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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Giving to one's wealthy alma mater
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Autenrieth Road
Shipmate
# 10509
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Posted
I just responded to a solicitation from the university I went to, where if they got X number of donors (with whatever size gift) by the end of the day today, an anonymous donor would give $250,000.
I'm a little skeptical about matching gifts from individual donors, because I always wonder: if the goal wasn't met, would Anon really withhold their gift? Or would they want the institution to have the money anyway?
But accepting the imperative of X donors by Y date was really essential to unlocking Big Chunk Of Money, I gave. I added this in the comment space:
quote:
I'm not sure why I'm giving to <name of my incredibly rich alma mater>, which has more gobs of money than any other University in the country. I do value what I gained as an undergraduate, but I start to wonder if <name of my incredibly rich alma mater> has enough money, and other schools need money more.
So -- should I believe Incredibly Rich Alma Mater when they say they need more money to help provide world class education and experiences to their students? Should I realize everyone is always going to say they need more money, and I'm just being a patsy falling for their plea? Should I cease donating to IRAM and start giving to any of many Very Poor Struggling Colleges instead? Does it actually matter what I do with my relatively-small-by-the-standards-of-IRAM gift of $60? What would you do?
More generally, do you face puzzles like this in your own choices for making donations, and how do you resolve them?
I've always given under the haze of warm memories of IRAM, which is probably what they're counting on, but although the haze is just as warm as ever, I'm starting to emerge from feeling that I honor said haze best by giving to IRAM.
If I get a reply from IRAM to my comment, I'll share it here.
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Truth
Posts: 9559 | From: starlight | Registered: Oct 2005
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
What an amazing coincidence -- my IRAM is wrapping up a fund drive today with an anonymous donor making a matching grant. (I've had four "urgent" emails today.) I wonder if every college and university in the U.S. is doing the same.
I've heard that alma maters are the most popular recipient of gifts from living alumni and bequests from dead ones. The only time I've given to mine was when my very favorite professor died, and his family (who are friends of mine) asked for donations to a special fund set up in his name.
When I was a student, the Financial Aid Office always mysteriously "lost" my paperwork until all on-campus jobs were filled. So I've managed to "lose" every appeal I've received from them in the past [cough] years.
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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M.
Ship's Spare Part
# 3291
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Posted
in the UK here, but I just ignore every appeal from my university*. Except the one that was to help fund someone to go out to Sierra Leone during the Ebola crisis, I gave some money to that.
M.
*Well, one of them - the other one I'm associated with, I never hear from, a more traditional thing in the UK.
Posts: 2303 | From: Lurking in Surrey | Registered: Sep 2002
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Lothlorien
Ship's Grandma
# 4927
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Posted
Do you belong to the alumni association or similar? How do they know address etc. My uni days for first degree and diploma are a long way behind me, with name changes and multiple addresses.
Second degree and diploma are a good deal more recent but I dropped out of things in protest at some nasty events. They don't have any personal details of mine other than those directly associated with the study I did there.
Post grad studies are still three addresses behind where I am.
I would prefer to help literacy programmes or similar and I would not be happy to be approached as you have been. In fact it would influence me to file the appeal in the round waste basket.
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Buy a bale. Help our Aussie rural communities and farmers. Another great cause needing support The High Country Patrol.
Posts: 9745 | From: girt by sea | Registered: Aug 2003
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
I'm afraid that the appeals I get from the Alumni Office tend to go straight into the bin.
Strangely enough, my wife (who also did a postgraduate qualification at the same Alma Mater) has never been sent them.
I also ignore appeals from my former school, which is not short of parents with a bob or three. I had a great education there - but I left in 1971!
[ 29. May 2015, 08:13: Message edited by: Baptist Trainfan ]
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
I am considering seriously giving to one University. Mind you it paid half my fees while I was studying.
Jengie
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
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mr cheesy
Shipmate
# 3330
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Posted
Nope, never. And would never donate anything to an institution that has more money than sense.
I do feel some responsibility to the organisations who funded my education (primarily national and local government) and if I did ever earn a graduate wage, I would attempt to donate something towards them. Which would probably be difficult, tax authorities don't tend to like overpayments.
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arse
Posts: 10697 | Registered: Sep 2002
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Albertus
Shipmate
# 13356
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Posted
I never give to my universities either. If they want some more money they can cut the V-C's salary, cut back on the bean counters, cut back on trying to run like a business. If they did all these things I might think about it (except for my first university which is enormously wealthy already).
