As a young institution with a relatively modest endowment, Duke is always hoping its alumni stay happy—especially the folks in the Development Office.
The amount alumni give to the Duke Annual Fund and other restricted funds has grown steadily over the past six or seven years, but the percentage of alumni who participate has been inconsistent.
About 33 percent of Trinity College and Pratt School of Engineering graduates made monetary contributions to the annual funds of their respective schools during the last fiscal year. With gifts to restricted funds, athletics and other programs factored in, the overall alumni participation rate moves closer to 42 percent.
In Fiscal Year 2004, which began July 1, 2003 and ended June 30, 2004, alumni donated $10.8 million to the annual funds of Trinity and Pratt—a slight increase from the year before. The Duke Annual Fund tally reached $21.5 million overall last year, and the University is still pushing ahead, with $14 million of its projected $23 million already in the bank for FY 2005.
Annual Fund money is unrestricted, which means those funds are primarily used to further Duke’s academic mission and are directed to areas of greatest need—from faculty to financial aid to day-by-day operations. Restricted funds, however, are confined to specific endowments, scholarship programs or disciplines.
“Alumni choose to give or not give for a variety of reasons,” said Hank Woods, director of development for the Annual Fund. “Those who give have related that they feel a deep-seated obligation to support Duke because Duke provided them the foundation to succeed in life.”
For FY 2004, the Graduate School Annual Fund raised $15,707 with a 16 percent participation rate—a level consistent with income in academia.
“The reason graduate students don’t give as much as professional students is that Ph.D.s don’t make as much money as M.D.s or J.D.s,” said Charles Clotfelter, professor of public policy studies, economics and law.
The School of Medicine led the pack in terms of participation rate, succeeding in its “all-out” effort to reach a 40 percent giving rate as 41 percent of its medical degree alumni gave to their annual fund in 2004. These unrestricted donations totalled over $1 million, while alumni gave an additional $2.2 million to the medical schools’s restricted funds.
“Gifts are definitely up,” said Ann Horner, senior director of the Fund for DukeMed and director of the Davison Club. “The market has come up and evened out over the past three years, and we are seeing that in the amount of the gifts.”
At the School of Law, one-third of degree holders contributed to its annual fund last year. Law alumni contributed more than $1.9 million, but the school’s extensive building project pulled in direct funding that diverted money from its annual fund.
While FY 2005 has yet to conclude, Melissa Richey, director of the law school’s annual fund, hopes to increase participation to at least 33 percent. As of Feb. 25 the Duke Law Annual Fund had already raised more than $1.4 million, which is 78 percent of its $1.85 million goal.
The 2004 fiscal year was a time of transition for the development office at the Fuqua School of Business. Staff turnover and the inability to execute some of its strategic plans left Fuqua with a participation rate of 23.4 percent, down slightly from 24.2 percent in 2003.
“There are several issues at play with the business school—about a third of our alumni are international, and there isn’t a history of philanthropy,” said Jim Gudaitis, director of development and alumni information services at Fuqua, adding that executive M.B.A. programs and projects with global reach were also factors. “There isn’t necessarily an affinity to Duke itself and therefore no sustained giving.”
Nonetheless, the amount of alumni donations at Fuqua has been increasing at a steady clip of 9 percent each year for the past six to seven years. Gudaitis noted that the business school is currently 15 percent ahead of last year in terms of giving.
The Divinity School reported a participation rate of 32 percent and a giving total of over $500,000. The Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences declined to disclose its figures.
In breaking down donations to Duke, older alumni tend to be the most generous donors, while young alumni are a difficult constituency to raise funds from because they are often difficult to locate. Many Duke alumni pursue graduate and professional degrees, and thus, do not have the resources to support Duke during their continuing education.
“Because alumni giving is profoundly unequally distributed, the people at the top give much more than their proportionate share,” Clotfelter said.
Nevertheless, Woods emphasized that alumni support, no matter what the amount, is important. “Foundations and corporations do look at these figures on rates of giving when they’re deciding to make a grant to Duke,” Woods said. “These are typically dollars that support important research initiatives around campus.”
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