<p>We, “near full-pay” parents, recently attended a parents event that was presented in invitation as “visit school, meet professors, sit in class”, but was actually a small group recruitment event for parents organization. Attendance represented <1% of parents, likely cherry-picked from demographic data, and morphed into a fundraiser pitch for a new sports stadium. Thus far we’re not donating; a huge chunk of our net income is already earmarked to go to this school as “college costs”.</p>
<p>I was appalled that my grad school had a donation form for parents in the graduation program! I paid for grad school myself, and I told my parents not to give them one red cent as the school was going through administrative issues that eventually led to the dismantling of the department I was in.</p>
<p>Yep, we do. We were thrilled with the financial aid from Rice U, and the opportunities our kids had there. We give a little bit every year, and the kids do, too.</p>
<p>Yes, we give to S1s large state school and S2s smaller private high school. We are extremely tight monetarily so we only give a small amount. My understanding is, it makes a difference to the schools when they approach deep-pocket donors. The potential donors want to see the percentage of present/past families who contribute each year. The higher the giving percentage, the greater the likelihood of large donations. The amount of the donation isn’t as important as the fact of the contribution.</p>
<p>I am grateful to the schools so am happy to help where I can.</p>
<p>Yes, we give and have since our oldest daughter started. We paid the full OOS sticker price at a great public school for two kids, and paid less at a great private school another d attended with a generous merit scholarship. We donate the same amount to each school, though we may “owe” more to the private school. We expect to leave each school a modest bequest, as well, though we haven’t worked out the details yet.</p>
<p>Why? We’re grateful, both for the great education and the fact that we can afford to donate something. Yes, there are a lot of worthy organizations (we also donate to some of them), but we feel a strong connection to our kids’ schools that we don’t feel toward other charities.</p>
<p>My dh and I attended the same college, which I do not support, though he does. Why? He thinks highly of it, and I don’t. But our parents actually still make an annual donation to the Parents Fund. We’re talking almost 40 years here!</p>
<p>We give a small amount. </p>
<p>H and I have always given to our alma mater, but now that I see D’s college I think it does much more with much less money than our alma mater does. </p>
<p>Frankly, when D graduates and we’re done paying tuition I’d prefer to give money to her college rather than our alma mater. Our alma mater has a massive endowment and charges a ton of money in tuition - our S is a recent graduate of our alma mater and we paid full-price for his education, which means we paid for his education and part of someone else’s. D’s school’s endowment is 1/11th the size of our alma mater’s (on a per-student basis) and they charge 30% less in tuition - yet they give a great education. I feel like my alma mater doesn’t really need my money and I don’t see that they do anything but stockpile it. With D’s school I feel like the money gets used for good, student-oriented purposes.</p>