Donations to USM from alumni have remained steady, despite a difficult economic climate, according to Director of Development David Hughes.
With reduced state funding, USM’s Alumni Relations and Development Office is currently in the process of trying to raise $1.3 million in alumni contributions. These donations will go toward the university’s annual fund or any USM college as specified by the individual donor.
“We’re ahead of where we were at this time last year in a way that makes us feel positive about how it’s going,” said Hughes. Last year, the university received approximately $1.1 million in alumni contributions, mostly in small donations from many contributors.
Despite the positive outlook so far for this year’s contributions, Hughes says that USM’s alumni donation rate is an estimated 10 percent below the low end of the national average. He has no doubt that this year’s $1.3 million mark will be achieved though. “I intend to hit it,” says Hughes.
Hughes said he isn’t surprised that donated funds haven’t decreased as a result of hard economic times. He said he believes charitable donations towards religion and education suffered less than other fundraising pursuits, because they’re generally smaller contributions on the part of the donor.
Hughes estimates the university is in contact with roughly 45,000 USM alumni, but there are many alumni unaccounted for due to poor record-keeping from the university’s early years. To rally potential alumni donors, USM sends out mail and e-mail notifications. These notifications contain information for alumni about how they can go about donating towards USM’s core needs, or how they can designate their contributions to specific schools or colleges.
Alumni donations can be designated by the donors to go towards the USM school or college of their choice. Each spring, alumni are invited to donate any amount they wish to the individual school or college they graduated from at USM. If the donor doesn’t wish to designate their contribution to any specific area of USM, then that money will be placed in the annual fund.
The annual fund is money collected by USM’s annual giving program. These funds are donated towards student scholarships, faculty research and projects, or any of USM’s core needs as specified by President Selma Botman.