Posts: 6498 | From: Y Sowth | Registered: Jan 2008
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Doc Tor
Deepest Red
# 9748
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Posted
If my money was going to provide scholarships for poor and disadvantaged students to study at the university, then I'd consider it. Otherwise, no.
And bearing in mind that my undergraduate university closed my department, and my postgraduate university also closed my department, I'm less disposed to that than I would be.
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Forward the New Republic
Posts: 9131 | From: Ultima Thule | Registered: Jul 2005
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Erroneous Monk
Shipmate
# 10858
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Posted
I give regularly to my UK alma mater. I am satisfied from their reports that enough of what I give makes it through to needy students.
Ideally, the poorest students should be applying to the richest institutions, in the knowledge that they'll be able to get financial support there. That isn't what's happening now, but I live in hope.
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And I shot a man in Tesco, just to watch him die.
Posts: 2950 | From: I cannot tell you, for you are not a friar | Registered: Jan 2006
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mr cheesy
Shipmate
# 3330
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Posted
I am really struggling to understand why you give regularly to an already wealthy educational institution, Erroneous Monk. Can you explain more about your motives and what you think you gain from it? If nothing, why do you do it?
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arse
Posts: 10697 | Registered: Sep 2002
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Touchstone
Shipmate
# 3560
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Posted
I give a small amount per month to a bursary fund for students who otherwise would not be able to attend my British "red brick" alma mater.
I'm happy to do this as I gained 2 degrees there at absolutely no cost to myself (indeed, I even managed to save out of my postgraduate studentship), whereas nowadays the financial barriers to higher education are daunting to those of limited means.
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Jez we did hand the next election to the Tories on a plate!
Posts: 163 | From: Somewhere west of Bristol | Registered: Nov 2002
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Sandemaniac
Shipmate
# 12829
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Posted
The university I work for, and did an undergraduate diploma at, sent me a grovelling letter asking for some of the no doubt vast sum of money I was earning as a result of having studied there.
I sent them one back pointing out that I'd done it as a hobby, that I was never going to earn back from it the money I'd spent on the course, and if they wanted me to give them money perhaps they'd see fit to pay me a bit more?
I haven't had another.
AG
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"It becomes soon pleasantly apparent that change-ringing is by no means merely an excuse for beer" Charles Dickens gets it wrong, 1869
Posts: 3574 | From: The wardrobe of my soul | Registered: Jul 2007
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Lothlorien:
Do you belong to the alumni association or similar? How do they know address etc.
They are extremely good at tracking people down.
Moo
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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Amanda B. Reckondwythe
Dressed for Church
# 5521
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Posted
Indeed. I've never reported a change of address to my alma mater, but they've always managed to find me.
I've never given them a penny. They have all the wealthy corporate donors they need, and then some. After I graduated, they embarked upon a massive building campaign that resulted in one of the ugliest college campuses on God's green earth, with buildings with names such as The [Filthy Rich Corporate Sponsor] Media Center, The [Other Filthy Rich Corporate Sponsor] Center for International Studies, etc. Whatever happened to good old [Beloved but dirt poor professor emeritus] Hall?
Of course, their literature touts these monstrous buildings as if they were God's gift to architecture.
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"I take prayer too seriously to use it as an excuse for avoiding work and responsibility." -- The Revd Martin Luther King Jr.
Posts: 10542 | From: The Great Southwest | Registered: Feb 2004
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Erroneous Monk
Shipmate
# 10858
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by mr cheesy:
I am really struggling to understand why you give regularly to an already wealthy educational institution, Erroneous Monk. Can you explain more about your motives and what you think you gain from it? If nothing, why do you do it?
I think it comes down to what you mean by wealthy. People would think of a Cambridge College as wealthy because it has assets - land, buildings, investment property etc. However it wouldn't make any sense to liquidate those assets and use it to provide grants and bursaries, because, once gone, the assets won't be coming back.
Moreover, very often the funds are "restricted", that is to say they were donated or bequeathed for the purposes of generating income, rather than for the capital to be spent. If demand were static, conceivably the college would get into a position where its investment income paid its expenses *and* it had sufficient funds to provide hardship grants to all who deserved one. However demand isn't static, and the college isn't a camel living off an everlasting hump.
I was very lucky. I didn't qualify for a maintenance grant, but my parents gave me a generous living allowance. I had friends at college, however, who didn't qualify for a grant and received *nothing* from their parents. This was before student loans too. They really depended on hardship funds from the college.
