How much do you give to your college/grad school in donations?

[Anonymous]

Nothing.

[Anonymous]

I give $1-3k/year to my undergrad and grad schools each. In the case of my undergrad, the money goes directly to pay for a scholarship for a needy student (they select them, not me) for 4 years.

[Anonymous]

$500-$2500 for undergrad (higher amounts in reunion years). $350-$500 to grad school. While I am more indebted to my grad school since I was on financial aid and the degree allowed me to do very well financially, it is also the kind of place where my classmates are regularly donating $25k-100k or more so whether I do $500 or $1000 seems insignificant. I feel like my money has more of an impact at my undergrad college.

[Anonymous]

ZERO.

I already paid them for the service they provided.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$500-$2500 for undergrad (higher amounts in reunion years). $350-$500 to grad school. While I am more indebted to my grad school since I was on financial aid and the degree allowed me to do very well financially, it is also the kind of place where my classmates are regularly donating $25k-100k or more so whether I do $500 or $1000 seems insignificant. I feel like my money has more of an impact at my undergrad college.

I will add that my grad school has huge loyalty - the participation percent for my class has been in the 90% range the last couple of years and we graduated 20+ years ago. Somewhat unusual I guess given some of the responses on this thread.

[Anonymous]

What is the HHI of those donating in the thousands?? We make around $200k and nothing more than $100 seems right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ZERO.

I already paid them for the service they provided.

This. My school operates like a business, not acting much in the interests of its students, just making money, so they'll not see anything from me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the HHI of those donating in the thousands?? We make around $200k and nothing more than $100 seems right.

What percent of your HHI do you donate each year? (Not that all of it would go to your school…)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$0. It's a public institution and I pay taxes.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:$0. It's a public institution and I pay taxes.

State support of education is down to an average of about 15-20% in this country. Did you get scholarships/fellowships? Those were likely paid for with charitable dollars. Your education was supported by other people. Think about today's kids who will become the next generation of taxpayers. We all benefit when they do well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is that time of year and we are getting the calls from our undergrad/grad schools for donations. I fear that we may give a laughably low amount. I recently saw that my grad school class giving was almost $100k this year and we had a pretty small class. That means some people are giving thousands each. Do people really give hundreds/thousands of dollars each year? I liked my schools, but frankly they are not high on my charitable giving list. I am curious how much others give.

$1000 a year to my undergrad college (SLAC). I got a lot of financial aid, including grants, when I was a student. When I was in my 20's I would donate $50-100 a year but now I try not to give such small amounts to any charity--I think it just creates more paperwork for them and doesn't do a lot to actually help--I try to give at least $250, even though it means I support fewer organizations. (Except, I guess with colleges the % of alums who donate factors into some of the college rankings, so maybe its worth it to give small amounts for that reason.)

Nothing to my grad school, AKA The Extremely Wealthy University That Ate Washington DC And Doesn't Need Any More Money.

Small amounts do matter. The paperwork is minimal. You were right to give what you can.

[Anonymous]

I usually give $100 a year. Frankly, I don't think any of these institutions qualify as charitable institutions, but I do think they serve a purpose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I give $1000 to undergrad, DH gives nothing to his undergrad or graduate school - although I wish he would establish a giving relationship with his undergrad Ivy where his parents are active alums.

I don't think it will necessarily get our kids in if they want to go and are on the bubble, but I find that once you give at the $1000 or higher level, you get invited to better networking events.

I should add, I got a scholarship of $18k a year for 4 years that made the difference between me attending that school or going to a state school that was academically good but too big / not a good social fit. I contribute back to the fund for the scholarship I received. DH who gives $0 had parents who paid full tuition for his degrees and went to schools with much wealthier donors / larger endowments than mine.

[Anonymous]

We are about 16k into a 50k pledge.

[Anonymous]

I paid full tuition (well, my mom paid full tuition on a teacher's salary because she had a paid for tiny, cheap townhouse). I refuse to give them a penny.