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why does anyone feel compelled to donate to their alma mater? I don't.
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<p>What's your alma mater? Some seem to engender more support than others. My husband contributes substantially to his (Princeton), though I have a feeling it would not quite be so much if his employer did not require a % of comp as charitable contribution. Columbia gets a smaller if steady bit from me. Our kids both go (or will go) elsewhere though. There is little question that these schools benefit from alumni donations, the benefit being a better run/built school. Excellence in education seems like a worthy goal to me. The undergraduate experience can be life-changing, some like to give back.</p>
<p>Our dear friend is a professor at Princetion, class of '5X, he insists the school has "more money than it can possibly know how to spend" and encourages charitable donations elsewhere. Great guy, but cheap as dirt, I don't think charity is his thing anyway, anywhere.</p>
<p>I am constantly hounded for donations from the alumni association of a local university that I never attended. I explain to each soliciter that I am not an alum, and they are shocked, because I'm on their list as having earned a Masters in Fine Arts. My married name is quite unusual, so it's not just another "Mary Smith" sharing my name. I suspect that the list of frequent arts performance ticket purchasers got mixed up with the grads somehow. I always say if they send me a diploma, I'll be happy to come up with some cash. No luck.</p>
<p>I get solicited as an alumni and sent information from a college I never attended. I was not even living in this country at that age. My husband did actually graduate from there but we have no idea how he stopped getting all this stuff and I started. Maybe they think he died.</p>
<p>I've known some pretty impressive alums with lousy room assignments; even shut out of room assignments so I don't know about that. When I went to my son's summer orientation, I complained about the room assignment, met someone in admin who deals with housing who managed a change, and I have no more clout than any mom there. The big advantage an alum has when the kid goes to his alma mater. is that you know the system a bit more, and can work it, more through knowledge than connections. </p>
<p>We've been known to contribute, though not as much anymore. I tend to tell my kids' schools that I'll consider donating when the kid has graduated, and we're pleased. The little ones' schools, tend to get more for their specific projects. Our alma mater? Well, sometimes for good will when we are going to a reunion or an event.</p>
<p>It's no coincidence that the institutions with the highest alumni giving rates are overwhelmingly LACs and few LAC-like universities. I went to a research uni as both undergrad and grad and had the same attitude as ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad. When I started teaching at an LAC, it was a jaw-dropping revelation: they cultivate close ties with classmates (foremost), faculty (second), and the institution (by association) from the moment that students set foot on campus until the moment they leave. When students arrive they're shipped off on an orientation trip to bond with a dozen classmates--some of those ties last a lifetime. Before they leave, students are given a whole week between finals and graduation to solidify those bonds with friends. (And 4-years worth of similar experiences between.) The first symptom I noticed was how many students send biographical updates to the alumni magazine every quarter. </p>
<p>It works: I give more to this institution than to my alma mater, basically because I'm a believer, too.</p>
<p>Why do we donate? My wife and I met in grad school and we continue to give to that school in gratitude for bringing us together! :) Kid didn't even apply.</p>
<p>I donate every year to my undergrad alma mater. It's where I got the start on my career. My department was always underfunded...I make a restricted donation to that department. It's not a lot, but it's something. To be honest, I would donate to my grad school too...but I haven't received ONE stick of mail from them since they mailed me my diploma. How odd!!</p>
<p>TribecaMom:
I didn't attend Princeton so I can't say how my emotions could have been swayed by that experience but it seems that it would be difficult to induce me to make a donation to a school where I might have already spent a small fortune to attend, that already has a $13 billion endowment, and charges exhorbitantly for attendees when there are so many other interests vying for my charity dollars. </p>
<p>This isn't a criticism - it's just interesting to see people's perspectives on this.</p>
<p>Sorry OP - I suppose I've veered off on a tangent on this thread.</p>
<p>I donate to some causes that are truly needy, and with heart wrenching issues. I also donate to schools that have endowments and certainly are not facing any dire circumstances. Just as I pay for the essentials in our family, and the extras that we certainly can do without.</p>
<p>I disagree. I don't think you need to donate six figure sums or chairs. Look at the annual giving charts at the back of the alumni magazines. The vast majority of alums give under $2500. For private universities, consistant donations of decent amounts (+$5,000) will result in a tip in your child's favor. Of course, if you can send $5k a year, you probably have future largesse potential as well.</p>
<p>Frankly, I have seen consistant giving used successfully at NON-alma mater schools.</p>
<p>The biggest donations I give (among colleges) is to one that neither I nor my wife nor any of my kids attend - or will. Earlham - because I like their mission. </p>
<p>My alma mater frankly doesn't need my measly contribution - for years, I would only donate to them the year they had a losing football team...and didn't have to give 'em a dime for 25 years! </p>
<p>In my work in India, I can train a woman carpenter, mason, plumber, or electrician, providing subsistence support for six months in the non-agricultural season, pay for all tools and for trainers for $100. A contribution to my billion-dollar alma mater is very hard for me to justify (but I do it so I can feel like I've subsidized the millionaire's kid.)</p>
<p>^^ Mini: Your reason for donating to Earlham makes sense to me. It's the donations to the schools 'just cuz I went there' that I fail to understand yet this is the primary appeal they use to lighten the wallet.</p>
<p>ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad, when a student attends an LAC (I don't know about the big universities with all the research grants) the cost of every student's education is subsidized by voluntary donations from many quarters, including alumni and alumni parents.