Ideally, the college would have such capacity to provide hardship funds that no-one would ever be put off applying because they're worried they won't be able to afford it, or run up unmanageable debt. Then maybe we'd stand a chance of having equal access from all social demographics.
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And I shot a man in Tesco, just to watch him die.
Posts: 2950 | From: I cannot tell you, for you are not a friar | Registered: Jan 2006
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betjemaniac
Shipmate
# 17618
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Posted
I never give money to (either) of the universities I went to - as far as I'm concerned they've got quite enough money.
I do, however, give money monthly to my school. Why? Because it uses its money sensibly - the land it owns funds five state grammar schools and a state academy providing a free education for several thousand people in the city on top of those who actually go to my old school itself.
OTOH my school was fee-paying, and it changed my life. My parents earned too much money for me to qualify for an assisted place (just) so basically sacrificed everything else to pay for my brother and me. Many of my friends there were on assisted places.
I give to the fund which is intended to make the entrance examination needs-blind - ie they take the top 120 boys every year, regardless of whether their families can pay or not.
I know not everyone agrees with independent, single sex, or selective education, but AFAIC this is a world away from paying for another polo field, or doubling the depth of the swimming pool. I see it as helping (some) others to have what I had. It might not be much, but stopping those payments would be the last economy I would ever make.
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And is it true? For if it is....
Posts: 1481 | From: behind the dreaming spires | Registered: Mar 2013
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Belle Ringer
Shipmate
# 13379
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Posted
In answer to the OP, there's an astonishing moment in the OT where Moses has been requesting donations and then says "we have enough, stop donating."
That may be the last time in history any charity has said "we have enough".
Posts: 5830 | From: Texas | Registered: Jan 2008
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Belle Ringer:
In answer to the OP, there's an astonishing moment in the OT where Moses has been requesting donations and then says "we have enough, stop donating."
That may be the last time in history any charity has said "we have enough".
About 20 years ago I attended a church with lots of people who had lots of money. On the Sunday following their pledge campaign, the Rector announced that the campaign had surpassed their goal and that they didn't need any more money. If people hadn't yet pledged, they should find another worthy cause.
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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Fineline
Shipmate
# 12143
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Posted
I've had the same question about giving to whatever church I'm attending. Some of the churches I've been to have been quite wealthy, and I've always had a very low income, and so it seemed kind of odd for me to be giving them money. Not that I didn't give money, but I thought carefully about how to divide up the money I was giving, and would put relatively little in the collection, and give more to organisations helping people living in poverty.
Posts: 2375 | From: England | Registered: Dec 2006
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leo
Shipmate
# 1458
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Posted
I give an annual amount to fund students who otherwise could not afford to go to my former (not rich but Russell Group) uni. It's also in my will.
I two got a degree and postgrad qualifications for free fromn there.
However, they use trained fund raisers and when they started emailing, writing and phoning, I threatened to cancel what I already gave.
Eventually they got the message.
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My Jewish-positive lectionary blog is at http://recognisingjewishrootsinthelectionary.wordpress.com/
My reviews at http://layreadersbookreviews.wordpress.com
Posts: 23198 | From: Bristol | Registered: Oct 2001
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
Alumni donation is part of the financial model of many universities and appeals are part of charitable organisation's necessary strategy. The need is continuous, why on earth would anyone expect the requests to cease?
Give to those who spend in a manner which you approve, don't give to those who do not.
As far as the matching donor, it may resemble the Spanish prisoner scam, but it is a normal fundraising technique. People don't give enough, you have to sweeten the pot. Or use guilt.
It is a shame that this is necessary.
As to the rich uni specifically, do they help disadvantaged students? Do they research something you support? Can you earmark your donation to a specific thing?
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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
I give to my old school: I was awarded a full scholarship that covered all fees and allowed for certain 'extras' such as music lessons, foreign exchange trips, etc - but it didn't cover things like uniform (which was ultra distinctive and very expensive) and games kit. So the fund I give to ensures that 'full' scholarships are just that, covering everything.
I also give to a fund supporting choir schools so that no child who gets through a voice trial is stopped from taking up a place through lack of parental ability to pay.
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Autenrieth Road
Shipmate
# 10509
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Posted
It looks like I'm in a massive minority here in terms of my past history of giving to my IRAM. Thanks for all the ideas to consider.
