White Picket College

Universities don’t seem to know the fine line between endowing v. stalking these days.

I mean, the evening calls, the unnecessary waste of paper due to constant letters, the emails that now are set to my Spam box – all begging for money.  Come on people, can’t you be more creative than that?

Here are a few examples.

My Alma mater decided to make video diaries of co-eds’ lives and mass email them to all its alumni.  I looked at one video and moved the email to the trash.

Why?

Because this girl looked fine, the college looked fine, the grounds of the college looked fine.  Looked a lot better than I’m doing in this recession.

Example 2.  I was on a sports team during college.  Said sports team has now decided to stalk me and my cell phone for funds for their spring break training trip.  Do I answer the phone?  Nope.

Oh and BTW, why are you asking for money a week away from spring break? Should’ve planned earlier . . .

Those were examples of stalking.

Here are some examples of endowing.

My Alma mater for my Master’s wanted me to take a survey.  They asked online and I hit DELETE.  Then they got ingenuous . . . those sly devils sent me a letter . . .  a letter with money in it!

Yes, a beautiful crisp American dollar bill that was all mine.

Well, it’s only a dollar you say.  But there was a guilt factor involved.  After all, they sent me a dollar so I can spare 5 minutes and take this survey, right? $1 for five minutes is a decent payout – that’s $12 per hour for answering a quick survey.  Who doesn’t love that?  (And it’s above minimum wage!)

Now that’s not exactly endowing.  But the lesson is this:

Think of creative solutions to get money from your alumni, colleges!

Ever heard the saying in business, “you have to spend a little money to make money?”  That applies here too.

Instead, why not print a bunch of t-shirts for super cheap with the college logo on them and send them out to alumni?  Yes, you are spending money, but I have a feeling graduates may feel more inclined to give.

So, colleges, think up your own creative solutions that will encourage your alumni to give, give and give more!

These are hard times . . . which is why creativity is necessary to succeed . . . hey. . . wait . . . don’t they teach you that in college?

~ Please take a look at our article entitled: How Endowed Are You?

© White Picket College, 2010 – College Funding for the Upper Middle Class