Adopting Measures to Increase Alumni Donations at Prestigious Universities

This research uniquely aims to identify the key factors that current students at prestigious universities indicate have influence upon their likelihood of making donations to their alma mater in the future. Using data and examples from both the UK and the USA we show the importance of voluntary donations to prestigious universities and suggest that UK universities have much to learn from their American counterparts. A novel questionnaire was administered to students studying at a number of prestigious UK universities which resulted in a large number of responses being accepted for inferential statistical analysis. The robust results provide new insight into the significance of student centred pedagogy and students' career and financial aspirations as major determinants of intention to donate and also confirm the importance of overall student satisfaction, acquisition of transferable skills and the social experiences of university as additional determining factors. It is intended that this research should have practical implications and so we emphasise elements of the student and pedagogical experience upon which universities and alumni departments should focus their resources in order to increase the likelihood of obtaining future alumni donations from their current students.

Universities Behaving Badly: The Impact of Athletic Malfeasance on Student Quality and Enrollment

National accolades and positive media attention are frequently lavished upon successful collegiate sports programs. Correspondingly, studies have demonstrated that universities often benefit from the achievements of their athletic teams by increasing the schools’ application numbers, student quality, and alumni donations. This study demonstrates that the opposite effect occurs when a university’s sports team is accused of engaging in impropriety. Our findings suggest that the negative attention given to the National Collegiate Athletic Association postseason tournament ban of a men’s basketball program could serve as a signal to prospective students regarding the quality of the institution. This perception ultimately leads to a decrease in the infracting university’s enrollment the year before the ban that then rebounds the year after the ban. However, the ban reduces the percentage of high-achieving students who choose to attend the university after the ban has been implemented.

Alumni Giving and Social Exchange

Fundraising efforts at institutions of higher education continue to be a top priority, especially as funding from state governments decline. Public institutions have been looking to private institutions, as they are believed to have been leading the way in cultivating alumni donations since their inception. Higher education institutions must understand what determines the greatest alumni giving if the field is to improve their fundraising efforts, and student and alumni engagement is a key indicator of philanthropic gifts. A survey was administered to gather important insight into the giving behavior of alumni of an engineering department at a large research university located in the Midwestern area of the United States. The purpose of this survey is to understand the correlation between alumni giving and engagement while a student and as alumni.