Regarding earmarks, I work at a college so I've seen the budgeting process in action. I'm skeptical about the ability of designated gifts to make a difference except in special circumstances.
Two examples: several years ago we received a gift of $100,000 designated to one division on campus. The regular budget of money for that division from the general funds of the college was promptly reduced by $100,000. So the division ended up with the exact same amount of money as before, and the designated gift only resulted in freeing up $100,000 to be assigned elsewhere on campus. It gave no added benefit to the intended division.
Several years ago also a church received a sizable gift for the music program of the church. The regular budget of the music program was promptly reduced, so that the music program was no further ahead. There was a big brouhaha at the church that this wasn't the donor's intent, and that the donor had intended to make it possible for more money to be spent on music. But it's hard for me to see how a donor can control the moving around of funds from the operating budget.
So generally I don't think earmarking makes much difference.
An example of an exception, where the special circumstances of the gift actually make a difference in the intended area, would be something like an endowed visiting lecture program at the college where I work. A donor's endowment is designated for bringing in a speaker for a month-long residency. The speaker gives several talks while they're here, and interacts with faculty and students. This is not something the college would have thought to do and fund on their own without the endowment, so here the donor has succeeded in really making a difference with their targeted gift.
Another exception where targeted gifts could make a difference is that they guarantee that funding for the targeted area won't fall below a certain minimum. Consider my college again. Suppose we have $X interest from designated endowed funds for scholarships per year. We actually distribute a great deal more in scholarships. But if the college were to choose to reduce what they distribute in scholarships, the existence of the endowed funds means that the amount won't fall below $X.
And another type of exception would be if a program is underfunded, and funded only by gifts, so anything you target to the program can only increase the money available to them. And that's actually the situation I'm now considering redirecting my usual IRAM donation to: instead of giving it to IRAM, I'd give it to the Episcopal Chaplaincy at IRAM, which receives funds neither from IRAM nor from the Episcopal church, and is funded entirely by donations. They do good and important work that I care about, and I think they operate on a shoestring. (I already give to them; I'd increase what I give by the amount I've been giving to IRAM. Or perhaps what I'll do is find something that supports the utterly destitute, and send my usual IRAM donation there instead.)
Giving to the rector's discretionary fund at a church would also typically be this kind of exception. For example at my church, the rector's discretionary fund is funded entirely by gifts, and when it runs out, it runs out until it's replenished by more gifts. The vestry doesn't make transfers from the rest of the budget into the discretionary fund to help with whatever urgent needs the rector has been helping with from the discretionary fund. So continued donations are the only way the rector gets funds to help with certain kinds of needs.
[ 29. May 2015, 15:51: Message edited by: Autenrieth Road ]
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Truth
Posts: 9559 | From: starlight | Registered: Oct 2005
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cliffdweller
Shipmate
# 13338
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Autenrieth Road:
It looks like I'm in a massive minority here in terms of my past history of giving to my IRAM. Thanks for all the ideas to consider.
Regarding earmarks, I work at a college so I've seen the budgeting process in action. I'm skeptical about the ability of designated gifts to make a difference except in special circumstances.
Two examples: several years ago we received a gift of $100,000 designated to one division on campus. The regular budget of money for that division from the general funds of the college was promptly reduced by $100,000. So the division ended up with the exact same amount of money as before, and the designated gift only resulted in freeing up $100,000 to be assigned elsewhere on campus. It gave no added benefit to the intended division.
Several years ago also a church received a sizable gift for the music program of the church. The regular budget of the music program was promptly reduced, so that the music program was no further ahead. There was a big brouhaha at the church that this wasn't the donor's intent, and that the donor had intended to make it possible for more money to be spent on music. But it's hard for me to see how a donor can control the moving around of funds from the operating budget.
So generally I don't think earmarking makes much difference.
And I would add, if they DO make a difference they can undermine the normal budgeting process.
