<p>PD
Designating monies to a library, senior gift, or new hockey rink, or whatever is not new. At least one get a plaque with acknowledgment of your gift if one wants it:) I guess with an economy like this, some alumni/parents might rather support the school plant, academics or !survival! rather than continuing their schools' ability to stay at 60% FA(hypothetical). Or what "they plan to spend x dollars on and a and y dollars etc." becomes a tougher sell in today's economy.
In my grandfather's day (St. Mark's) 1911, one might give a gift for a specific cause. Whether it be for a student to return another year who through economic changes couldn't without his family's gift, or to a stellar football player going to his Alma mater college to play, who needed senior BS year assistance.
Of course, when things right themselves economically it will be possible to return to the 60% number. That is to say, once the alumni/parents feel comfortable economically again, they will go back to generic gifts to these schools. In fact, maybe donors have been trained the past 30+ years to give the generic gift and it will persevere through these times.</p>
<p>My daughter is in her second year of BS. We are going to contribute as much as we possibly can comfortably, maybe even more than last year. This year, I am also planning to contribute some (probably lesser amount) to my daughter's school that she went to from kindergarten - 8th grade - they need it even more than her current school, as they has a miniscule endowment. I feel lucky my family has ANY discretionary income in this crisis, but I definitely feel like we need to show extra support for the schools right now.</p>
<p>Word! (ten Characters)</p>
<p>"they has" - i was not sufficiently caffeinated when I typed that this morning....</p>
<p>Still, if I was an admissions officer or school board member, you are the kind of parent I would want to bring into the fold. If this 'attitude of comfortable commitment and support' can be conveyed into the "Parental Statement" part of the application, I'm sure it would help in the vetting process. I also know for a fact that schools do check families out to see if indeed they did support their schools in the past.</p>
<p>I always wondered if your donation track record at prep school eventually came into play in Ivy applications? The old boys do talk to each other, and the High End colleges are that because they keep an eye on the (endowment) bottom line</p>
<p>Toad can add your name and school expertise to this list please?</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/667365-resource-list-current-bs-parents-students-5.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/667365-resource-list-current-bs-parents-students-5.html</a></p>
<p>Sarum, are you still living in the west coast?</p>
<p>Yep, are we friends from another life?</p>
<p>Haha… maybe. Let’s say I’ve been in LA area a lot lately, so we may be friends in real life and we don’t even know!</p>
<p>Colleges Ask Donors to Help Meet Demand for Aid </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/education/16college.html?_r=1&hp[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/16/education/16college.html?_r=1&hp</a></p>