They came for Bich-Van Pham even before she had time to put on the black cap and gown and hide with her fellow graduates. The Office of University Development started soliciting money from the McCormick ’02 graduate before she could even call Northwestern her alma mater.
It’s no secret that Campaign Northwestern is over — and a bigger success than many expected, raising more than $1.5 billion. Now that it’s finished, NU will likely look to expand its efforts to reach out to young alumni, the most apathetic donors.
This should be an easy process. No one can deny the impact the five-year fundraising campaign has had for recent NU students. Both Kemper and Slivka Halls sprang from these funds. And the construction of Crowe Hall grouped various academic departments together, providing space along Sheridan Road for an expanded Multicultural Center, among other positive changes.
But even with the benefits we’ve reaped from donated money, most NU students aren’t realistically going to give financial contributions right after graduation. I’ll probably be one of them. Assuming I have a paycheck come June, most of my change will go toward paying off students loans.
NU realizes that this void in young alumni giving exists. The Development Office recently created a position specifically devoted to reaching out to students and young alumni, those who graduated fewer than 10 years ago.
David Nacol, Weinberg ’02, became assistant director of students and young alumni two months ago. He has since noticed that if young alumni give, they target their money at specific departments or programs, like athletics.
Pham said that she would be most likely to donate directly to the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, particularly to improvements for the chemical engineering laboratories.
If the school is looking for a new plug to appeal to younger alumni, who traditionally have the lowest giving rates, they should keep this trend in mind. They could form mini-campaigns directed toward individual schools, which would supplement larger campaigns. Representatives from each class could then vote on a cause to give the money to each year. This is especially focused at the School of Music, which badly needs more funds to improve the Music Administration Building and Regenstein Hall of Music.
Even I might be swayed by a sense of school identity. Two years ago I received a letter from the Medill School of Journalism asking me to contribute to an endowed chair for the National High School Institute’s journalism division. I read the letter, laughed that NU would ask me to donate money while I was still a sophomore, then tucked in the back of my head the thought of later giving to the program that first exposed me to NU.
Now when I do decide to donate, I’ll know where to direct my contribution.