I served in a church for many years with a few wealthy donors who were used to running the show, and a lot of middle- and low- income members who nonetheless were faithful and consistent givers. We worked hard to empower our elders to really be elders-- iow, to pray for the church, to seek God's will for the future direction of the church, and allocate resources to support that vision. That entailed a lot of hard choices, of course, as all church budgeting does. Typically we would go through months of intense prayer, fasting, and discernment before making tough decisions about what funding gets cut so that something else could thrive. Only to have that prayerful process completely undermined by a handful of wealthy donors who would designate their entire annual giving to their pet project (often something self-serving, like renovating their Sunday School classroom but none of the others). This severely hampered our ability to pursue goals and vision that were decided by the congregation as a whole. Eventually we had to decide to eliminate all designated giving altogether-- either trust the common vision enough to give to it or not. One particularly wealthy donor was so controlling and manipulative in her use of designated giving (even engaging in some smoke-and-mirrors fund diversion) that I finally told her that as a pastor, I felt it was essential to her spiritual health and ours that she give elsewhere (because we do need to give)-- but really elsewhere-- somewhere overseas, to a large organization where her donation would not be able to be used manipulatively as a tool. Eventually we learned to live on the $$ that was given by those committed to the common vision, which changed the whole power dynamics of the church in a positive and beneficial way.
I recognize there are some situations where designated giving might be a good option (particular one-time giving like bequests) but this experience has made me very wary of the process.
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"Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid." -Frederick Buechner
Posts: 11242 | From: a small canyon overlooking the city | Registered: Jan 2008
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Autenrieth Road
Shipmate
# 10509
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Posted
Today I received this bulk [Freudian typo: I initially typed "bull"] email from IRAM:
quote:
Dear Autenrieth,
Thanks to the support of 1,503 alumni and parents, we surpassed our goal of 1,453 donors in the Commencement Challenge to receive a $250,000 match from a generous donor for financial aid.
This same donor has now offered to contribute an additional $125,000 if we can reach a new goal: 2,015 donors—in honor of the graduating senior class—by midnight this Sunday, May 31.
Too bad I'm 2,015 times as cynical today as I was yesterday. Really? On the spur of the moment Anon decided to offer an extra challenge donation? Hell no, this whole thing has been carefully planned well in advance between Anon and the Planned Giving Staff at IRAM.
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Truth
Posts: 9559 | From: starlight | Registered: Oct 2005
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Og, King of Bashan
Ship's giant Amorite
# 9562
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Posted
When I graduated, they laid it out like this: tuition does not cover expenses and need based financial aid, so we need large grants. We get grants by showing that alumni are satisfied with the educational experience they received. Foundations measure alumni satisfaction by percentage of alumni who give something. We would love it if you gave us a large gift some day, but what we really want for now is for you to give a token gift every year.
So that’s what I do. Usually a number followed by one zero. Pretty painless, and hopefully I help someone get financial aid.
Posts: 3259 | From: Denver, Colorado, USA | Registered: May 2005
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Caissa
Shipmate
# 16710
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Posted
My first alma mater is also my employee. Whe I give to them it seems a bit like subsidizing my own salary.
Posts: 972 | From: Saint John, N.B. | Registered: Oct 2011
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Cathscats
Shipmate
# 17827
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Posted
I never get asked because both my alma materae have lost any trace of me, and changing your name does help. But I do remember my astonishment when at a seminary in the USA students were asked to make phone calls asking for money. In particular international students, such as me, were bribed into doing it with the promise of a free phone call home at the end of an evening (in the days of massively expensive transatlantic calls, at least on a student budget). Of course the end of the evening there was the wee small hours here and my mother was not best chuffed.....
My American friends just took it as a given, most of them had made similar calls at their undegrad schools.
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"...damp hands and theological doubts - the two always seem to go together..." (O. Douglas, "The Setons")
Posts: 176 | From: Central Highlands | Registered: Sep 2013
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Uncle Pete
Loyaute me lie
# 10422
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Posted
Both of my alumni associations never heard from me beyond the first few years. Then I realised that most of the money collected was upgrading sports fields and related programs. My graduate school lost me fairly promptly as did the undergraduate program at another university, until a fellow alumnus ratted me out by noticing my name in "Whatever happened to..." column. It took three increasing sharp letters and a final email before they realised I didn't care to hear from them (and going on 20 years, I would give them credit for not trying again).
I had a good education, completely paid by me, and for that, I am grateful. But I chose a profession in which I would never be wealthy.
Too bad, so sad.
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Even more so than I was before
Posts: 20466 | From: No longer where I was | Registered: Sep 2005
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Belle Ringer
Shipmate
# 13379
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Autenrieth Road:
Today I received this bulk [Freudian typo: I initially typed "bull"] email from IRAM:
quote:
Dear Autenrieth,
Thanks to the support of 1,503 alumni and parents, we surpassed our goal of 1,453 donors in the Commencement Challenge to receive a $250,000 match from a generous donor for financial aid.
