National Chair, Union College Annual Fund
Have you ever wondered, as I have, if you can continue your present level of support for your favorite causes, given the impact of the economy on your finances? A classmate told me he could no longer give to Union because there were “other, more urgent causes,” leading me to question if I should cut back on my gift to Union, so that I could maintain my level of giving to my “other, more urgent causes.”
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is one of my other causes. In 1969, my son was successfully treated there, so I want to continue my present level of support for Sloan Kettering. Applying the more urgent cause criteria to the other groups I support might seem a relatively easy way to allocate my reduced giving budget, and would leave Union at the end of the list. But my problem is not that easily solved.
When my son's cancer was discovered, I called a classmate, Paul Carbone, who was the top cancer specialist at the National Institute for Health. Paul recommended Sloan Kettering, and the surgeon to use; he helped us to get admitted, and in the weeks that followed, gave me information, advice and reassurance. Years later, I saw him on a PBS special, lecturing to a group of doctors. After retiring, he went to the University of Wisconsin to head up cancer research. He died a year ago while setting up an oncology program in Singapore.
Paul was able to help me, and thousands of others, because alumni back in the forties and fifties gave Union the resources to educate him. The investment they made in Union resulted in a high rate of return to the many people whose lives Paul touched.
I'm sure that, whatever your profession, you, like Paul, have used your Union education to help make the world a better place. The training you received at Union came about, in part, because of gifts from alumni before you – gifts that subsidized tuition, and provided financial aid, learning resources, and talented faculty. I'm certain those alumni who invested in you back then got an extraordinarily high return on their investment.
By investing in students now at Union, you can enjoy that same high R.O.I. You can provide them with that unique Union experience you got, so they can go out and make a difference to others.
Your gift does other things, too. It helps improve Union's chances to win grants from corporations and foundations, which use Alumni Giving Rate as a criteria. Your support also raises our overall ranking among colleges, as determined annually by U.S. News and World Report. How? Alumni Giving and Financial Resources are two of nine factors used to determine overall ranking. We are currently ranked 38th overall, on a list of 217 colleges; but that ranking could be improved if we were not 48th in Alumni Giving and 58th in Financial Resources. Your support will help Union improve those two criteria, and result in our overall ranking being nearer to the top, where it belongs.
Back to the giving dilemma I described earlier. At Homecoming, I spoke with an alumna of a class of the 90s, whose name I unfortunately cannot recall, but if she reads this, I hope she will contact me, so I may thank her personally.
She was in an entry-level job, and on a tight budget, and each month after writing checks for expenses, she would experience a block to writing a check for a contribution. Here's how she got around it. She had been stopping at a Dunkin' Donuts drive-thru each morning for coffee on her way to work, so she began the practice of tossing an amount equal to the price of that coffee into the glove compartment of her car each Friday. Periodically, she cleans out the glove compartment, and once a year, writes a check to Union for the $50 she has accumulated. I tried it; it really works!
If you are currently a supporter of educating students at Union-thank you. Your investment is yielding big dividends. If you have not yet made your investment in students, please join us. Your gift will bring you the highest R.O.I. you can ever make.
Thank you, and best wishes for 2003.
Check your class's Minerva's FootRace standing at www.union.edu/Alumni/Volunteering/AnnualFund.html