Five hundred thousand dollars in nine days -- that is the goal of this week's annual Alumni Phonathon which began on Sunday and will continue through Jan. 28.
Every year students volunteering in the program make telephone calls to alumni from the Top of the Hop to raise money for various areas of the College including financial aid, student programming and faculty salaries.
Assistant Director of the Alumni Fund Chris Boffoli said he hopes approximately 400 students will volunteer at the drive one of its nine nights to help contact over 5,000 alumni.
"There are a lot of colleges that would be hard pressed to get this much student support," Boffoli said. "It says a lot about Dartmouth."
Alumni Fund student interns Debbie Bender '99, F. Scot Berg '99, Paul Killebrew '99 and Farrah Russell '99 are organizing this year's pledge drive.
The phonathon is part of the larger Alumni Fund which Boffoli said hopes to raise nearly $20 million this year.
Volunteers can participate in the program without pre-registering and can earn prizes for their philanthropy.
Students who solicit 12 pledges will receive a free t-shirt and all callers will receive free pizza and drinks.
For every five pledges, students can enter their name in a drawing to win larger prizes. The grand prize is round-trip airfare to anywhere in the United States provided by Dartmouth Travel.
Second prize is a Sony VCR and third prize is the choice of either a Nintendo 64 or Sony Playstation video game console.
Students are given a stack of cards with information on alumni including their history of giving and current employment, as well as a script with what to say to the prospective donors.
Killebrew said many organizations such as Greek houses and Undergraduate Advisor groups come to help the effort.
College President James Wright is scheduled to attend the phonathon this Monday.
Boffoli said it is not difficult to garner pledges from the alumni because those selected usually give every year.
Attempts are also made to match up students with alums who had similar interests or affiliations, like matching fraternity brothers with alumni from that house, Killebrew said.
Boffoli said many alumni enjoy talking to current students about their experience at the College.
Boffoli said the drive also serves to remind students how important alumni giving is to the College.
"Dartmouth is very reliant on the alumni fund," he said. "We need to raise these financial aid dollars to remain competitive with Harvard and Princeton."
The Alumni Phonathon will continue today, tomorrow and Thursday of this week as well as Sunday through Thursday next week.
