Seniors gear up for Annual Giving

By Arielle Gorin princetonian staff writer

Ysa Rodriguez '05 spent an hour Tuesday night learning how to convince her friends to pay the University more money.

Rodriguez, who chairs the Annual Giving 2005 committee, is among 150 seniors kicking off the AG project this week. On Monday, the group had dinner with President Tilghman and alumni.

Student solicitors were trained to talk to other seniors about alumni giving. They have each picked 10 friends to talk to. The process will continue through graduation.

Preparing their classmates for the solicitations they will receive next year and educating them about alumni giving is the main purpose of the committee members' efforts, according to AG 2005 committee chair Shavonne Massey '05.

"Many [students] have big misconceptions [about alumni giving]," she said. "They think they shouldn't donate because Princeton already has so much money, or they think the money isn't going to help students. But if you actually hear the statistics about how the school operates, you realize that without alumni giving, Princeton would not be running."

The committee will also choose a night in April during which solicitors will visit all of the eating clubs. In addition, an AG booth will be a mandatory stop at senior checkout.

Massey stressed that solicitors will not be asking their classmates for money, but rather will be requesting pledges to be fulfilled next year.

"Our goal is to have 88 percent participation, which means 88 percent of the senior class pledges to give to the University the year after they graduate," she said, explaining that pledges can be small as $1. The committee's goal is for the Class of 2005 to collectively donate $100,000 over the next four years.

So far, the annual giving rate for first-year University alumni has been 70 percent compared to around 48 percent for Harvard and Yale, Massey said. The higher numbers are due in part to efforts such as AG 2005, she added.

During Tuesday night's training session, solicitors were taught how to approach fellow students and how to respond to common concerns and misconceptions.

"I've actually had some great conversations with people who ask really good questions," Rodriguez said. Many of the students she has approached are "really interested" in giving, while others are "adamantly opposed," she said.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

Solicitors respond to such concerns by highlighting the donations' many possible uses, Rodriguez said. She highlighted one of the best qualities of the fund to which the Class of 2005's donations will go to: its flexibility.

"Whereas you might have an alum giving to the squash team or other specific things, money from this fund can be used immediately and for any purpose," she said, citing hiring a star professor or funding freshman seminars as two of many *possible uses for the money.

Both Massey and Rodriguez said that approaching other students can be awkward at first, but quickly becomes more natural.

"The good thing is that we're not asking for money — that doesn't come until later," Rodriguez said. "[Giving a pledge] is more like a vote of confidence in the University. If 88 percent of students are happy enough to pledge to give money after graduating Princeton, we must be doing something right."