Alumni giving is a major priority for any and all top liberal arts colleges. Not only is total alumni donation a major funding contributor to liberal arts colleges’ annual operational costs, but it has a 5% weight in U.S. News and World Report ranking. Specifically, Colorado College has seen a significant decrease, per annum, of alumni giving participation rates since 1995. This thesis aims to understand potential causes behind this decrease in participation rates by interacting directly with a specific alumni sample in order to understand their perception of this phenomenon. Through a phone interviewing methodology, informed by prior data collection and analysis of survey results/alumni characteristic, findings will suggest actionable ways in which to improve alumni connection to Colorado College in order to foster increase alumni giving participation rates.
Previous studies have attempted to draw conclusions on the impact athletic success has on annual giving. There has yet to be conclusive data on this topic. This study will attempt to build on previous research by including more athletic success variables in the model. This study includes data for football, men’s and women’s basketball at Division I and Division III institutions. A separate ordinary least squares regression model was used for each form of annual giving, which included alumni giving, board giving and athletic giving, to identify the determinants of each. The results found for each variable differs depending on the form of giving. Women’s athletic success had an influence on annual donations whereas men’s sports did not and this was the only consistent result across all models. Overall, the results indicate that athletic success does not seem to have a significant impact on annual donations.
