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I know some people who work these sorts of calls, most of the the time (assuming they're students, my school hires students to do it) then they know fully how relatively turdy it is to ask a recent grad to donate money. 
Thank you for being polite to them, :D I've heard some horror stories of people getting REALLY pissed at these kinds of callers because they are, to be fair, pretty annoying when you've already dumped a shit ton of cash into the school and the school is just like, "More plz."
My school has alumni sorted into groups by how long ago they've graduated and how much they tend to donate, so hopefully if you just turn them down non stop they'll eventually ask less, lol.
It does suck though, I totally get the feeling. I'm a graduating Senior at my school and I got an email about a "Senior Gift," and I originally thought, hey, we'd get little art-themed goody bags, and then I read the email and they're asking us for fucking money to build solar benches on campus. I havent even graduated and they're trying to milk me for money.
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On May 21 2016 16:23 tokinho wrote:
If colleges had top level starcraft teams would you donate ;p
If they were BW, then yes. SC2, not so much. :D
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On May 21 2016 13:29 darthfoley wrote:
I go to a small liberal arts school in PA and I've had a very enjoyable three years so far, so I understand the appeal to giving back to the college-- I actually know the professors, administration, etc.
My dad went to Michigan State a long time ago and had a terrible time; he had a wife and had to pay his way through with shitty jobs. They've asked him for donations multiple times and he feels exactly as you do. It's one of the reasons I stayed away from big state schools actually. Love the liberal arts aspect of school
Heh I also went to Michigan State but I loved it. They called me like a year after I graduated while I was in grad school but it was for something specific, like some new social science research thing they were doing (since I came out of that college) I said sure and donated a tiny bit. I haven't since then but they do still call like once a year.
I don't really care about Universities asking me for money (especially if its from the social sciences because their budgets often suck dick).
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This is an interesting topic and I can appreciate your frustration. I don't work in fundraising in higher education but I do work very closely with colleagues who do, so felt I might share some of my thoughts here.
Firstly, I'll give a bit of background on why fundraising is important in higher education - I work in the UK, which is a very different environment compared to the US, so bear that in mind!
Tuition fees will typically contribute to the direct costs associated with the programme of study (teaching staff, staff development, assessment costs, direct support staff, materials and other resources used, such as lab consumables, etc.), and will also contribute to overheads (room hire/maintenance, catering, indirect support staff and administration) and other institutional services (VC office, senior administration, research, other overheads etc.). Most courses would be expected to run a surplus, usually to be invested in capital projects or for cash reserves.
Some departments and institutions are firmly in the black, while others, like Berkerly for example, are in serious financial trouble.
While most costs will (hopefully) be covered by tuition fees, other kinds of activity won't be: for example, there may be a new area of research that needs resourcing, a new course getting off the ground or new facilities might be required, which simply cannot be covered by these reserves. Philanthropy enables institutions to fund these kinds of initiatives to continue to grow, make new discoveries and teach in new areas.
The London School of Economics and Political Science, for example, has an endowment from the Deutsche Bank to fund it's cities programme.
But obviously you're not the Deutsche Bank! The other key area where philanthropy needed is in the provision of scholarships and bursaries. These tend to be funded through giving by alumni.
Scholarships and bursaries are valuable for a number of reasons: they enable financially disadvantaged students to access higher education, they help students who enter into financial hardship while studying, they also help attract and retain the best students (which enhances the learning experiences of their peers, and ultimately the reputation of the institution as a whole). Taking a quick look at Harvard you can see all sorts of alumni funded scholarships.
Without philanthropy none of these would be possible. I understand how this might be difficult to stomach when you have incurred such substantial debt, but, in my experience, alumni who have the means are generally willing to help fund others.
And many alumni will never have the means or inclination to give, but universities will never know without asking.
One point I wanted also to pick up on is this:
After graduation, the tone of the university kind of sounded like this, "Ok, you've graduated. Bye!" There was pretty much no support or encouragement, in terms of finance or opportunity, from the institution during my time there, so I shouldn't expect any of it after.