This same donor has now offered to contribute an additional $125,000 if we can reach a new goal: 2,015 donors—in honor of the graduating senior class—by midnight this Sunday, May 31.
Too bad I'm 2,015 times as cynical today as I was yesterday. Really? On the spur of the moment Anon decided to offer an extra challenge donation? Hell no, this whole thing has been carefully planned well in advance between Anon and the Planned Giving Staff at IRAM.
Fund raising is an art. (And sometimes a scam. And often some of both.) I was in a music group that put on concerts, free (i.e. at our expense including hall rental) as fundraisers for local charities, who were dumbfounded to be handed the donation basket. They said all other "fundraiser" concerts, the music group is using the charity's name to attract people and donations, and give the charity about 10% of the take.
The charity goes along with it because something is better than nothing.
The two part strategy was probably pre-planned, as a way to appeal for more money in a fresh way mid-campaign.
Apparently "matching gifts" really do bring in more money. I heard a radio talk about it. People like something for nothing, they like double the effect, they like "the small amount I give will have bigger effect."
The amount offered as a matching gift is carefully planned to be easily meetable, there's really no risk of it not being given.
But also, rich folk don't just write checks; they want their money to have more effect that just a check, the matching gift offer is a way to multiply their gift by getting others to give.
I heard a talk once by a rich man who wanted to give a major gift to his university, and debated what would do the most good. A new science building? A new library?
He decided if the school has a good sports team in a up to the minute facility fun to attend games in, that builds loyalty to the school which increases donations, so he built a new state of the art stadium. The goal being not sports but attracting interest in the schools which becomes donations that will pay for a new science building and a new library and whatever else.
Posts: 5830 | From: Texas | Registered: Jan 2008
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Autenrieth Road
Shipmate
# 10509
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Belle Ringer:
Fund raising is an art.
An art and a science. Meeting their 1453 goal with 1503 donors shows they chose an extraordinarily carefully tuned goal! That's some data analysis going on there to come up with the 1453 goal. (Unless they're just outright lying that they got 1503 donors... but I'm not that cynical... today. Try me tomorrow though.)
[ 29. May 2015, 20:09: Message edited by: Autenrieth Road ]
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Truth
Posts: 9559 | From: starlight | Registered: Oct 2005
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Og, King of Bashan
Ship's giant Amorite
# 9562
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Posted
I actually know someone who just earned her masters in non-profit development, so no doubt there are masters and doctoral papers (couldn't come up with the plural of "thesis") out there that tell you how to set a manageable and marketable goal.
quote:
Should I cease donating to IRAM and start giving to any of many Very Poor Struggling Colleges instead?
Would you actually go to all the trouble to do that? Whenever we talk about the morality of giving, there is the ideal where you consider how much goes to actual people in need vs other charities, etc., and there is the reality of how we give. In my case, I give to whoever badgers me (usually folks that I know will use my money well anyway), and occasionally in response to a specific event (usually through Episcopal Relief and Development).
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"I like to eat crawfish and drink beer. That's despair?" ― Walker Percy
Posts: 3259 | From: Denver, Colorado, USA | Registered: May 2005
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Og, King of Bashan:
(couldn't come up with the plural of "thesis")
Theses.
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
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Posted
If you want to give something, consider what it should be. Money to a univ is not something I do. Rather, I give free service to some people who wouldn't otherwise get any. Give where the need is actual, and where it is greatest.
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Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
\_(ツ)_/
Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
I don't give money to either of the universities from which I graduated, but I have given money, books and craft supplies to various Primary (elementary) and preschools with which I have been involved. Mainly because they provide the bedrock of the education system and I have taught at this level and seen the struggle for basic supplies. Things are a bit different now, but I remember the whole junior department of 6 classes in one school running out of blue crayons, I acquired some yellow crayons from a dubious source and swapped them for blue with another school who had run out of yellow. I also swapped the 5 sheets of black paper which we were allocated for some blue crayons from the senior school.
Huia - wheeler/dealer
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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Nick Tamen
Ship's Wayfaring Fool
# 15164
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Posted
I give money every year to my alma mater and to the university from which I got my law degree. They are never large gifts, but I think it's important to give what I can. (I've also served on the board of my alma mater's alumni association.)
