Young Alumni C(c)hallenges

The reality is that our young alumni give. Just not to us. They support many of the same causes that they did as students, many of the them continuing to volunteer time and effort in addition to dollars to causes that they became involved with while on your campus. What they don't do is give to you. For that matter many of them don't even consider it or for that matter consider you a charity. They have been trained from a very young age to view you (and everyone else like you) as a service provider. They have paid for a service, received the service and are ready to move on.

They don't send in gifts to Samsung after buying their first tv, or to motorola after paying for their phone so why should they send one to you?

There are places that have history to counter that view - nobody walk across an ivy stage without plenty of understanding of the philanthropic component of the institution. Even so, they struggle with a "what do you need my small $ for" response.

Ideally you catch their attention and educate them while they are applying to be on your campus and while they are a captive campus audience on why giving matters, what you do with the dollars raised (you do know, right?) and how they have benefited from the philanthropic largess of others.

Most likely you have tried and have reached some but missed many. So now what? This is where the big C in the title can be an invaluable approach. Identify something that your younger alumni and current students can and will care about - it may not be your priority but MUST be theirs. Find a donor willing to make a commitment of a substantial (we are talking institution changing) amount to that aspect of the experience if and only if, participation goals are met.

Market it. Sell it. Solicit volunteers, leverage them. Make sure that every single young alum knows about it. Hold them to achieving multi year goals of participation growth to generate the payments needed to make that donors support happen. Use Microsites, blogs, social media, social media giving tools, texting and text giving. This is a major undertaking over the course of years - 3 or 5 even.

You can use this approach to achieve cultural changes - include your current students - they will care the most as they are currently the most affected by the possibility of change.