Columbia College exceeded its fundraising goal by nearly 8 percent in the 2010-2011 fiscal year, raking in $15.6 million and drawing in more donations than ever from younger alumni.
The growth represents a 3.2 percent increase from the previous year, during which $15.1 million was collected.
The reports for this current fiscal year—since July 2011—are also looking promising, according to Allen Rosso, the executive director of the Columbia College Fund. Compared to last year’s numbers at this time, the fund is ahead by 800 donors and $400,000.
That increase is largely due to a rise in participation, not to growth in the average gift size, Rosso said, and is particularly noticeable among younger alumni, especially those who graduated 10 to 15 years ago. In the last fiscal year, about 400 gifts were made by alumni in that age bracket. This year, the number already stands at around 770 gifts.
“Within the last 10 years, what we’re seeing is more satisfaction with the Columbia experience. It’s always been a top school, but schools go through periods when they are hotter than others, and right now, we’re a hot school,” Rosso said. “The type of students we’re attracting are staying more involved in that community, and I think they’re having a better experience while they’re here.”
Another possible explanation, according to Rosso, is the increased growth and involvement of the Young Alumni Fund Development Council, a group of graduates from the last 10 years who advise the College on fundraising strategies for recent graduates.
“One of the things that they’ve helped us do is refine why alumni want to give back. No one can explain that better to us than actually talking to alumni,” Rosso said.
Ganesh Betanabhatla, CC ’06 and co-chair of the YAFDC, said that he believes much of this increase is due to better messaging on the part of the Fund office to the younger population.
“I think now the communication from the alumni office has been much more tailored towards the young alumni message,” he said. “The underlying message has been much clearer … which is that the fund is seeking participation, instead of really trying to tell people how much money is the right amount of money.”
But the increased giving is not reserved to this cadre of alumni. Ira Malin, CC ’75 and co-chair of the College Fund, credited the office’s new efforts in direct response programming, which includes writing personal salutations in emails and asking individuals for specific amounts of money.
Rosso, who was hired last October after working in development at the University of Chicago and Vanderbilt University, helped design Columbia College Interim Dean James Valentini’s “3, 2, 1” plan—a challenge to seniors to donate to their alma mater for three years post-graduation and to tell two friends about the plan.
The “3, 2, 1” plan also addresses one of the main challenges that Rosso said he faces: getting alumni to become involved early, since, once an individual contributes, they are much more likely to give in subsequent years.
“We have been much clearer with the message that we are trying to create a culture or habit of giving among young alumni population,” Betanabhatla said. “Regardless of what the amount is, if you get people in the habit of giving from their first year out, they continue to feel a sense of loyalty, a sense that giving is what they should be doing.”
Valentini “is generating some energy about what it really means to give back and being part of the community … and I think there’s enthusiasm for that. With alumni that I meet with, across the board, anyone that has had the chance to meet Dean Valentini walks away energized, and I would include myself in that camp,” Rosso said.
An initiative in which alumni in each class personally reach out to their former classmates has also proved successful, Malin said.
“It’s very powerful because I think when alumni are approached by their peers, it’s a much warmer interaction,” he said.
Betanabhatla noted that in recent years, the program has not only included more alumni, but has also done a better job of training those alumni to fundraise effectively.
For Rosso, this recent success speaks to the long-term increase in funds raised by the College. “The exciting thing for us right now is that the Columbia Annual Fund has been bucking a lot of national trends,” Rosso said. “With the ’08-’09 downturn, a lot of schools saw the amount of money coming into the school drop significantly, and now they’re seeing those dollars come back towards the end of last year and this year. We’ve had consistent growth all the way through.”
Since 2002, the Fund has seen at least a 3 percent increase, and an average of a 7 percent increase, from year to year.
Malin said that these donations are representative of the strong connection alumni feel to the College and to the students themselves. “We have lots of issues and questions and problems that we need to solve in society, and it’s kind of exciting to know that you are supporting the next generation of leadership through your gift,” he said.
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