Staff stressing need for senior gift

By Matt Rupel

Recently, Santa Clara has been facing growing financial concerns, evidenced by tuition hikes and proposed unit caps. Corporate gifts and alumni donations are where the university normally bridges the gap between cost and earnings, but the amount of money the university has received in passing years has dropped.

Alumni donors have dropped in number by 12 percent over the past 10 years, from 27 percent in 2000 to 15 percent in 2010, according to an alumni participation chart from the Santa Clara Fund. The Santa Clara Fund is the chief program for supporting undergraduate scholarships, academic programs, immersion trips and study abroad opportunities.

By comparison, Gonzaga has a 22 percent rate of alumni participation.

This decrease in alumni donations has deeper concerns than just funding the university.

Alumni participation rates affect college rankings, which in turn affect the prestige of a degree and the value of a candidate to an employer.

Corporations and foundations also look at the rates when they choose to make large donations to the university.

High participation rates mean high student satisfaction -- companies like to contribute to schools where they know there is already high satisfaction.

This loss in funding can mainly be attributed to the current state of the economy.

"What we've seen in recent years is a recession in the economy," said Mike Wallace, the director of the Santa Clara Fund.

Wallace said that with less money available, people have been resistant to donating to the university.

To combat both the loss of financial resources and the lack of student awareness of the university's financial needs, the Santa Clara Fund has launched a program called the Senior Gift.

Initiated last year, the program looks to create a brand new generation of donors by educating seniors on the importance of giving back to the university. Senior Gift is asking the Class of 2010 to consider making a monetary gift to Santa Clara as they approach graduation day.

The gift can be any size and can be designated to any department, scholarship or team.

As the Senior Gift Web site describes, tuition and fees only cover 75 percent of what it actually costs to attend. The other 25 percent is made up by donations from parents, friends, faculty, staff and the senior class.

"Years past, senior participation has been two percent," said Jimmy Shoven, an assistant director of the Santa Clara Fund and head of the Senior Gift.

"This year, outwardly, we'd like to say 100 percent, but we'd be happy even with just 30 percent," he said.

The Senior Gift campaign is stressing that it isn't really about how much money a student gives, it's about increasing participation.

"It doesn't really matter if you give $100 or $5. What matters is giving anything," said Shoven.

Not only will small donations from a large number of students help to boost participation numbers for the university, but also two donors have agreed to do a match donation for the campaign -- although it won't be dollar for dollar.

Instead, they will donate $1,000 for each percent of the senior class that donates to the student gift.

"That means that for every 12 students that donate, $1,000 is raised on top of their donation," said Shoven.

According to Shoven, one prevailing notion that the Senior Gift campaign is trying to defeat is the idea that since Santa Clara is a private university with a high tuition cost, the school is not in need of money.

"I think that there's a little bit of a perception at Santa Clara among the students, and the alumni as well, that there's a huge amount of wealth at the university," said Shoven. "I think the biggest thing we can do is educate the students about where that money can go."

Even University President Michael Engh, S.J., and Student Body President Sean Brachvogel mentioned the decline in alumni donations in the State of the University address at the end of February.

Both mentioned it as one of the biggest problems that is plaguing the university. In both of their speeches, Engh and Brachvogel encouraged students and faculty in attendance to keep the university in mind and donate anything they could.

Said Shoven: "Think of it like buying the university a coffee. They've been here for four years."

Contact Matt Rupel at mrupel@scu.edu or (408) 554-4546.