Yeah, that really does suck (although if there wasn't any money, then perhaps that's why they're doing fundraising!). The bit that was annoying to hear was the 'OK... bye' bit. So many institutions I know of have all sorts of initiatives and opportunities to support graduates, like funding for entrepreneurship, careers advice, graduate internships and placements etc. The fact that this wasn't offered to you, and then you were asked to donate, was pretty galling I am sure.
I understand how you must feel, especially if you're not confident in the institutional need or in it's management. If you don't want to give then fair enough!
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Fact is even more simple, budget cuts all over.. if (endowed) people/enterprises don't donate then the universities in need will downgrade or downsize. simple maths. This is not new, just going overboard soon (more precisely .. overboard everywhere soon).
Whatever the form it takes, calling new students is possibly toxic and counter productive, but that's their first pool of calls because they have the lists handy (21st century lazy thinking), that is them barely starting.. they will ask EVERYONE!
Universities.. culture everywhere is getting less and less budget/endowments...
You say "I payed for my uni and so that's done!" but how about if you owe 20K and it cost 40?
Culture and learning is being killed every day.. not to mention less and less poor people are being "helped" in to access it.. less and less people want to partake in its life due to the difficulties tied in (notably salary/work ratio) ...
You hate being asked for donations? brace yourself because your donations will be keeping your kid's uni open..
your kid's library or theater .. or they will close!
Personally I give to certain orgs but I do it actively .. I see what the money is being used for etc...
To address the core issue: universities asking for donations won't save them :/
Edit: i edit sorry  it is a karma thing, nothing I can do about it.
I think if you asked for numbers (in your uni) you would be surprised how things actually work..
I am totally on board with the "it is distasteful to get a call asking for a donation",
but your uni won't be the only one asking.
As for the "public" / taxes remark.. same thing I agree, but you might not realize just how much your government (or mine) is bankrupt and has been for decades already.. putting kids on phones to ask everyone to donate is a cheap way to get money.. it won't stop, it is a generalized economic model that is bad but taking over the world.
Yes I too would love to see my taxes "be enough" but they, simply put, are not.
What is new is asking poor people to donate.
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On May 22 2016 03:22 fluidrone wrote:
Fact is even more simple, budget cuts all over.. if (endowed) people don't donate (whatever the form it takes, calling new students is possibly toxic and counter productive, but that's their first pool of calls because they have the lists already (21st century lazy thinking),
then the universities in need will downgrade or downsize. simple maths.
University, like culture everywhere is getting less and less budget/endowments..
You say "I payed for my uni and so that's done!" but how about if you owe 20K and it cost 40?
Culture and learning is being killed every day.. not to mention less and less poor people are being "helped" in..
you hate being asked for donations? brace yourself because your donations will be keeping your kid's uni open..
your kid's library or theater .. or they will close!
Again, I give to certain orgs but I do it actively .. I see what the money is being used for etc...
Universities asking for donations won't save them :/
These are PUBLIC institutions (mine is anyway). Hence, my taxes should keep the doors for those institutions. So, I don't need to donate when I'm already paying for it.
It is sad to see. I don't want to be un-American, but this country is going to destroy itself sooner or later without a change in direction.
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On May 21 2016 23:26 midnight999 wrote:Show nested quote +On May 21 2016 23:24 HeeroFX wrote:
I don't get why you are whining about it, colleges all over do that. Maybe if you get a job you'll be fine Did you not read about the part on why I don't like my old university? And the fact they did it again?
i love playing basketball, baseball and hockey. they just have very little to do with a getting a top notch education. The school near mine is Wilfred Laurier. They had better athletic teams and the drunken idiots would brag about how great the football team was.
These clowns sit in a mountain of debt with a mediocre Bachelor of Arts from a nothing school; me and my classmates graduated with almost no debt due to well paying co-op jobs and one of the best degrees you can get. I hope these drunken idiots cheering for stupid football teams had a fun 3.66667 years because the next 40 won't be so great.
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I've also been asked to donate (via email, however, as I'm still on their emailing list despite "graduating" in 2012). I too found it offensive, particularly when A) I had to leave my course right at the end, with one more module to complete, due to money issues (I was forced to have to pay by cash/cheque instead of student loans) and them not accepting student loans payments for the course (and my getting threatened with baliliffs as a result of that, the fucking assholes), and B) after being allowed to "pass" my BSc CS without honours, they said I could go to my graduation but would have to pay for the tickets to do so. Needless to say, I didn't go and had them mail my degree certificate to me.
