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Recognition of Leadership Donors
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What is the Yale Alumni Fund?
What is the Senior Class Gift to the Yale Alumni Fund?
How do I make my Senior Class Gift?
What are unrestricted funds?
What do annual gifts to the Yale Alumni Fund support?
Why should I give back when I
already pay full tuition — or
I have student loans to repay?
Given the size of an endowment,
why does Yale need a Senior Class Gift?
How could my small contribution
make a difference when some alumni are
giving thousands or even millions of dollars?
Don't other causes need my money more than Yale?
Do other schools raise Senior gifts?
The Yale Alumni Fund is the annual giving vehicle through which Yale seniors, alumni, parents, and friends can donate flexible funds for the University’s current use, providing critical funding for all of Yale's core priorities. Founded in 1890, the Alumni Fund is the oldest and one of the most successful annual giving programs in the country.
What is the Senior Class Gift to the Yale Alumni Fund?
The Senior Class Gift is a three-week, class-based effort directed toward raising unrestricted, current use funds. Classes typically raise around $20,000 and have achieved participation rates of up to 83% (see the results from 2007 or see the 2006 results). The most important part of this initiative is to educate seniors about giving back to Yale and to inspire them to take meaningful action in furthering Yale’s future. The Senior Class Gift is a chance for the Class of 2008 to set a precedent for annual giving in the class and to help support the goals of the Yale Tomorrow campaign.
How do I make my Senior Class Gift?
You can make your contribution to the Senior Class Gift using any of the methods outlined below. Supporting the Senior Class Gift is a way to show your commitment to Yale and to show your ’08 pride!
There are a few ways to make your gift. You can make your gift online (through Yale’s secure server) by clicking here. You can also use the contribution card you received from a volunteer in your college or download one here. Remember to indicate the area(s) you want your gift to support – and the means of payment: cash, check, bursar account billing, or credit card. Give that card back to a volunteer in your college (list here) or mail it to: Yale Alumni Fund, Attn: Marie DiZazzo (SCG), PO Box 1890, New Haven, CT 06508-1890.
These gifts are exactly what their name implies: funds given to Yale without restrictions on how the money will be used. Unrestricted funds are especially valuable because they allow Yale to address immediate priorities and enhance programs not covered by the endowment or other sources of income. Unrestricted funds are, in short, catalytic resources that help Yale maintain its reputation for academic excellence. Donors who make unrestricted gifts can be certain that, no matter how the funds are used, these contributions make an enormous difference in the success of the College.
What do annual gifts to the Yale Alumni Fund support?
Donations to the Alumni Fund may be designated for any of the following six categories:
- Unrestricted Current Use: Gifts with no restrictions are applied where dollars are needed most. The fluidity of unrestricted funds impacts the budget of most departments throughout Yale and allows the university to embrace evolving ideas, programming, and technology.
- Financial Aid: Giving to the Alumni Fund helps Yale maintain its need-blind admissions policy, which promises that students will be accepted regardless of financial need. Last year, 41% of all undergraduates were awarded some amount of financial aid. Donations to the Yale Alumni Fund provide many of the term scholarships in financial aid packages and help to soften the rising cost of tuition each year.
- Facilities Renovation: The support of donors allows for the construction, renovation, and maintenance of Yale’s world-renowned campus.
- Faculty Support and Curriculum Development: Gifts designated toward academic excellence support the faculty, as well as guest lecturers, symposia, and workshops.
- Library Collections: New acquisitions and the conservation of existing collections for Yale’s 42 library facilities are among the funding priorities.
- Undergraduate Life: Gifts designated toward this area fund all aspects of extracurricular life at Yale: the arts, residential college activities, volunteer pursuits, publications, and athletics.
Why should I give back when I already pay full tuition – or I have student loans to repay?
Believe it or not, tuition does not represent the true cost of a Yale education; it covers only about half the cost of educating a Yale student. Thus, even when you pay full tuition – now or by repaying student loans after graduation, Yale significantly subsidizes your education – and can offer this subsidy only through the generosity of past and present donors. Alums have been giving back to Yale through the Alumni Fund since 1890. Your gift during senior year makes you a part of that long tradition of giving.
Given the size of the endowment, why does Yale need a Senior Class Gift?
Annual giving is an important complement to restricted funds, which make up the bulk of Yale’s $22.5 billion endowment. Because of strict spending rules in place to preserve its principal, even with the extraordinary returns of recent years, only a small portion of endowment returns can be used to support the University’s annual budget, and how those funds can be spent is extremely restricted to comply with the donor’s intention. That is why new, unrestricted support is always needed to fund exciting innovations required to keep Yale a world-class institution. It also explains why a gift of $25 to the Alumni Fund that can be spent immediately has the same impact on the University’s spending as an endowment gift of $500 and can also be used much more broadly. Every gift counts!
How could my small contribution make a difference when some alumni are giving thousands or even millions of dollars?
Do not underestimate the effect of your support. Every gift members of the class of ’08 make to Yale represent your class’ commitment to the University. Last year, relatively small gifts (under $1,000) to the Alumni Fund raised nearly $5 million collectively! If everyone waited until they had enough money to make a major gift, or gave only to specific organizations, donations from alumni would be sporadic at best, and daily life on campus would suffer from a shortage of funding. The lack of steady income from year to year would limit the activities and resources available to students at Yale. Every donation, no matter what size, makes a difference.
Don’t other causes need my money more than Yale?
Your gift to Yale need not preclude your active engagement with other philanthropies. Instead of giving only to Yale or only to another cause, consider making small contributions to both. Giving to Yale shows your class pride – and means a great deal to the future. Donors help the University achieve a high intellectual standard and find solutions to troubling social problems. Keep in mind that Yale is educating future world leaders – scientists, statesmen, etc. – who can address upcoming challenges faced by the nation and the world. But Yale’s contribution to the future goes even beyond the education of its leaders. From the life sciences to nanotechnology to the study of the environment, Yale has the capacity to make discoveries that will enhance dramatically the quality of human life. Think of giving to Yale as an investment paying significant benefits to society.
Do other schools raise Senior gifts?
All of Yale’s peer schools have similar Senior gift programs. Yale perennially has one of the top participation rates in the Ivy League. Princeton has the oldest multi-year pledge Senior gift program, and as a result, Princeton’s younger alumni have the highest participation rates of any of its peer schools. Princeton also has the highest overall participation rate of our peers, thanks to the engagement of its younger alumni in giving programs. Yale is hoping to raise its alumni participation rates similarly.
