Has your school's annual fund/alumni contacted you?
 

I know this should be in Alumni, but I figured more people would see it here.

I work for SDSU's Annual Fund, NOT as a caller, but as an assistant to the director.

I was just wondering if any of you have gotten that student asking you to donate money. What's your first thoughts? Do you just hang up? Do you donate money?

I donate money now, but for a while I did not as I was very unhappy with the direction the administration was taking. I let the caller know that was why.

I use to work for our Alumni Giving office. I never did calls (the univ. contracts out for that so its not actual DePaul students) but we use to hear stories of people getting CUSSED out. It takes a lot of guts to call people asking them for money.

Haha that's where I come in. One of my duties is to find info for disgruntled alums and send them the findings.

I guess my mirror at your school did his/her job :D

I've been contacted two or three times (I graduated in May 03). The first time I said I wasn't interested in giving at that time. I have caller ID and I know that if the number starts with 512 or 515 it's campus so the other times I just didn't answer. I'll give in the future, but sometimes I feel like I'm more broke now than I was in college.

Well as a Akron Alum they send you things asking you to donate, they dont call. I usually throw it away. They just got over a billion to build all sorts of new stuff on campus and it is gonna look awesome, why do I need to send them money.. lol. They raised my tuition every semester that stupid 5 or 10% jacked up housing prices, never were parking spots, and here they get money and build new things and still are jacking prices up each semester and parking still isnt good. True they gave me a good degree, sorority sisters who I love, memories, and the campus was fun, but until I am more on my own feet I wont donate. I think I may years from now, but Ive only been out one year now and I may be going back lol......

As for sorority, I give money to them whenever I can. My chapter has a fundraiser and we had one a few years back so we arent due for new ones for a few years. I think I may start a savings account at a diff bank and start saving a little each month so I can give a nice donation when the fundraiser comes around in 3 or 4 years. I donate to our philanthropy all the time. I donate time and volunteer, I give money, and I take food and supplies to the Ronald McDonald house whenever I can.

As for HS lol, I went to a private HS so they send out newsletters twice a year about the school and they always have forms in there so you can donate. Again the place was good except we needed our own pool, but dont have space for one, so I wont be donating anytime soon lol.

I got asked before I even graduated!
 

I mean yes I loved my college, and yes I will probably give back to them and my sorority's foundation along with my own chapter, but geez the least the college alumni foundation could do was wait until we had officially graduated!!

Seriously it was bad enough having my parents get called for money, asking me to put toward some stupid senior gift, but then on the day of GRADUATION REHEARSAL, they are already bombarding us with PLEASE DONATE!

And need I mention the fact that I paid out of state tuition for four years and our campus is getting an I.M. Pei designed arts center, a new library, a new student center, a new residence hall, and a new university village. Plus for those of you who went to college in Virginia do realize the huge budget cuts that took place.

I think the icing on the cake was that when I did move home after graduation (about 3 weeks later) waiting in my mail was another letter from the alumni foundation asking for a donation.

Hmm which to pay first, student loans and credit cards, or give more money to my school???

Ok, that was my soapbox. It's not that I mind getting the soliciting (how else will they money), but at least have common sense and tact people!! :mad:

My school always seems to have its hand out for alumni donations. We get mailings probably 3-4 times a year, and there is an annual telethon.

We received one of the "please give us money" mailings a couple of days after 9/11/01. :eek: It had dropped the day before 9/11. Talk about bad timing...! The school sent a very apologetic letter a few days later.

My husband and I went to the same school... the alumni office can't seem to figure out that we're married, even though we have the same last name, address, and phone number. Usually he'll get a call, then five minutes later the phone will ring for me. :rolleyes: We also get two copies of every mailing, including the alumni magazine.

My personal favorite: During my graduate year, I was living in an on-campus apartment. The phone rang (single ring = internal call) - it was someone from the telethon. She identified herself, then went on, "For a generous donation of $250, you can help sponsor some of these many programs..." I very carefully explained to her that I was a grad student, she had to have known I was a grad student because she called my dormline, I had just written the school a check for $12,000, I hadn't bought my textbooks yet, and it was very unlikely I'd have $25, never mind $250, in my checking account once I did. If she hadn't started off by asking for $250, I might have sent in a small donation, but she put me off and I did not donate at all that year.