Doing my bachelours was a very big mistake on my part, in my opinion.
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On May 22 2016 03:42 Deleuze wrote:People donating to universities is nothing new. Take a look around at the university buildings, they don't have those names just for fun - they're the names of donors. Harvard gets its name from its prime benefactor.
But the difference is that I don't have a million or so dollars...
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On May 22 2016 04:00 midnight999 wrote:But the difference is that I don't have a million or so dollars...
Exactly - and your experience was shitty. I completely understand that you wouldn't want to donate!
But any giving, even seemingly small, is of value.
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Deleuze, I agree with what you say, but the cost of tuition has skyrocketed over the past decades, which makes me kind of suspicious on where it is all going.
Also, I'm 100% confident that the revenue from the my uni's sports programs can cover such scholarships/bursaries easily. One football home game brings in a million dollars in revenue at least or five or six million on a really big game. They just don't choose to put it in education, I guess. Anyway, the uni's not going broke anytime soon.
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On May 22 2016 04:07 midnight999 wrote:
Deleuze, I agree with what you say, but the cost of tuition has skyrocketed over the past decades, which makes me kind of suspicious on where it is all going.
Also, I'm 100% confident that the revenue from the my uni's sports programs can cover such scholarships/bursaries easily. One football home game brings in a million dollars in revenue at least or five or six million on a really big game. They just don't choose to put it in education, I guess. Anyway, the uni's not going broke anytime soon.
Yours.
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I can see asking alumni to donate to some specific purpose... and if I was a grad still paying off tuition I'd probably decline.
I'd like to see more transparency regarding athletic revenue (although don't forget that for every big time football team there's also several smaller sports that eat up the athletic budget...like women's lacrosse or something).
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I'm more worried that some universities actually need the donation money to keep things rollings. If the tuition is not enough, maybe they're doing sth wrong? It'd suck if a year above me had an awesome opportunity thanks to a big donation but then I did not get the same opportunity cuz the donations suddenly stopped. This was an exaggeration but still... I thought universities were systematic and stable institutions.
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On May 22 2016 06:07 y0su wrote:
I can see asking alumni to donate to some specific purpose... and if I was a grad still paying off tuition I'd probably decline.
I'd like to see more transparency regarding athletic revenue (although don't forget that for every big time football team there's also several smaller sports that eat up the athletic budget...like women's lacrosse or something).
Yes, but lately a lot of revenues seems to be going to administration and not into faculties. These institutions really have to be transparent about this. This is why I believe that theoretically public universities are better as there is a ground in which the public can force the transparency.
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Sadly, I do understand what they're up to.
They don't really care about "today" or even next decade. They work to establish a "relationship" that will carry through to your later years, in the hopes that in 20-30 years you've made a large amount of money and bequeath it to the school.
My alma mater (and the class reps) have been pretty straight forward about that. Even small donations in the early years will generally lead to more giving in the later years of your life. Though, to note, it really helps that my school treated me pretty great (and I got great value for the education), so the experience is quite different.
Plus, the guys who could make the reunion got an open-bar as a result one year. That just seemed like a civic duty to donate to.
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Canada4222 Posts
The thing with budgets is that they are very fluid by nature. Sure, you could donate towards something specific (let's say something noble, like a scholarship towards someone in financial need). Great. You can go to sleep at night with a clear conscience.
But that just means that the University can shift that same amount of money from financial need scholarships that they otherwise would put towards that, and use it for whatever purpose they deem necessary instead. So your money could be going towards creating a marble sculpture of the dean of the Arts department, and you would never know about it.....
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You're most likely being called by current students working for your universities fundraising department who have been given a list of all graduates to 'cold call' and ask for donations.
Potentially this list will be cleaned for people who say no, but unless you give a hard no they'll consider it a soft no and re-add you a year or three later for the next round of calls.
If you find this offensive, get in touch with your school's alumni fundraising department and tell them to get you off the caller/email list permanently or you'll sue them for harassment.
Debates about fundraising and university are mostly pointless since university life across the world and even within the U.S. differs greatly, but I guess there is the value of sharing experiences or something.
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