Six Dimensions of Donor Motivation: Alumni Duty

Alumni duty is the fourth of the six measures that best predicted attitudes and behaviors in our donor motivation research model.

The alumni duty dimension examines the degree to which graduates felt that financially supporting their institutions:

• Is necessary to provide a comparable educational experience to that experienced by the respondent
• Is necessary in terms of maintaining the quality of faculty
• Should be expected of alumni
• Was something they did because their own experience was enhanced by donations from prior alumni

 
The alumni duty dimension is very important to consider in terms of communications strategy, especially considering the fact that the current national dialogue related to higher education focuses heavily on the need to provide an education of exceptional quality without simultaneously creating excessive financial burdens for families or graduates. In fact, potential donors often cite outstanding student loan debt as a major reason why they are presently unable or unwilling to donate. Therefore, it is crucial when crafting messages to:

• Highlight how donations make institutions a better value proposition: better programs, better faculty, a better experience. Discuss how this has been the case in the past, how it is pertinent now, and how it will remain the case in the future
• Include stories of students who have benefited from specific scholarships and/or individual donors as well as descriptions of those scholarships and donors
• Include statistics pertaining to the benefits that accrue to individuals and society from higher educational attainment (better health outcomes, higher income over time, etc.)