a U spreads this smaller donation over five years, that’s done specifcially to game the system because it’s all taken in all at one time in one year of the five. </p>
<p>Opposite to this, any U would much rather take in all $100M of a mega donation in one year, instead of a more likelihood that they get the $100M over 10 years, because they can do more with the whole amt in terms of present value of money if received in a straight shot at the beginning, added to the fact that a one mega donation person or a couple or a few, doesn’t have any play in these %-giving stats.</p>
<p>Also for a mega-donation pledge, it looks sexier if a u presents the $100M all in one year in reporting donations on a yearly basis, and would show a significantly upward trend, instead of 90% pledged, 10% received. This might help spur a giving frenzy, even if it would be artifically induced.</p>
<p>On the other hand, private U administrator might say, “$300 from alumnus X? Spread it out over 10, so we can pump up those %-giving stats.”</p>
<p>Wisconsin was quite happy getting $300-$400 million per year without having a massive staff out seeking $50 donations. Most publics only started seriously fundraising in the last 20 years as they did not want to upset the privates by competing for money while getting tax money too. Same for building endowment funds. Few if any publics outside Texas and their oil lands money had $1Billion 20 years ago. Now many do and are moving to match the upper level privates at over $5 Billion. It takes time to build that sort of thing. Going forward another 20 years I expect they get much more aggressive.</p>
<p>My two cents: I don’t feel a need to donate to H’s service academy undergrad because I feel that I do that through my taxes. Analagous to how I would feel about a state u.<br>
I was an alumni agent for an ivy and we were highly encouraged to get our percentages up. Defitnitely as much about the percentages as the amount. The high $ donors got shifted to a special list and were contacted by the institution’s own development staff.</p>