College Fundraising Unusual Gifts

College Fundraising Unusual Gifts

by Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

Too often we feel that we can only raise money from alumni or from people who have benefited from our organization.

In a recent issue of The Chronicle of Philanthropy, two recent major gifts stood out as unusual:

• A $29.4 million gift to Fresno State University College of Agricultural Sciences & Technology from the Jordan family of Hayward and Dublin, California. Two brothers, one in construction and the other in cattle ranching, made this gift. Neither attended Fresno State.
• $13.8 million to Taylor University in Upland, Indiana from Arthur Hodson a banker and farmer who made this bequest even though he attended Taylor but did not graduate.

I was recently talking to a group of community people about one of the university clients I am working with and a lady said: "I attended but am not an alumn because I didn't graduate." Another fellow said, I attended for one year but transferred to another client because I wanted to be a pharmicist and couldn't at our local university. Both are alumns but don't know it.

Be open in your alumni policies to welcome everyone who has been touched by your faculty and classes.

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