Despite the downturn in the national economy, Dartmouth alumni continue to show their loyalty with their wallets. College officials reported that while the average gift per alumnus is down this year, the number of alumni donating funds has increased.
According to Vice President of Alumni Relations Stanley Colla, the average dollar amount per donation has fallen off somewhat, but the latest statistics from the Dartmouth College Fund indicate that Dartmouth alumni are still "digging in and sending gifts to Dartmouth." As a result the total donor count is higher than it has been in several years.
Colla added that because of the poor economy the College has had to make new strategies to attract alumni donations. According to Colla, Alumni Affairs has been trying to be more personal and appeal "more directly to alumni for their support."
This more direct approach, he said, helped alumni understand that "their support is critical to Dartmouth's success."
The annual dollar total given to the Dartmouth College Fund has increased steadily every year since the middle of the 1990s. According to statistics provided by Dartmouth Alumni Affairs, as of Nov. 11, Dartmouth alumni had already contributed nearly $8.5 million to the College Fund this school year. The fund usually contributes about 10 percent of the College's annual $260 million operating budget.
Several of Dartmouth's peer schools, including the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University, have also been feeling the squeeze of the slumping economy, but most report that the alumni have still been doing their part to support their alma maters through hard times.
Kenneth Goebel, director of the Penn Fund at the University of Pennsylvania, reported that Penn's "endowment took a modest hit, but we are still well above the benchmark with our Penn Fund work."
Director of Individual Giving at Stanford University Chris Ponce reporter that Stanford had a record- setting year last year, despite a slow start after Sept. 11. Ponce said that the biggest effect Stanford had seen was that several of the high-end donors -- in the millions or tens of millions of dollars range -- had asked that their gifts be spread out over a larger period of time than they had originally pledged.
Several schools said that they had experienced very similar patterns of giving as Dartmouth had. Goebel said of the Penn Fund that since last year, "Our dollars are only slightly higher, but donor count is up considerably over last year."
Goebel contributed this to more aggressive work on the part of the Penn Fund to encourage even small donations from alumni. While all interviewed said that the economy was a cause of stress, most felt that their schools would survive the sour economy.
"We keep looking for big gifts. There are plenty of people who still have a plenty of money they are willing to give," Ponce said.
Dartmouth is second only to Princeton in the Ivy League in percent of donating alumni, with nearly half of all Dartmouth alumni historically donating annually.
