Checking in with the Class of 2009 Fund: $13,000 and counting
Posted by: Juliana Brint in News, Vox Populi, tags: Class of 2009, Fundraising, Georgetown Fund
YouTube commenter cleverness: “Fine, I’ll give, but promise you’ll use the money for a better camera”
How’s the senior class doing philanthropy-wise? Vox checked in with Class of 2009 Fund co-Chairs Kenneth Gillette (COL ’09) and Chloe Waddington (SFS ’09) for an update:
The senior class currently has a 32% give rate, much higher than where the class of 2008 was this time last year (13%) and already a bit higher than the overall average for alumni giving (28%) according to Gillette and Waddington. A little more than $13,000 has been donated so far, for an average gift of $27 per person.
This is the first year the senior class gift has moved entirely away from a tangible gift (i.e. a lamppost) and given seniors the choice of donating to either to the general Georgetown Fund or to the organization of their choice. So far 70% have chosen the Georgetown Fund. Other popular recipients have been the men’s basketball team, the Center for Social Justice and the Georgetown Scholarship Program.
Their goal is to have 65% of the Senior class donate. If they make it, an anonymous alumni donor will add $10,000 to the class’s donation total. Last year’s class came close to that, with 55% giving for a total of $34,273.
Gillette and Waddington are optimistic about meeting their goal, but admitted the recession has made it more difficult to fundraise—as Waddington said, “One of the things we hear most often is ‘Why are you asking me to give when I don’t have a job?’”
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2007 was the death of the senior class gift. The administration “asked” the senior class committee to pour our money into the general scholarship fund instead. As an alum it’s depressing to come back to campus to know that we’re the first in a long time to come back to nothing that reminds us of our class–even if it’s just a clock tower, some landscaping, or benches. We had a choice that year too–to give money to Georgetown to help fill funding gaps, or to not donate at all. To call it a choice is really an insult to students. We proudly had one of the worst giving rates that year.
[...] when we checked in with them in April, they had about $13,000 in the coffers and 32% of the class had donated. The [...]