The tighter purse strings of alumni could cause problems for local areas and universities, which have a close eye on donation numbers entering the year’s prime giving season.
Around the area, those in charge of developing alumni donations said their approach had to involve more than an envelope in the mail asking for gifts from onetime students.
“There’s got to be a different kind of value proposition then there was in the past; people have to feel connected to the institution,” said Greg Simmons, interim vice president of institutional advancement at University of Maryland Baltimore County.
Simmons said alumni gifts are down about $10,000 from last year, though the number of alumni giving has increased. UMBC usually sees about 5 percent of alumni make a donation, he said.
In tough times, most donors maintain the amounts they give to individual organizations, but trim their overall list they support, said Steve Close, vice president of university advancement at Stevenson University.
“What you find is people narrow the number of institutions they support. A lot of nonprofits have to make the case about why they should continue to receive support,” Close said.
Universities around the country have benefited from a spate of major gifts in recent years and built their annual funds with smaller individual donations, said Anirban Basu, president and chief executive officer of the Baltimore-based Sage Policy Group.
“Unfortunately, given the massive loss of wealth, particularly among the rich, who have the most to lose, it’s likely there will not be as many massive gifts as before,” Basu said. “And it’s quite possible the smaller gifts will become even smaller.”
Colleges and universities around Baltimore said they’ve emphasized building a relationship with alumni.
In the current financial crisis, that’s extended to offering career services to past students facing layoffs or job changes, said Dena Ebert, director of annual giving at Loyola College.
A decline in giving could affect current students, who may have to compete for fewer scholarship dollars.
“Many students that didn’t need financial aid in the 2008-2009 school year will need it next year,” Ebert said.
