Senior Gift Raises Record Amount

Senior gift-giving rose to record levels this year, as just over 60% of the class of 1999 anted up for their alma mater.

In total, this year's senior gift fund totals $68,036--thousands more than 1996's record-breaking $53,000 figure and more than double last year's $23,573. Last year's participation rate was just over 33%.

This was the first year that all of the donations to the senior gift went to a scholarship fund named in honor of the class, and coordinators of the gift said this arrangement may have been one of the reasons for the increased participation.

"Seniors were so willing to support the scholarship fund because financial aid is something they benefit from and can relate to," said gift co-chair Ann E. Schneider '99.

All gifts to the fund were matched with equal donations from the financial aid challenge fund, which was created during Harvard's recent capital campaign.

And gift co-chair Jonathan C. Locker '99 said the matching system made the creation of a Class of 1999 scholarship more feasible.

"I think everybody liked the fact that it was based around a scholarship," Locker said. "We've been lucky--we were able to do it because some graduates were generous enough to match whatever we raised."

The funds raised will endow a scholarship that will go to one student each year, according to Dana Picardi, the associate director of the Harvard College Fund.

The Senior Gift fund--whose total value pales in comparison to many gifts the University receives, but serves to cultivate the habit of alumni giving--has come under fire from angry seniors in the past.

In 1996, seniors Megan L. Peimer '97 and Ezra W. Reese '97 established an "alternative" senior gift fund to protest the lack of tenured women on the faculty. Peimer and Reese asked seniors to withhold their donations from the University and to store them in a private escrow account instead until Harvard hired more women to tenured spots. The fund raised several thousand dollars overall.

But this year, there was no similar fund. And Locker said he did not believe the alternative fund has ever had a major impact on senior giving.

"I don't think it's ever been significant," he said.

Schneider said this year, the fund attracted widespread participation by enlisting more than 200 seniors in their efforts to personally solicit gifts from members of the class.

"With such a large group of enthusiastic people, it was possible to personally ask many students, which generally elicits a better response than solicitations over the phone or through the mail," she wrote in an e-mail message.

While senior gift fund literature emphasized the importance of any level of participation and had a minimum contribution level of just $10, it also recruited larger donors through a leadership gift committee. The committee solicited "leadership gifts" from wealthier students and offered perks, such as a New York City cocktail party, to those willing to give $250 or more.

Picardi said the directors of next year's fund are likely to set even loftier goals than this year's.

"Of course, next year we'll have to go for $65,000," she said.