** There's a word of advice for you. Don't scare off alums (especially recent alums who might not have found jobs yet or who might be poor starving grad students) from donating by asking for a large sum of money. If they're inclined to donate, they'll donate as their means allow.

I have degrees from 3 different universities so I get 3 times the donation calls, which is annoying when they all call within the same week.

There was a big drive before I graduated. Since then, I occasionally get mailings. I guess they figure I'm not rich enough yet.

Re: I got asked before I even graduated!
 

Oh that senior gift thing pissed me off so bad. "Leaving our legacy", my ass. They wanted money from all the seniors to buy benches for the new dorms. Why the heck do they need these new benches so bad? It's just going to be a concrete piece of crap.

Seriously though, I would donate if I had a say in where it went. I'd donate money to scholarships and to the Greek Life department.

Well, our SCG is a huge sign overlooking the freeway saying 'Welcomne to SDSU", something we'eve never had....is THAT ok?

Re: Has your school's annual fund/alumni contacted you?
 

My first thought was no, but since it was a student that I knew I decided to donate because he said the more people he got to donate, the more money he would make (it was part of a work-study job).

Re: Re: I got asked before I even graduated!
 

We did the senior gift thing too. Each class's officers decided what the gift would be, then hounded the rest of the seniors to donate. A couple of the senior gifts have been useful, but ours was... well, not. Our gift was a fund from which student orgs could request money to host events for the community. There was already a (much larger!) fund for this purpose. So it's not exactly something we can point out to the grandkids someday.

We have a fair amount of say in where our alum donations go. You can designate your donation for certain programs (religious groups, athletic teams, certain student orgs - not GLOs or their governing bodies, though) or leave it unrestricted. If you specify where your donation is to go, you get "credit" for donating both to the school and to, say, Hillel or the track team. (That also means that when Hillel or the track team runs its own telethon, they don't bug you because you have already given. ;) )

In 25 years, you can all go to the Stan Mangindin Memorial Alumni Center and have a drink :D

Stan-
Seriously, the naming rights are still up, and it's only a cool mil I think lol...

I don't live at the home that all my school records went to so I don't get phone calls from my college alumni association. I DO recieve emails and letters from time to time from my high school though. Now, my high school is private and cost more per year than my entire college education. Do you think I would be handing them more money. NOPE!

A college friend and her husband donated enough money to name a part of a building after them. That was cool. We didn't keep in touch, but I guess that they are very successful.

I give money. I use to give more, but I figure every little bit helps.

Yeah that's cool, but does campus need a chiming clock or in my class' case money for a scholarship fund that is not even financially based?

At least the class of 2003 was smart, they gave money so our library could get books.

(FYI, the budget cuts in VA were toward operating stuff, so they claim we have the money for all these buildings, great, but an empty building wont do me much good and yes we have people moving into dorms that do not have furnture.)

I've been contacted, however, I never donated because I was a broke Graduate student. I will give in the future but right now I need to pay off a credit card bill and a loan my dad took out for me. I have given the annual Alumna dues each year to my GLO and in the future I plan to give a whole lot more. I'd rather the $$$ go to my organization then the school itself because I feel more confident someone would be getting $$$ who needs it from the sorority. Schools are pretty sketchy when it comes to what they do with alum donations. My ex went to Cardozo Law School in Manhattan and there was a big thing there that the alum's donations were going to Yeshiva University and NOT to incoming students of the law school. Just my 2-cents.

When students call me for donations, I am always polite to them because I don't think of them in the same vein as I do telemarketers. They're Pitt people; how could I be mean to them???

But I never donate. Never, ever, ever.

My senior year, someone at Pitt was convinced that I owed one cent that I hadn't paid. It's not a misprint; I'm talking about one cent. A penny! I was harassed for an entire semester about this penny; They even Fed-Ex'd a bill to my mom's house. I would like to add that I did not owe this penny; I showed them proof that I did not owe this penny, but still they continued to harangue me for the freakin' penny!

I figure if Pitt could use so many manhours and mailing fees then they certainly don't need any of my money!

PS Eventually, I finished my last final and headed straight to the cashier's office where I wrote a check for the penny (and made damn sure I got a receipt!). By that time I just wanted to get out of Dodge.

i get these pretty little mailings like 4 times a year full of pictures and facts and blah blah blah. i throw them out. i paid upwards of $80,000 for my college. and i'll be paying it off for years to come. i was offered very little financial aid (although my tuition practically should have been covered because my parents earn close to nothing). i resent seeing the smiling faces of people who donated thousands already from my graduating class (2000). you know what? they're rich! they were rich while we were in college and they're still rich now! so as long as my college continues to paste their faces on the website and mailings as being so dedicated to the school for giving all this money, i refuse to contribute. put some regular people on there for once. i think my $80,000 plus interest is enough of a donation to the school.

