Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University

Consistent reductions in state and federal financial support for America’s public colleges and universities have resulted in an increased institutional reliance upon non- traditional revenue sources. Budgetary shortfalls precipitated by the loss of appropriations led many institutions to seek out alternative sources of revenue. While many of these strategies have proven to be controversial with institutional stakeholders (e.g., annual tuition rate increases), one appears to be both popular and effective: alumni giving. Colleges and universities rely heavily upon alumni to enhance the institution by subsidizing operational costs; this is especially crucial in times of great financial stress. In order to ensure strong, lifelong relationships between alumni donors and their alma maters, institutions must consistently evaluate the methods through which alumni giving is solicited. It is not enough to merely expect alumni to become philanthropically engaged upon graduation; institutions must create a culture of giving amongst its student body. The study explored how colleges and universities may foster increased alumni participation in institutional philanthropy. By gauging the perceptions of young alumni, institutions will be able to determine if existing efforts are effective in encouraging future alumni giving. Grounded in altruistic (i.e., prosocial), social exchange, student development, and donor motivation theories, this study utilized a quantitative survey methodology to uncover prevailing alumni perceptions toward contemporary institutional philanthropic efforts. Study participants were asked to reflect upon their undergraduate experiences and the relationships they maintain with their alma mater after graduation. The study found that specific variables (e.g., alumni association membership, gender, financial contributions, engagement in alumni activities, satisfaction with the undergraduate experience, and institutional connectivity post-graduation) were statistically significant in predicting membership within three distinct donor groups. After all data were collected and analyzed, recommendations were made to assist institutions in developing programs that are most likely to encourage active alumni participation and create a culture of giving amongst student bodies. / text

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a relationship among selected demographic variables and donor or nondonor status of alumni and employees at the participating university. The variables involving alumni were gender, highest degree earned, and college of major study. The variables regarding employees were gender and position. The study was conducted using archived alumni data from the Alumni Association’s database program and the archived employee data from the Office of Human Resources’ database program. The population for this study consisted of the 76,728 alumni and the 2,279 full-time employees of a mid-sized southeastern university during the fiscal year 2009-2010. The results of the data analysis gave insight into what degree alumni and employees gave back to their university and place of employment. For example, 3.9% of alumni were found to be donors while 18.4% of employees were shown to be donors. The percentage of alumni who donated increased with each advanced degree earned. Males in both categories, alumni and employees, donated at a higher percentage than females. In the employee category, faculty were shown to donate at a higher percentage than administrators or staff. The study provided an increase in the body of knowledge of the variables of alumni giving and employee giving at the participating university.

Public funding of higher education has declined substantially in recent years (Alexander, 2000; Esposito, 2010; Mortenson, 2012; NACUBO, 2011; Redd, 2014; Serna and Harris, 2014), while operating costs and demand have increased (Desrochers and Kirshstein, 2012; Mortenson, 2012; Mumper and Freeman, 2011; NCSES, 2014; Serna and Harris, 2014; St. John and Parsons, 2004), forcing institutions to look for alternative sources of revenue (NCSL, 2010). One such alternative source of revenue is alumni giving (Monks, 2003; Archibald and Feldman, 2012; CAE, 2014). Research has shown that the factors that influence alumni financial giving include demographic characteristics (Hoyt, 2004; Monks, 2003), academic experiences (Monks, 2003; Pumerantz, 2005), social experiences (Monks, 2005; Thomas and Smart, 2005; Volkwein, 1989), and alumni participation variables (Gaier, 2005; Gallo and Hubschman, 2003). Although there is ample evidence to support the importance of alumni giving, researchers have not examined the factors that influence young alumni giving. This study sought to determine if demographic characteristics, academic experiences and social experiences explain the variance in alumni giving to their alma mater within five years of graduating. I conducted a case study at a single institution and used Volkwein's (1989) model of giving coupled with data from the 2011 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) that captured alumni's demographic characteristics and measured their academic and social experiences while in college. I merged NSSE with data about giving that I retrieved from the Development Office at the selected institution. The variables included five Demographic items, fourteen Academic Experience items with numerous sub-items, and twelve Social Experience items with numerous sub-items. Exploratory factor analysis revealed five academic factors and four social factors. The results of a multiple regression analysis revealed that only one factor, Class Assignments, explained the variance in young alumni giving, but it may have been spurious. It would appear that demographic characteristics and academic and social factors determined from NSSE are not particularly useful in explaining giving by young alumni. Indeed, only 14.5% of participants actually made a donation within five years of graduating. Clearly more research is needed to expand upon the literature about alumni giving. / Ph. D.

