My alma mater may want to rethink their fundraising

[Deleted]

LOL. You're so much nicer than me.
My college hounds me constantly for fundraising events. I find it annoying as I just finished paying the people off last month. They don't need MORE of my money for a bit..ha.

[sent]

I have stopped picking up the phone when I see the area code for my schools. My grad school is relentless when they call.

[Deleted]

Jul 27, 2014 17:12:24 GMT -5 sent said:

I have stopped picking up the phone when I see the area code for my schools. My grad school is relentless when they call.

Last month I got so frustrated with the grad school calling every fucking night that I finally picked up the phone and told them to stop calling me. My zinger? It took the school four damn tries to spell my middle name right on my diploma!

I call the director of the Alumni Association at my undergrad and told them to quit calling. And then proceeded to leave him a voicemail everytime they called me after that. 

[LoveTrains]

Jul 27, 2014 22:45:42 GMT -5 @idaholakelady said:

Jul 27, 2014 17:12:24 GMT -5 sent said:

I have stopped picking up the phone when I see the area code for my schools. My grad school is relentless when they call.

Last month I got so frustrated with the grad school calling every fucking night that I finally picked up the phone and told them to stop calling me. My zinger? It took the school four damn tries to spell my middle name right on my diploma!

I call the director of the Alumni Association at my undergrad and told them to quit calling. And then proceeded to leave him a voicemail everytime they called me after that. 

Try calling the director of the annual fund. You may have more success. Trust me they don't want to waste time and money calling someone who asks to be taken off the list unless they are completely inept.

[LoveTrains]

Jul 27, 2014 15:45:34 GMT -5 @justdairy said:

LOL. You're so much nicer than me.
My college hounds me constantly for fundraising events. I find it annoying as I just finished paying the people off last month. They don't need MORE of my money for a bit..ha.

I ask this in all seriousness and not snarkiness. For you, how many contacts and by what channels (ie, phone/email/mail/text) makes it annoying? Is it only annoying bc you had loans?

[LoveTrains]

Jul 27, 2014 15:43:26 GMT -5 @starry said:

I got a little card on it that showed the cost of tuition, room, board, and books for a year for an instate student. It is almost $26k. Rather than donating more, this makes me want to hoard for my child. OMG, lol. Tuition has risen 130% since my brother started there 14 years ago.

(I will give them my annual $150 at some point, no one flame me!)

What would be a more persuasive message that you would like to hear from your alma mater instead of the current cost? Again I'm asking in all seriousness - no flames or snarkiness.

[bowies]

My school keeps asking for me under my former married name. I told them I'd donate once they called me by the right name, which I changed with the Alumni Association a while back. It still hasn't happened.

[Deleted]

It's seriously annoying to me to receive all these heartfelt pleas for additional money and donation in conjunction with fancy publications, magazines, pictures, and "updates" on major campus rebuilding or renovations (state of the art gym?). How much did those fancy prinings cost? I graduated 15 years ago, am still paying for school, and fail to see how 100 exercise machines or a slick new dining hall, or new landscaping enhances education. The old "we didn't have air conditioning" feeling, ya know? I get "we have to remain competitive" and all, but whatever.

It's also fucking annoying to have some work study student call, "I see you donated $100 last year, can I put you down for $500 this year?"

Lol. Lol.

I suggested to him that he start with $200, and ask someone who wasn't still paying for the damn schoool.

He caught me at a bad time.

I went to a private school in New England, which has since doubled in cost.

[arch01]

They haven't found my new phone number...yet.

LoveTrains-my school was calling 1-2x/wk for several weeks. I asked repeatedly to be taken off the list. I was nice the first few times, but got increasingly more frustrated. I have some very bad feelings toward my school (particularly the architecture school) and won't donate directly to them-ever-so that likely increases my frustration.

[lishie]

Jul 27, 2014 15:43:26 GMT -5 @starry said:

(I will give them my annual $150 at some point, no one flame me!)

DH and I went to the same college. When we started 18 years ago tuition and room and board were about 30K. Now they're close to 60k.

We contribute to the school, but only 250 a year. His private high school gets the same. The rest of our "college contribution" is going into 529 plans.

Maybe someday we'll give a substantial gift, but not anytime soon.

[sh10]

LoveTrains, my school calls but doesn't leave voicemails and then calls every day for a week until I pick up. It drives me nuts that they don't leave a message and just keep calling. Neither DH or I was the recipient of any the grants or scholarships they mention when they call and we now have grad school loans. They would do better if they didn't say don't you want other students to not have student loans.

[Deleted]

Jul 28, 2014 0:06:29 GMT -5 LoveTrains said:

Jul 27, 2014 15:45:34 GMT -5 @justdairy said:

LOL. You're so much nicer than me.
My college hounds me constantly for fundraising events. I find it annoying as I just finished paying the people off last month. They don't need MORE of my money for a bit..ha.

