With many people tightening their budgets during tough economic times, colleges are bracing for the possibility of fewer donations.

Northeast Florida schools haven’t seen big decreases yet, but many said raising funds has become more complicated in some ways.

Institutions are still receiving the large pledges, but some said it’s now taking more time and work to actually receive the funds. Smaller donations have decreased slightly, and state matching funds have been delayed for public universities.

Financial experts have told The Chronicle of Higher Education charitable giving to colleges will drop in 2008.

It’s still too early to call it a trend, but officials are preparing for economic shifts.

“With the price of gas rising so much, it certainly could affect how much the average person gives,” said Pierre Allaire, vice president for institutional advancement at the University of North Florida.

Allaire said wealthy donors aren’t as affected when it comes to giving, but the smaller $100 to $1,000 checks, such as those from alumni, could be delayed.

Full article on Jacksonville.com

What are alumni magazines for? I always thought they were just a fund-raising tool posing as publications. After all, Grove City College sends mine along with donation requests, even though I dropped out a semester early to work for Gawker Media (which means I have a good twenty years to pay off my college loans before I think about handing over more money voluntarily). But the New York Times says their most important role is “dormitory common rooms for grown-ups.” And now Facebook is replacing alumni magazines as the gathering place for graduates (and drop-outs!).

Makes sense to me; I never thought of writing into GCC’s alumni mag to report on my career, but I’ll update my job title on Facebook and I do have all my college friends there. What about people who graduated before Facebook? Are you switching your social life to the site? Did you ever use your alumni mag for that sort of thing?

Full article on Gawker

By CATE DOTY

Published: June 2, 2008

Most people read their college alumni magazines for the class notes, immediately flipping to the back to see who was married, had a baby or was promoted to an envy-inducing job.  The columns tend to be meatiest at this time of year — class reunion season.

<< Robert Viccellio, the editor of the University of Virginia alumni magazine, which has started a channel on YouTube with videos evoking the spirit of the campus.

The advent of social networking on the Internet has created a quandary for these magazines, which want to maintain a conversation with alumni but have been slow to embrace the Web. Most schools have set up password-protected sites where graduates can change their contact information, drop a class note or donate money.But younger alumni, accustomed to second-by-second updates from friends and classmates, are exchanging information in real time on Facebook and MySpace. Why wait for your alma mater to churn out a quarterly journal when you can Twitter all day?

Full article on The New York Times

Recently I have been getting calls from schools telling me they have received a letter from an “alumnus” about a new “alumni web-site”. The funny thing is that all these letters are from the same person!

This is a fraud you may have been exposed to. Perhaps you or one of your staff received the letter about a new “alumni web-site”, possibly from someone named Kathy Harris, Sarah Benton, or Amy Harrison. This same exact letter has been sent to many schools across the country.

It’s now obvious these web sites were not created by alumni, but instead by a company named AlumniClass.com in Washington. It’s unfortunate they create these sites and pass them off as being built for you.

We suggest you review how your web site came to link to alumniclass.com, and perhaps remove it or replace it with something official.

The letter is as follows:

Dear Principal,

Hello. A few of us have gotten together and had an alumni web-site built for all alumni to use. This site will allow all alumni one central location to stay in touch without being spread all over many national alumni sites, plan reunions and have the privacy other services cannot provide. We would like to ask if you could put our site up under an alumni link for all alumni to find and use. This site will handle all reunion information and allow classmates to find each other and communicate. The site will be managed daily, so the school does not have to worry about uploading any details. Furthermore, we mention on the site, “this site has no association with the school or the school district.” Also, we will keep a clean site by approving all text and photos before anything is posted and will not have any ads or pop up banners appear. If you could put this link up it would be a great help to all alumni and classes planning reunions, plus benefit the school by us answering all reunion questions the school now receives.

Thank you for your time.

Kathy Harris
Kathyh4949@live.com

A second communication:

Subject: Please help for our reunion

Hello, I was wondering if you could please help out the alumni. We’ve received some inquiries that more people may be willing to attend a multi-class reunion, due to the raising cost in travel. There is a survey on the home page of our alumni site in regards to a multi class reunion. Can you please add the alumni link to the school’s website so more alumni respond? The link is:
http://www.alumniclass.com/. . .

Thanks so much for your help,
Sarah Benton

Continue reading →

Chicago Public Schools is launching the new Web site, www.CPSalumni.org, to connect an estimated three million people, who have attended or worked in Chicago Public Schools, with separate home pages for every school in CPS history. CPS is the first large urban public school district to organize its alumni in this way. Read the press release or article for more information.

By Network for Good: Apr 22, 2008

You’ve waited long enough. You’ve hidden under your desk and behind file folders for too long. It’s time to take the plunge.

It’s time to start raising money online.

Getting started with any new piece of your fundraising and marketing mix causes some growing pains, and maybe even some frustration. We’re pleased to offer this call to get you over the hump of indecision and intimidation about whether to begin raising funds online.

Read more . . .

Did you know that over 40 states require nonprofits conducting online fundraising campaigns to register with their state?  To learn more about state laws regarding charitable solicitations, please see the attached report written and researched at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

Known as the Charleston Principles, these Principles are offered as a guide to states as to when charities, and their fundraisers, fundraising counsel and commercial co-venturers may be required to register, or may be subject to enforcement action, and in what jurisdictions, with regard to charitable solicitations via the Internet.

 Read more . . .

More and more nonprofits are accepting donations, taking registrations or selling products through the internet. However, the sheer number and variety of available online payment tools can be overwhelming. An overview of online payment concepts and descriptions of the many options and tools available will help you start collecting credit card payments online. Read more . . .