Should Alumni Make a Dedicated Effort to Donate to Their Alma Mater?

Great post. Nice to hear from someone who actually knows how the process works.

a person who is posting wrote: Would you call someone who donates thousands to the poor, destitute and hungry as cheap and selfish? Why is your pet charity more deserving than his?

I donate a small amount to my alma mater's athletic department, but only because it's required to purchase football season tickets. I give a lot more to my church, to a charity that feeds the poor, and a crisis pregnancy center. Am I cheap and selfish? Please advise. I'm dying to know how I stack up in your eyes.

Kudos for donating to multiple charities. I do the same...in addition to supporting my alma mater's programs.

You're a fool for donating to a church. Probably just goes to finance Father Pederast's legal fund.

Do your donors know how unstable your institution's finances are? You really shouldn't rely on annual giving to cover same-year operating expenses. Revenue from your endowment and tuition should cover this. Donations are great for specific capital projects and for growing the endowment, but I would hesitate to donate anything to a school if I knew that they were relying on my donation for operating, as I would question the sustainability of the institution.

forthekeeuds wrote:

I have never given one red cent to the University from which I graduated. I did, however, give them many, many red cents in tuition when I attended. They gave me an education in return. Good deal for both of us. I moved on but they haven't - some 30 years later they still ask me for money.

Winner

The college should do a better job if they can't operate without being on welfare.

The University I attended could be free indefinitely off of their endowment. There is absolutely no need or benefit to give them more.

I only donate to The Clinton Foundation.

I used to give $100 but have stopped. For some reason my alma mater is now like $65k per year. No longer a place anyone can realistically go unless very wealthy or very poor.

alumnirelations wrote:

If you look at the operating budgets for these schools and divide by the number of students, you get the what it actual costs to support a student at the school. This is often much, much lower than what you pay in tuition.

.

So your point is tuition is higher than the actual cost of supporting a student? Thats exactly the problem. Schools are gouging students and driving up tuition much higher than it needs to be.

Oh how very wrong you are. Every institution (even Harvard, Yale, Exeter, Andover, etc) uses annual giving in their yearly operating expenses. At the prep school I work for (which has an endowment of over $500 million), our annual fund yearly makes up 10% of our operating budget. We are only allowed a 5% draw on our endowment, which all goes toward financial aid and faculty development.

You caught me. I made an error in my response (I was getting heated because I am passionate about philanthropy). What you pay in tuition is actually LOWER than what you pay in tuition. Philanthropy helps cover the rest. At ALL institutions.

I contributed. It's called tuition. Beyond that, hell no. Not a single penny. That institution has more money in their endowment than the GDP of many countries. I'm exaggerating, but still, why would I give my hard earned money to a business? If you use Nike shoes do you regularly donate to Nike beyond the cost of the shoes?

There are countless great causes in this world that are worthy of financial support. The scam of academia in today's world is not on of them in my book.

alumnirelations wrote:

What you pay in tuition is actually LOWER than what you pay in tuition.

Care to give that just one more try?

I don't care at all of boarding schools shut down. Go to public school like everyone else. If you don't like than then homeschool.

alumnirelations wrote:

Oh how very wrong you are. Every institution (even Harvard, Yale, Exeter, Andover, etc) uses annual giving in their yearly operating expenses. At the prep school I work for (which has an endowment of over $500 million), our annual fund yearly makes up 10% of our operating budget. We are only allowed a 5% draw on our endowment, which all goes toward financial aid and faculty development.

"We are only allowed" What does that even mean? Who is setting that rule. So many academic institutions have MASSIVE stores of cash. USE THAT before you start asking for more.

Or spend less like everyone else on planet earth.

The university I went to has billions in their endowment. The facilities are amazing. The student gym in freaking nicer than anything that I use. Asking me to pay for luxury? My hard earned dollars when they have billions? Only a fool would donate.

My tuition went up every single year I was in school and I'm still paying back my student loans. Maybe once I get through those I'll think about it.

I did notice that services did not seem to improve while tuition was going up. I noticed that more adjunct faculty were hired and administrators seemed to do quite well.

I don't understand OP judging the first couple respondents who didn't give as cheap. College is a business. There is no reason that tuition needs to be going up at the rate it is and for students to be drowning in debt afterwards.

CMO wrote:

The University I attended could be free indefinitely off of their endowment. There is absolutely no need or benefit to give them more.

Same here.

There are much worthier causes in the world, I'm amazed people still give to mega rich universities.

frankensteins monster wrote:

CMO wrote:

The University I attended could be free indefinitely off of their endowment. There is absolutely no need or benefit to give them more.

Same here.

There are much worthier causes in the world, I'm amazed people still give to mega rich universities.

I agree 100% with the sentiments above (hence my previous post that I don't donate to my undergrad school). BTW, how come no one is naming names here? My undergrad school was the University of ByGawd Texas, sitting on a $25 billion dollar endowment. Yet they insist on sending me a mailer every year asking for my donation.

1 Harvard University — $32.7 Billion. ...

2 University of Texas System — $25.4 Billion. ...

3 Yale University — $23.9 Billion. ...

4 Stanford University — $21.4 Billion. ...

5 Princeton University — $20.7 Billion. ...