to find it ODD that my old university thinks I have money to give IT ( not vice versa)

[SetSquare]

in its HUGE cmapus and masses of property...and sends me endless begging letters

Most unis are asset rich and cash poor

oh yes mine does too - for millions, although i often tell them that i can't spare more than a couple of hundred thou, then i think they should be looking at longer term sustainability and better business planing and i think they should really increase the fees and if poor people can't go - tough

oh god i get them too.

er...no!

It is odd isnt it - I wonder how many takers they get?

Here's the deal

Universities are competing with each other globally. In order to develop and compete effectively (not just tread water), a huge level of investment is needed. Public funding as a proportion of income is dropping all the time. So other sources must be found.

Research funding is one.
Tuition fees is another.
Private philanthropic income is another.

Most big research universities get money from charitable trusts and from their graduates.

They will probably have a "no fundraising" flag on their database and will not ask you if you tell them not to.

I had a cold call like this and I gave them a tenner, the lovely girl was just so gushingly pathetically grateful, I got the impression most people just put the phone down.

I did reflect cynically that she probably earns more than I do.

UK norm is about 7 percent of grads give money to their Uni

Id almsot pay them not to

arf - that should be an option.

IME most people don't put the phone down.

We normally get about 10 slammers per 3000 calls (seriously)

Oh its letters here.

SetSquare we do get people who say 'I'll give you £100 then please take me off the list'

No prob sir

Are you ex-dir? They would prob phone you if they had your no.

Lol.
i have no ££ to spare. Make the students raise some money - they have enough time

We get loads of cash from student groups too. They are good at fundraising stuff.

I told ours that we would spending what cash we have on educating our own kids not anybody else's!

"I can't afford it" is THE most common Reason For Refusal

A few UK unis are in trouble now aren't they?

doggies, I do love a bit of capitalisation

I still get begging letters from DS1 & DD's universities becauses they only have their old home address.

They are 29 & 27 now and have never replied.
University just keep churning glossy mags out and I put them for recycling.

Thing is - there are plenty of grads who don't have kids

Plenty who have kids but £££ to spare on top of that

Your uni doesn't know that about you

They don't know who wants to give unless they ask. We know there is no point going after people for money if they have kids.

Having said that, plenty of folk with kids at uni etc still give a tenner a month or whatever

I get fundraising stuff from the college where I did my undergrad, which is enormously rich. However the fundraising materials are clearly not aimed at me - they are expensively printed brochures full of pictures of fat middle aged men with details of how many hundreds of thousands they have given - it is all about pandering to the egos of the donors (join this impressive roll of benefactors! etc) Which makes me very much doubt they'd be interested in my odd £20.
My view is that if they want to make more bursaries (as indeed they should) they can start by scraping the gold leaf of the drainpipes.

(The other two institutions where I have studied are much more deserving and I am happy to send them the odd small cheque because I am confident it will go to needy students.)

We find Parental addresses for folk who must be in there 40s and 50s

One of our students spoke to a lovely lady who was 85 and still getting her kids' magazines

She didn't tell us to stop because she liked reading it

I want to be on the £2.50 Ham Roll of honour

Mine too. I feel like saying until you put me in the alumni magazine in the 'OOh look what fab jobs they are doing now and you're not section' saying I am a sahm with 3 children you won't see a penny.

kathy that is interesting.

We are really trying to target our fundraising material properly.

I find it helps to make the brochures look as if they have been quite cheaply produced (which is easy, cos they have)

We give examples of donors who are giving small regular amounts - no point in just flaunting your biggest donors all over the place. As you suggest, it's alienating for most people.