More on Hoya Bands

[RedSockedHoya]

DFW, et al: I thought the Hoya Bands were such a great idea that I sent an email to the founder. I had an idea to make this even more beneficial to Gtown, and I was hoping to brainstorm it with all you posters - I know some of you are well connected and might have some good contacts and ideas. Here goes:

One of the factors of the US News Best National University rankings, which we all know is teetering on dropping Gtown the top 25, is based on alumni giving. Is there any way to make it so that every alumni sale of these bands is listed as an alumni donation? With some semantic changes, I think Hoya Bands could get together with the school and work it so that when an alum buys a band, it's a donation to the school (since the profits are donated to the school anyway). Assuming sales continue, this would boost alumni giving rate since the US News ranking for alumni giving is based not on the number of dollars people give, rather the number and % of alumni who give. Fr. Hentz encourages his students to give just $5 or $10 a year if that's all they can afford, just so it'll help that stat. With a little help from the Alumni Association, this could be a truly helpful plan if they would work to help promote it.

Do you guys think that is feasible? How can we make it a reality if it is?

The founder of Hoya Bands, Tamiz Ahmed, agreed that I should post this here and we could brain storm the idea. I'll post it to the main page too. If anyone wants to write directly to Tamiz instead, his email is:
[e-mail]

[LBPop]

Slightly off topic, but why is it that Georgetown Alumni/Alumnae don't contribute? I'm new to the Hilltop community and I've met a lot of former students who loved and still love the place. Sometimes it's simply that nobody is asking properly...is that it?

[WilsonBlvdHoya]

I think there's a bit of a misconception among students on campus that alums don't support as they should. The giving rate is about 33%, which according to USNWR , puts GU at #18 among national universities. Should that rate be higher, say around the 40% that Penn posts and the 48% (!) which ND achieves? Absolutely. I also get the sense that more recent classes participate at far higher rates (but obviously not at levels of giving) to compensate for lower rates among classes with many more years away from the Hilltop.

Now the LEVEL of giving is another issue and one in which the student perceptions might be more on target! But that's a different discussion, especially in light of the historic reluctance of SJs at GU to raise funds heavily/professionally until the 80s and of the recent completion of a $1B Capital Campaign. I understand that a new campaign with a multiple of that prior target will be initiated (not soon enough, IMHO).

[DFW HOYA]

Guest-RedSockedHoya said:

Is there any way to make it so that every alumni sale of these bands is listed as an alumni donation?

Like anything with Georgetown, it is possible, but expect the bureaucracy to get in the way.

The main hurdle to cross is having the right information on each alumnus and submit the gifts individually, where they can be credited appropriately. At a minimum, you will need the alumnus' name, school (SFS, College, etc.) and grad year.

The Gift Records department may want an address but that's a lot to expect out of each order and may invite privacy complaints. So it might be worth a call (or two) to OAUR to ask:

1)Will they accept gifts sent in with different alumni names and will they be recorded correctly, or
2) If you make a gift "in honor" of 2, 3 or more people, can they be credited to those alumni and their class?

If so, you may be on to something.

[SFHoya99]

WilsonBlvdHoya said:

I think there's a bit of a misconception among students on campus that alums don't support as they should. The giving rate is about 33%, which according to USNWR , puts GU at #18 among national universities. Should that rate be higher, say around the 40% that Penn posts and the 48% (!) which ND achieves? Absolutely. I also get the sense that more recent classes participate at far higher rates (but obviously not at levels of giving) to compensate for lower rates among classes with many more years away from the Hilltop.

Now the LEVEL of giving is another issue and one in which the student perceptions might be more on target! But that's a different discussion, especially in light of the historic reluctance of SJs at GU to raise funds heavily/professionally until the 80s and of the recent completion of a $1B Capital Campaign. I understand that a new campaign with a multiple of that prior target will be initiated (not soon enough, IMHO).

Recent classes have been doing much better -- probably a better awareness of the issue. I know my class (99, obviously) set the giving record when we graduated and now has set the five year reunion record for %.