But neither of the universities I attended are Incredibly Rich. Both are Incredibly Good state-supported universities. I received excellent educations (and had a great college experience) at a ridiculously low cost. I'm a firm believer that public universities, at least where I live, provide much more than just the education of students, and I'm happy to both give what I can and to advocate for strong support from the state to keep those universities strong.
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The first thing God says to Moses is, "Take off your shoes." We are on holy ground. Hard to believe, but the truest thing I know. — Anne Lamott
Posts: 2833 | From: On heaven-crammed earth | Registered: Sep 2009
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Soror Magna
Shipmate
# 9881
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Posted
What does "IRAM" mean?
IRAM: Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique?
Information Risk Analysis Methodology (IRAM)?
L'Iram - Institut de Recherches et d'Applications des Méthodes de développement ?
I Remember Alma Mater?
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"You come with me to room 1013 over at the hospital, I'll show you America. Terminal, crazy and mean." -- Tony Kushner, "Angels in America"
Posts: 5430 | From: Caprica City | Registered: Jul 2005
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Soror Magna:
What does "IRAM" mean?
quote:
Originally posted by Autenrieth Road:
I'm not sure why I'm giving to <name of my incredibly rich alma mater>, which has more gobs of money than any other University in the country.
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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Og, King of Bashan
Ship's giant Amorite
# 9562
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
quote:
Originally posted by Soror Magna:
What does "IRAM" mean?
quote:
Originally posted by Autenrieth Road:
I'm not sure why I'm giving to <name of my incredibly rich alma mater>, which has more gobs of money than any other University in the country.
You know, some school in Boston. Well, not IN Boston, near Boston. No, not Tufts...
[ 30. May 2015, 03:02: Message edited by: Og, King of Bashan ]
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"I like to eat crawfish and drink beer. That's despair?" ― Walker Percy
Posts: 3259 | From: Denver, Colorado, USA | Registered: May 2005
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John Holding
Coffee and Cognac
# 158
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Uncle Pete:
I had a good education, completely paid by me, and for that, I am grateful.
Then you clearly didn't go to university in Canada.
Fees have never, repeat, never covered costs at Canadian universities. Even the richest, which I take to be the University of Toronto (possibly UBC?) is heavily dependent on grants from governments and foundations and private donors -- as it always has been.
John
Posts: 5929 | From: Ottawa, Canada | Registered: May 2001
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
quote:
Originally posted by Soror Magna:
What does "IRAM" mean?
quote:
Originally posted by Autenrieth Road:
I'm not sure why I'm giving to <name of my incredibly rich alma mater>, which has more gobs of money than any other University in the country.
I had to look up alma mater too. Not a term in use here. I also have to check what words like sophomore mean, which is 2nd year undergrad.
All of our universities are public. Taxes pay for them. So we all already donate. At one time it was possible to pay tuition by delivering grain, it stopped in the late 1960s.
The education for all model has been eroded. Though typical tuition is nowhere near as expensive as some places. It's around $5000.
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Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
\_(ツ)_/
Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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Belle Ringer
Shipmate
# 13379
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Posted
They say tuition doesn't cover costs. Hard to believe that of $50k a year tuition, not counting room & board & books. But I have not seen the budgets.
Ivy League tuition
Posts: 5830 | From: Texas | Registered: Jan 2008
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Galloping Granny
Shipmate
# 13814
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Posted
My Dad (b.1901) found it hard to believe that tertiary education was no longer free. I went through Teachers' College on what was effectively a small salary and completed my degree with a (government) student grant and part-time housework. My daughter (Now 44) and her brother (42) each had a grant and a relatively small student loan and both worked during holidays. Nowadays most graduates finish up with large loans to repay and the government is now plotting how to catch up with graduates who immediately take off overseas.
It was an old friend who noticed that I was not on the alumni list and asked if he could send my name in. Naively I agreed and promptly got a request for a donation – I think $500 was suggested. As the Old Friend was a flourishing architect and I was a relief teacher and my husband had sporadic work I remarked that I wished someone would give me $500; that and subsequent requests got filed in the wpb. I'm not interested in the gatherings of graduates that take place every year in our city, but since the kids who've now left home and I between us have graduated from four universities the household does receive magazines from all four, which are always very interesting to read. And for a while I bothered to vote for members of the Court of Convocation for one of them.
GG
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The Kingdom of Heaven is spread upon the earth, and men do not see it. Gospel of Thomas, 113
Posts: 2629 | From: Matarangi | Registered: Jun 2008
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
Yesterday I "unsubscribed" from all solicitation emails from my AM. Just now I received the second one since unsubscribing. They need "only" 500 more donations before the end of May to meet their goal and receive the supposed matching funds. (This was a fairly small college, so 500 is not insignificant.)
