Discussion 8

Alexandra Lowden

Milestone 3

Southern New Hampshire University

7/14/19

Binchley College is a private college that is nestled into Virginia’s coast-line. Currently, the Office of Alumni Affairs at Binchley is participating in a program evaluation to determine why pledge rates from alumni is going down and how it can be improved to reach the target of a 6% increase in pledge rate. It is important that the pledge rate reverses its current trend because Binchley, being a private school, relies so heavily on donations from alumni to operate.

Indicators that necessitate change

The data shows that Binchley College’s pledge rate was decreasing from 2011 to 2013. Donors were broken down into categories; faculty, staff, leadership, alumni under 30, alumni 30-55, and alumni 55 and over. Of these 6 categories, 4 saw a significant decrease in pledge and fulfillment rate with alumni 55 and over showing the largest decrease from 29.1% to 16.3% (see table 1) In 2013, when pledge rate was at 16.3% for the 55 and older cohort the average donation made by that group was close to 1100 dollars. By 2015 the average donation continued to drop for the 55 and older group to just under 500 dollars. (See table 2) An interview with the Director of Alumni Affairs, Tom Fitzgerald, revealed that is was believed that this age group saw the largest drop in pledge rate because many members from this age group are passing away, are entering retirement and are living on fixed incomes, facing illness, and helping fund their grand children’s education.

Average donations for each major from 2013-2015 are largely sporadic and inconsistent with donations increasing and decreasing randomly from year to year. Out of the 13 majors offered at Binchley College, only alumni from 2 majors (history and native American studies) showed a consistent increase in donation. (See Table 3) The increase in Native American Studies average donation is probably because of the pilot program for Native American Studies Alumni. This program invited alumni back to the school once a year to participate in archeological dig weekend. This weekend allows alumni to get involved with projects the school is currently working on and provides opportunity for alumni to get together. This program also is accompanied with a running blog that keeps the alumni informed about the current digs and projects through out the year.

An interview with the Assistant Director of Alumni Affairs reveals that despite the positive growth in pledge rate and average donation among the alumni from Native American Studies funds have not been reallocated to create similar programs for other majors. Currently, most of the budget of the Office of Alumni Affairs to directed towards the alumni who are 55 and older despite the drastic decrease in donation rate for this cohort. This is concerning because the programs being implemented for the 55 and older group are proving to be highly ineffective and need to be changed.

While the Office of Alumni Affairs is able to produce quantitative data for the years between 2011 and 2015 there is a significant lack in qualitative data. Qualitative data is necessary for learning the whole picture as to why some groups are increasing their donations and why some are decreasing. The information from Tim Fitzgerald about why the alumni 55 and older are decreasing their contributions was an assumption. If the Office of Alumni Affairs would conduct surveys or interviews of alumni who recently decreased their donations or increased their donations it is safe to say that pertinent information would come out of these interviews that would be vital to making necessary changes in programs in order to increase fulfillment rate and pledge rate.

Continuous program improvement

The Office of Alumni Affairs needs to seriously consider reallocating their budget to better meet their program targets. Currently, a large portion of funds are being funneled into the 55 and older age group leaving little left for more effective programs, like the Native American Studies pilot program. It would be smart to consider creating programs like the Native American Studies program for graduates of other degrees, like Anthropology and Marine Ecology. Anthropology and Marine Ecology are Binchley’s second and third largest major behind Native American Studies. If the Office of Alumni Affairs could focus more of their resources towards major directed programs to influence donations it would be more effective.

The Office of Alumni Affairs should start conducting more thorough evaluations. This includes gathering more qualitative data from their alumni. Surveys are a great quick way to gather qualitative data from the alumni and they can be offered to alumni on a voluntary basis at alumni dinners, sporting events, and major specific events that are hosted. Qualitative data would be useful for providing insight as to why some alumni are choosing to donate less, more, or choosing to start or stop donating all together. I also suggest that the Office of Alumni Affairs should keep a more up to date record of which alumni are living, retired, or passed away. It is possible that some of the numbers, especially for the community who is of 55 years or older, maybe skewed because of deaths. A person should not be counted towards the data if they are deceased and not capable of donating.

Appendix 1

Table 1

Rates of Pledges by Donor Category 2011-2013