Alumni giving to elite private colleges and universities

This paper examines patterns of alumni giving, using data on two cohorts of former students from a sample of private colleges and universities. Higher levels of contributions are associated with higher income, whether or not the person graduated from the institution where he or she first attended college, and the degree of satisfaction with his or her undergraduate experience. Their satisfaction in turn was a function of particular aspects of that experience, including whether there was someone who took a special interest when he or she was enrolled there. Among the more recent cohort of graduates, those who had received need-based aid tended to give less and those who were related to former alumni tended to give more. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Duke Scholars

Author Charles T. Clotfelter Sanford School of Public Policy