![[Disappointed]](graemlins/disappointed.gif)
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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Amanda B. Reckondwythe
Dressed for Church
# 5521
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
Yesterday I "unsubscribed" from all solicitation emails from my AM. Just now I received the second one since unsubscribing.
It's better just to set a spam filter to delete all such messages upon arrival. "Unsubscribe" merely alerts the sender to the fact that there is indeed a living, breathing person at the e-mail address in question.
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"I take prayer too seriously to use it as an excuse for avoiding work and responsibility." -- The Revd Martin Luther King Jr.
Posts: 10542 | From: The Great Southwest | Registered: Feb 2004
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cliffdweller
Shipmate
# 13338
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Posted
The worst for me was the email I rec'd in late 2013 from my AM where I now teach. The email was just one long paranoid rant against the about-to-be-implemented Obamacare legislation, suggesting that the financial future was bleak and uncertain, then curiously arguing that donating to the univ was the one thing the potential donor could really count on in such uncertain times. Beyond the unclear logic behind that massive rhetorical leap, I was aghast at the political bias of such an appeal, as well as the complete tone deafness of it. I immediately shot off an email, pointing out that they had said not one word about the work we're actually doing at the univ., how we have increased diversity and access, or improved overall scholarship, or what they hoped to do with the funds raised-- things I would expect to see in any appeal for money. The email (apparently sent to all alumni) also ignored the fact that the vast majority of our alumni are teachers, social workers and nurses, many of whom had much to gain from the provisions of Obamacare and might not appreciate such a politically skewed blasting of it.
Never heard a word back.
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"Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid." -Frederick Buechner
Posts: 11242 | From: a small canyon overlooking the city | Registered: Jan 2008
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Autenrieth Road
Shipmate
# 10509
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
quote:
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
Yesterday I "unsubscribed" from all solicitation emails from my AM. Just now I received the second one since unsubscribing.
It's better just to set a spam filter to delete all such messages upon arrival. "Unsubscribe" merely alerts the sender to the fact that there is indeed a living, breathing person at the e-mail address in question.
It may be that the set of email addresses for this solicitation series has already been uploaded to the email processor, so it will take a few days for Pigwidgeon to cease receiving email.
Usually when I unsubscribe from email lists I get a notification that it may take a few days for the unsubscribe to take effect. This may occur because the database connected to the web where you enter your request may be different from the database where the email addresses are stored, and depending on processing procedures it may take a day or two for data to be passed from one database to the other.
I think that bulk emails fall into two groups, the scrupulous where they provide an unsubscribe option with good intent and don't want to send you emails you don't want, and the unscrupulous who just want to blast emails to any email address they can find or make up.
I use the unsubscribe option with the scrupulous group. I class universities, and vendors selling things related to my field, in that group.
For the unscrupulous group, for example anyone claiming to make me rich, thin, or erect fast, I do as Amanda does and simply delete or spam-filter the emails.
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Truth
Posts: 9559 | From: starlight | Registered: Oct 2005
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OddJob
Shipmate
# 17591
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Posted
Personally I vowed not to donate to my alma mater after being fleeced an extortionate amount for academic dress hire provided by a monopoly supplier. From my day job running a commercial function in a university, I know that some unis take backhanders from the hire firms to exploit the monopoly. Then there was the compulsory library donation I was forced to make.
IMO universities need greater efficiency, not greater funding. I'd rather not post on a public forum some of the waste I've seen from inside. A true market in fee levels should force efficiency, but individual universities seem remarkably slow to undercut their rivals.
Posts: 97 | From: West Midlands | Registered: Mar 2013
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Autenrieth Road:
I think that bulk emails fall into two groups, the scrupulous where they provide an unsubscribe option with good intent and don't want to send you emails you don't want, and the unscrupulous who just want to blast emails to any email address they can find or make up.
I use the unsubscribe option with the scrupulous group. I class universities, and vendors selling things related to my field, in that group.
For the unscrupulous group, for example anyone claiming to make me rich, thin, or erect fast, I do as Amanda does and simply delete or spam-filter the emails.
I agree, and handle them the same way.
I received an assurance this morning that my name was being removed. (Of course, today is the last day of the "matching grant" appeal anyway!)
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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