Radcliffe Funds Practices Altered

Radcliffe officials, responding to changes in their fundraising agreements with Harvard, said yesterday they have restructured money-making efforts in hopes of boosting alumni support.

So far, the program has proved successful for the newly restructured development office, as unrestricted alumni gifts have reached a new high this year, according to Radcliffe's fundraisers.

Figures released yesterday put the school's unrestricted alumnae donations at $1.13 million this year, while total giving for 1989 neared $9.4 million.

The endowment of the women's college was $84 million as of February, 1989, but Radcliffe officials said they must step up fundraising efforts if they are to continue expanding the school's scholarly programs.

The changes in fundraising--which include targeting graduates by class year and tailoring the fundraising pitch to the alumnae's specific experiences at the University--come three months after Harvard and Radcliffe dissolved their joint annual giving fund for post-1976 alumnae.

That policy shift marked the first change in the unprecedented 1977 "nonmerger merger" agreement between the two schools. Previously, the joint Harvard-Radcliffe Fund was the main fundraising vehicle for graduates--both male and female--who received degrees after 1976.

But according to Arlene T. Heiss, Radcliffe's director of annual and reunion giving, the school reorganized its joint fundraising efforts one year ago in anticipation of the joint fund's dissolution.

Heiss, who joined the Radcliffe team in June, 1988, said she "restructured[fundraising efforts] with the possible change inmind." But, she added, "it's too early to tell" ifthe reorganized Radcliffe Fund will increase theschool's money-raising potential.

In an interview earlier this fall, newRadcliffe President Linda S. Wilson said therestructured development office constituted "asignificant change" in the school's ability tofundraise effectively.

Wilson, formerly vice president for research atthe University of Michigan, is credited withincreasing support for the Midwestern school bymore than $100 million during her years there. Andmany observers said at the time of Wilson'sappointment this June that her fundraisingexperience would be an asset to Radcliffe'sdevelopment efforts.

The new approach to alumnae annual giving isbased on Radcliffe's changing relationship withHarvard over its history, Heiss said. Becausefundraisers can develop their approach to alumnaeaccording to the graduates' unique experience atthe school, the new method "is more effective,"Heiss said.

Alumni are divided into four "cohorts,"designated by various watershed events inRadcliffe's history with Harvard, Heiss said.

The first group consists of graduates before1944, when women began to attend classes with men;the second begins in 1944 and ends in 1962, theyear before women began receiving jointHarvard-Radcliffe diplomas. The third groupconsists of women who graduated between 1963 and1975, when quotas on women students wereofficially removed, and the last group coversgraduates from 1976 to the present.

In addition, Radcliffe has expanded the reachof its fundraising efforts to include both maleand female post-1976 graduates