Let’s talk about money. Every year, the fourth-year class undertakes a class giving campaign to raise money for the University. While this is a vitally important mission, the target of that mission has been somewhat misplaced, as the student trustees are aiming simultaneously to raise large amounts from a small number of students and a small amount from a larger group of students. Instead, the focus of class giving should be entirely on achieving greater class participation, which provides many more benefits than raising a larger amount of money from fewer students. Accomplishing the goal of greater participation will require some changes in how trustees operate, but will be well worth the effort.
The benefits of higher participation are two-fold. First, it will increase the University’s school ranking and reputation and, second, it will get students into the habit of donating money to the University and start what can become a tradition of giving.
According to an e-mail from Class Giving Chair Kathy Feeney, “The percentage of graduating seniors who give back to their respective university is a factor used to compute rankings by organizations like US News & World Report.” By increasing the participation percentage, students can improve the ranking of their alma mater. Students should strive for higher rankings for the University, not only because of school pride but also because a higher ranking will reflect well on University graduates in their professional lives.
Conversely, the college rankings do not take into account the size of each student’s gift. While raising a few million dollars through class giving is clearly a benefit to the University, it is only a drop in the bucket to a University that received nearly $190 million in gifts in 2007. Spending less time soliciting quick cash in order to invest in a much larger number of smaller donors, who could end up donating again and again, can definitely pay off. Just ask President Obama.
If a student does not donate in his or her fourth year, when emotions and nostalgia run high, that student is unlikely to suddenly donate many years later. Donating to the University “becomes a habit,” said Mary Elizabeth Luzar, assistant director of reunions and class activities, in a Cavalier Daily article (“Trustees seek to amp up fourth-year giving rate,” 1/13/2009). A study from the University of San Francisco found that there was indeed a “correlation between senior-class giving programs and first-year alumni giving participation rates.” In other words, encouraging donations produces returns that last beyond just that initial class gift.
In order to make a focus on broader participation successful, the trustee program must be improved. The group of 59 trustees should be more completely trained in development, a subject in which the University is well-versed, so that each crop of fourth-year students need not reinvent the wheel. That is to not to say that there is no room for student innovation, but only that tried and true methods of fund-raising should be used with greater regularity. Events, for example, are a much-overlooked development opportunity. Currently, according to Feeney, “The only time we are really face-to-face with the class to solicit gifts or pledges is during Cap and Gown Week.” Relying on traditional techniques is necessary, but not sufficient to achieve higher participation rates. In addition, trustees must come up with innovative ideas for soliciting gifts if participation class giving is to extend beyond the group it currently consists of.
This extension of the scope of class giving will require personal contact. Those groups represented within trustees likely already contribute to the class gift, but new students must be reached out to by someone they know and trust, which is not always a member of trustees. To make giving more personal, trustees should visit the leaders of CIOs across Grounds and ask these leaders to solicit class gifts from that CIO’s graduating members. These class gifts can be earmarked for the use of that CIO, giving CIO leaders a great incentive to ask their members for a donation. Fourth-year students will be much more likely to give, since they know the person who is asking them and they know exactly where their money is going. The use of this new strategy would yield more money for many cash-strapped CIOs and no doubt increase class giving participation as well.
With this idea, and the countless others that the trustees could certainly add, the University could vastly improve its class giving figures. This year’s goal is just 66 percent participation, which is almost embarrassingly modest when compared to rates in excess of 90 percent at most elite Northeastern schools. Even worse, current participation is only at 34 percent, according to Feeney. With this anemic rate, trustees should waste no time in instituting a new participation-based focus for class giving.
Isaac Wood’s column runs Mondays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at i.wood@cavalierdaily.com
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