So "just cuz you went there" is a legitimate reason to ask you to give back towards some other unknown student. Long ago, somebody gave and helped you. This is true whether or not you ever received financial aid.
That's how I understand it. I give to my undergrad school rather than my professional grad school because the undergrad school stood for more ideals and taught me how to think. Set me up for life. The grad school just felt like a business venture, start to finish, and didn't help at all with job placement. I used more skills in my jobs from what I learned outside of classes at the undergrad level: people skills, teamwork, resource allocation...</p>
<p>I don't think there would be many takers for charging the real costs (i.e., the annual budget divided by the number of enrolled students). This slightly out of date quote is from a Williams econ prof., but typical across the board:</p>
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At private colleges and universities, the subsidies come mostly from endowment and gifts, past and present. Williams, for a useful example, spends each year about $75,000 per student to provide an education for which students pay on average $24,000. So, the price the average student pays covers less than a third of the cost of the education they receive.
<p>I can see someone who got a 4-year, full tuition scholarship, feeling that they should "give a little back" if/when they become successful later in life - at least to the merit or need-based scholarship programs, to give someone else deserving the same opportunity.</p>
<p>Beyond that, I guess it just really depends on the person and the university.</p>
<p>"At private colleges and universities, the subsidies come mostly from endowment and gifts, past and present. Williams, for a useful example, spends each year about $75,000 per student to provide an education for which students pay on average $24,000. So, the price the average student pays covers less than a third of the cost of the education they receive."</p>
<p>I think there would be tons of takers. As the cost of attendance rises at prestige colleges, so does the number of applications, and the number of "qualified applicants". Good ol' Thorsten Veblen's Theory of the Leisure Class. Now it is hypothetically possible that there is a point where cost of attendance rises and the number of applications goes down, but we aren't anywhere close to that. And they would have actually have to go down A LOT before it would actually impact the quality of the attending student body.</p>
<p>In addition, raising the list price of attendance substantially doesn't have to affect the actual cost of attendance by the median student one iota. The subsidy for these students would simply rise. That is exactly what has happened at Princeton with its no-loan policy, with hundreds of students who would formerly have received no financial aid (or just loans) receiving grants (which are more than paid for in the rise in the list price of attendance of those who pay full freight.)</p>
<p>The hypothesis has now been firmly tested at NYU, Georgetown, George Washington, University of Richmond, and Villanova (to name a few) where massive increases in the list price of attendance (without substantial changes in educational offerings) making the schools more, rather than less, attractive.</p>
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This year, while my son's application was pending, the nice alumni relations people called and suggested a contribution amount for us to make during 2007.
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<p>That is simply a common (and very effective) development tool. You were only targeted based on what they saw in their database and how many telemarketers they had kicking around in their development office at the moment.</p>
<p>Any organization that you give a decent amount of money to will (and should) eventually call you and ask for more (lots more in some instances). Colleges just happen to have the powerhouse development offices.</p>
<p>The nice alumni relations people call me every year in the home of squeezing a few bucks out of me so that the school will score high in the "percentage of alumni who contribute" column in U.S. News and World Report. They undoubtedly spend more money soliciting the contribution from me and processing it after it arrives than they actually get from me. But the actual money is not the point.</p>
<p>I have never contributed more than $50 in any given year to my alma mater. My legacy kid got admitted.</p>