Now that is cool, and useful.

Is it misspelled though? ;)

This, my friends, may be the topping on the cake. I attended a state school we will refer to as Cow College for two years. After transferring out of Cow College, my boyfriend, who was an alumni of Cow College, passed away. I contacted Cow College in regards to doing a memorial of some sort - nobody at Cow College ever got back to me about this. His fraternity ended up setting up a scholarship, but this isn't what really cheeves me off - it's that Cow College has since called me 4 times for money. I didn't get one red cent of financial aid when I went there despite the fact that I had the highest ACT score this school had EVER gotten, I didn't graduate from there, they were mean to me, and now that? Nuh uh.

Marquette calls my mom all the time, and she sweetly tells them that when she's done paying out the butt for me, maybe they can have $5.

oops...

I donate. I figure since Brown gave me 4 fun years, a stellar education, and some decent career connections, I can give them $20 a year. Once, they lost the check for tuition (they got my last name messed up), but they took care of it rather quickly.

My parents also donate. They saw how happy I was at Brown, and how happy our older alumni friends are. I don't think they'll ever have a building named after them, but they're consistent donors.

Now, when some little kid from Columbia calls in a few years, I won't donate.

I get contacted for donations and i donate here and there. They found out i had a child before i could announce it they were hitting me up for donations.


I figure i am a member of the Arkansas alum association and my $40 a yr goes to something let alone the other amt i send yrly.

I get mailings for the LA Tech Alum Association once in a while. I haven't joined just yet. I haven't given them money but if they ask nicely, I will:D

Now LSU, they are not getting a dime from me. Even if I go there for grad school and get my M.L.I.S, they are still not getting a cent from me

I donated a little bit of money to the Moravian College fund. I gave more to Zeta's Foundation. Zeta made my experience at college what it was so I feel like I owe them more $$.
both places sent me address lables to thank me for my gift :)

My school did the Senior Gift thing too. I honestly don't even remember what it was. I have not been getting the phone calls (yet), they're still calling my parents house. Which is just as well, since then they ask my dad (he's also an alum) and he donates. They do, however, send me emails.

My chapter has a scholarship fund set up through the ISU Foundation, so I can donate toward that cause and even get matching contributions from my work.

yup....three times for one and twice for the other. i kicked in someting to both.

I've been contacted quite a few times - it's funny, I was officially done with my credit requirement after my first semester junior year, and at that point was receiving emails already asking me to give.

Since then I've heard once about ever 6 months or so - haven't given anything yet, although I may in the future.

I generally give some kind of modest contribution.

As an aside, the students who call do a great job and I actually enjoy chatting with them.

Same with the Delts who call on behalf of the Delt Education Foundation.

Having said that, I do find it unfortunate that our alumni magazine (really both university and Fraternity) has become so much of a fund raising device.

The only think worse is NPR.

ETA: Wait until you're parents of college students. Then you start getting calls and mailings from their schools looking for donations as parents as well.

I haven't been called and asked for money outright yet, but I do keep getting these irritating invitations to alumni fundraising dinners with UF sports personalities.

When I can afford to give money to UF, it ceratinly won't be to the athletics program. I plan on giving to the Housing department. I used to joke that if I ever won a big lottery jackpot, I would pay to have the commons building of my old dorm demolished, and a more suitable building built in its place. Since I doubt I'll ever be that wealthy, I'll have to settle for donating to the Inter-Residence Hall Association scholarship fund.

My parents were getting phone calls from the annual fund office looking for donations when I was a freshman. I remember that, at that time, I was having a terrible trouble getting my internet access to work. Of course, I couldn't get any help from the university staff. My dad politely informed the young man, "When my daughter starts receiving the services she's currently paying for....then I might donate something."

With that said, I think I gave a $25 donation when I was a senior and also joined the alumni association asap. I really enjoyed my time at my university and I would be happy to pitch in a little bit every now and again.


.....Kelly :)

Nope. I give a small amount on a monthly auto pay and they all leave me alone (HS, Bachelor's AND Grad). :D