<p>I haven't (yet) noticed added pressure from my own college, but I'm steeling myself for the onslaught, since I've spotted several headlines lately about the big budget cuts there.</p>
<p>How about other CC members? Have you had to install a new mailbox to handle new college fund-raising pleas?</p>
<p>I haven't noticed any additional fundraising appeals from any of our alma maters. We contribute annually (not a huge amount..but we do contribute) to our undergrad colleges. </p>
<p>I HAVE noticed increased fundraising efforts on the parts of non-profits (e.g. orchestras, ballet companies, etc) this year.</p>
<p>Yes, I attended a women's college and they call more frequently. I have the strangest conversations with the students who have been assigned to make these phone calls. </p>
<p>"The college is really wanting to do more to help all the students who can't afford their tuition and need more financial aid."</p>
<p>"Yes, I know. We have three children who will shortly be heading for universities."</p>
<p>"So will you be contributing-- you know, to help all the students who need assistance?"</p>
<p>"No, actually. Chances are, our kids won't be attending my alma mater. We can't afford it."</p>
<p>"So, does that mean you won't be contributing -- you know, to help with financial aid."</p>
<p>"No, I've just explained. We're much more likely to be RECIPIENTS of financial aid, than DONATORS of financial aid. By the way, are you getting a lot of other alums to donate in this campaign?"</p>
<p>"No, most of them tell us they can't actually afford the school"</p>
<p>I've been getting more calls from BC and I just usually state that we have two in college right now. I haven't received calls from Boston University in some time, actually since we moved. But they do have my current information from their Alumni database. We received calls from my son's university some time ago. BU and BC continue to send me lots of literature though.</p>
<p>The students are into tunnel-vision. They may have received aid or their parents are footing the bill and don't see the pictures on how the finances work. It's like any company where you have a big division of work and the people doing one job don't need to understand what's going on in other parts of the company or even what their customers and vendors are going through.</p>
<p>I get calls from the two colleges our two kids are CURRENTLY attending! They are only a freshman and sophomore, not close to being alums. That infuriates me--do these schools really expect parents to pay for college PLUS extra. I don't get it. When the alumni office of my college and my husband's college call asking for money, I explain that we have 2 kids in college and they shouldn't bother calling for several years.</p>
<p>I make small, regular contributions to my kids' college (and one of them is still a sophomore there.) I will continue to do so for as long as I can. I know that my own kids have greatly benefited from the generosity of alumnus and parents, and I am happy to know that my donations will benefit the next generation of students. If not for donations, most colleges would be poor places, indeed!</p>
<p>
[quote]
I make small, regular contributions to my kids' college (and one of them is still a sophomore there.) I will continue to do so for as long as I can. I know that my own kids have greatly benefited from the generosity of alumnus and parents, and I am happy to know that my donations will benefit the next generation of students.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I'm in the anxiousmom camp. We make small, regular donations to our undergrad, grad, law, D's college, the high school band, the youth symphony--a lot of the organizations that have affected our lives.</p>
<p>I happily make a yearly donation to the schools I attended. I really get miffed when the college my son is still attending calls. The kid at the other end really didn't like getting no for an answer.</p>
<p>Colleges are in the same boat as many charities--need has gone up, the people you hope to tap for money to fill that need have suffered financial losses themselves and don't feel in the position to help. Tough times all around...</p>
<p>Sometimes I think that colleges and other non-profits should start with the Advancement Office when making budget cuts. I regularly give small donations (~$25) when someone I may not know at all has passed away (e.g., the parent of a friend or colleague). These gifts typically go to colleges or other charities that the family of the deceased has stipulated. Commonly, despite my tiny one-time donation, which has been clearly earmarked as a memorial gift, I am beleaguered for years thereafter by fund-raising pleas. One tiny, struggling college sent me so much print material that I'm sure my 25 bucks was spent many times over on postage alone! Finally, I contacted them to beg them to cease and desist, and they finally did. But one does have to wonder who is monitoring those publication budgets and what other budgets in the college could stand a lot of trimming, too, before the alums are pressured to cough over even more dough.</p>
<p>My alma mater has way too much money, and has been subsidizing the millionaires' kids for decades. Let them pay what it actually costs to educate their kids and there is plenty of money for everyone and everything else.</p>
<p>Actually, the millionaire kids are worth their weight in gold. I went to law school with one and every reunion year (5 year intervals), our law school class is always the top contributor because she gives AT LEAST a million dollars to the school. She does the same thing with her undergraduate college at every reunion year for them.</p>
<p>Trust me, counting donations, those schools have gotten WAY more back than they had to put in to educate those kids.</p>
<p>I agree that university advancement offices could often be cut. I would like to see a statistical analysis as to whether their efforts have actually paid for the administrators salaries. My observation is that they have not.</p>
<p>I had to chuckle (and inform the student caller) when my D's school called asking for $$$ the night before tuition was due!!!!! B-A-D timing!!!!!!!!</p>
<p>Not calls, but I have been getting letters from my alma mater asking for donations. They started with the questioning about donations long before I even graduated -- I donated small amounts when I was still a student there. They're trying to raise their U.S. News ranking and part of that is percentage of alumni who donate every year. We have good 5-year donation rates because it's tradition to donate at Reunion, which is every five years.</p>
<p>Honestly, I just graduated in May and they've already sent me a good amount of materials asking me to donate. I'm cool with it, but I really can't afford to donate -- I'm still in graduate school! I'm going to try to save up enough money to give a nice donation on my reunion year in 2013, but I can't afford it right now.</p>
<p>Just some anecdotal input. It had become very common among the Wall Street crowd alum to give their alma mater gifts of a million or so a year before their less than totally qualified offspring applied. While not a building, it seemed this was enough at the non HYPS schools to make the kid a serious development candidate. There were quite a few of them at banks and funds that are kaput, Bernie investors and a whole lot of guys who are still solvent but no longer want to part with a million or two. </p>
<p>Many people believe that these people won't follow through with pledges, and this, combined with endowment losses, spell major problems at many schools.</p>
<p>Two of our kids are attending schools costing us 50 grand each, and the school calls us with this pitch "70-80% of our students get financial assistance ...". I end up telling them "my kid is one of the 20% who isn't and I'm the one funding the others - call back in four years; and call my S/D at that, and if they're doing well, they'll contribute ..."
I really think if I have money to spare to donate to a college, it should go to my alma, and not my kids'.</p>