I ask this in all seriousness and not snarkiness. For you, how many contacts and by what channels (ie, phone/email/mail/text) makes it annoying? Is it only annoying bc you had loans?

They do a phone call fundraiser by which they pay college kids to phone for donations. It goes on for like 3 months straight and they call every night, sometimes twice. Some of the kids don't have the best phone skills so it's weird and awkward.  I hate it, but understand. We also get mail, email etc. and I don't find those annoying at all.

I was honestly more joking/being sarcastic than anything. I don't have a problem with fundraising donations for colleges at all.  

[rondonalddo]

Jul 28, 2014 5:40:05 GMT -5 smileyface said:

It's seriously annoying to me to receive all these heartfelt pleas for additional money and donation in conjunction with fancy publications, magazines, pictures, and "updates" on major campus rebuilding or renovations (state of the art gym?). How much did those fancy prinings cost? I graduated 15 years ago, am still paying for school, and fail to see how 100 exercise machines or a slick new dining hall, or new landscaping enhances education. The old "we didn't have air conditioning" feeling, ya know? I get "we have to remain competitive" and all, but whatever.

It's also fucking annoying to have some work study student call, "I see you donated $100 last year, can I put you down for $500 this year?"

Lol. Lol.

I suggested to him that he start with $200, and ask someone who wasn't still paying for the damn schoool.

He caught me at a bad time.

I went to a private school in New England, which has since doubled in cost.

That happened to me once and I literally laughed over the phone. I have a masters in Arts Administration, so I've taken fundraising classes and I'm familiar with the development technique of asking for more than the previous gift, and they couldn't have known how poor their timing was at the time, but my situation was really not favorable to increasing my donation at the time. 

[shortstax]

The last student who called me was so charasmatic and awesome. He asked where I lived freshmen year, asked what songs remind me of being in college, then was all "I see you've already donated some this year, but would you mind giving a little more to help some of us follow in your footsteps?" I gave a bit and he was all "thanks, hopefully we wil see you at the bars next year at homecoming!"

I guarantee he was off script, but I bet he gets donations

[pugz]

LoveTrains my alma mater sends out an alumni "magazine" (for lack of better term) 4 or 5 times a year and I really enjoy getting it. It highlights what's new on campus, some of the cool things alumni are doing, new programs for students (they just got a nursing program, which is awesome!) and at the end alumni can submit wedding/baby/masters/PHD announcements and then there is an "in remembrance" section too.

We don't give to our alma maters at this point because we still have a lot of loans to pay off plus need to start saving for our own kid's college but I do feel like I stay connected via the magazine and it does inspire me to want to give (just haven't done it yet).

[swarley]

I don't donate to the college but I do donate to the athletic department. I'm a football season ticket holder (we're usually a top 10 team) and you have to donate if you want the tickets. I've given more to our school's mascot than I have to the college. The athletic department donates millions to the school so I guess I contribute to academics that way.

I may make donations directly to my school when I have the money but right now I find the phone calls annoying and my priorities lie with the football program and I'm not sorry one bit!

[LoveTrains]

Jul 28, 2014 6:50:10 GMT -5 arch01 said:

They haven't found my new phone number...yet.

LoveTrains-my school was calling 1-2x/wk for several weeks. I asked repeatedly to be taken off the list. I was nice the first few times, but got increasingly more frustrated. I have some very bad feelings toward my school (particularly the architecture school) and won't donate directly to them-ever-so that likely increases my frustration.

It's really inexcusable if they won't take you off the call list once you ask. That is unethical and gives the entire profession a bad name.

I will say that it is standard operating procedure to keep attempting without voicemails, or to attempt a certain amount of times before leaving a voicemail. So they will call through parts of the file and hit that segment repeatedly until they either give up (after X amount of attempts or a voicemail) but it will come in bursts. The best way to avoid having them call you every night is to pick up and ask to be taken off the list, as annoying as that might be. OR - if you dont' want to talk to the student - go on the website, find out the email address or phone number for the direcdtor of annual giving and contact them directly. Again, they SHOULD be taking you off the call list once you make the request. They are the professional person who is ultimately in charge of the program and probably the best person to be able to execute the request. 

Also, the line about "I see you gave $100 last year, would you consider $500 this year" is pretty textbook scripting. While it may piss off some people, it ends up netting more money generally which is why people do it. I'm not saying you have to like the technique - I'm just explaining why some schools use it. However, what works at one school doesn't always work at other schools. It is up to the annual giving director to determine what strategies work best for her audience and implement them effectively. And just like tuition goes up every year, the fundraising goal goes up every year. Fundraising professionals are under a great deal of pressure to achieve goals. I know its hard to think about them - but they are people that are just trying to raise money for a cause that hopefully they (and you as alumni) care about it. Plus they have strict metrics that they are trying to achieve. Sometimes tactics seem aggressive because the goals are aggressive.