No description available.

The purpose of this research is to analyze characteristics and motivators among alumni of the Community Involvement Program (CIP) for donating to the University of the Pacific. The research questions were: (1) what are the characteristics and motivators of CIP alumni for donating to the University of the Pacific? (2) do the characteristics and motivators influencing decisions to donate vary across minority ethnic groups? This research was conducted using a quantitative method to learn the challenges and motivators for alumni of a special program for minority students to donate to their alma mater, a private university. CIP was established in the late 1960s to answer the call of educating minority and other non-traditional university students from the local community. CIP supports non-traditional, first generation, and low-income students at the university through scholarships, academic support and social activities. This study opened a discussion about differences in ethnicities for alumni donations, finding that African Americans are more likely than other minorities to contribute. It also discovered that CIP alumni are very connected to their university and that there is a positive relationship between communications and contributing. In particular, there was a positive significant relationship between receiving a phone call from Pacific asking for donations and motivations to contribute. On the other hand, this population is balancing the expense of paying back loans, raising children and contributing to other community groups with their ability to contribute to Pacific. These findings point to new financial partners for Pacific and for CIP, as well as important ways to connect with these alumni. However, in the current economic (2009) conditions and for a group who is likely to fall squarely within the middle class, Pacific will need to balance its own efforts to gain addition contributions from CIP alumni with the community's needs for these same dollars. Pacific is likely to find that long-term projects, in which all departments collaborate to enhance the connections of alumni with all aspects of the campus, are likely to return the greatest value on those investments.

No description available.

Doctor of Education / Department of Educational Leadership / Trudy Salsberry / Institutional advancement is a constant challenge for leaders at institutions of higher education. The continued threat to historically black college and universities (HBCU) survival, due to the lack of resources they need to operate and compete, is at the forefront of concerns for many HBCU presidents and supporters. Research suggests that to have success in acquiring more resources, universities will need to work with their alumni associations and foundations. The purpose of this qualitative, multi-case study was to contribute to the limited research on the relationships among HBCU leaders responsible for growing resources. Numerous aspects contribute to increasing alumni giving and this study will contribute to that knowledge. The discussion of inter-organizational relationships and how the processes of cooperation, coordination, and collaboration transpire should be a part of the dialogue. Exploration of these relationships and processes can highlight possible solutions and deficiencies in the success of institutional advancement. Sites for this study were purposefully selected to examine these inter-organizational relationships. Data included in-depth interviews and related documents and artifacts. Thirty patterns and three themes emerged from the data analysis. The three themes include an understanding that (a) “working together” enacts cooperation, coordination, and collaboration; (b) human capital and organizational structures affect coordination and the ability to reach goals; and (c) the goal for increased resource capacity focuses the efforts of cooperation, coordination, and collaboration. This study extends the discussion to looking at inter-organizational relationships as another perspective to enhance resources. This investigation also introduces dialogue about alumni association and foundation volunteerism as an important component in developing effective solutions. The understandings portrayed in the identified themes will help university officials, practitioners, advancement volunteers, and supporters of higher education enhance their institutional advancement strategies and help set forth norms for productive behaviors.

In 2011, over 30 billion dollars were given to colleges and universities across the United States; donors included individuals, corporations, foundations, and religious organizations. Of the 30 billion dollars, 43% of this financial support came directly from individual and alumni donors (Council for Aid to Education, 2011). Leslie and Ramey (1988) stated that “voluntary support is becoming the only source of real discretionary money [that a college or university has]” (p. 115). The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the ability of responses from senior class students on the 2006 National Survey of Student Engagement to be used as predictors of alumni donor participation in liberal arts colleges. The sample of this study was 10 Carnegie Baccalaureate Colleges from the southeastern United States. The institutions that participated provided alumni donor participation data for members of the undergraduate class of 2006 for a five-year post-graduation period. Logistical regression models were developed to represent the multivariate impacts of NSSE benchmark scores and student demographics independent variables on the bivariate alumni donor participation rate dependent variable. The results indicated that two NSSE benchmarks, measured by the 2006 NSSE, (Level of Academic Challenge and Student-Faculty Interaction) and three demographic variables (parental level of education, Greek Life membership, and receipt of an institutional scholarship) had a positive relationship with increased alumni donor participation.

No description available.