“Our journey is just beginning,” President Jackson said when she discussed the Rensselaer endowment. While many of the initiatives of the Rensselaer Plan are in the works, the capital campaign was certainly among the first that the Institute embarked upon. It is an initiative that is largely dependent on the generosity of its alumni, unlike the others.
“We have our goals set in the Rensselaer Plan, but we need the capital to support it,” said David Haviland, vice president for institute advancement. The campaign in its entirety will take ten years and is generally achieved in three phases.
A question that has been repeatedly raised through previous town meetings is about the fact that Rensselaer alumni don’t donate to the Institute as much as other alumni donate to their colleges. Haviland described the observation as an “urban legend” and said “if you look at school with a similar history to ours, engineering school, traditionally man…we are on the same level of alumni giving back.”
According to US News & World Report rankings, only 24 percent of Rensselaer alumni give back to their Alma Mater. Comparatively, 36 percent give back to Lehigh University, 39 percent to California Institue of Technology, 41 percent to MIT, and 28 percent to Carnegie Mellon University; all institutions that compete with Rensslaer for the same students.
The first phase in which priorities are marshalled and organized was presented last year in the Rensselaer Plan. The second phase, know as the “quiet” phase, is where the Institute currently is, will take two to three years. At this phase no capital goal is announced, and gifts such as last March’s $360 million gift are rare. The third phase is where all of the previous phases and more details are announced to the public.
Currently the Institute is trying to raise as much capital as possible before a goal is set during the third phase. This is goal is usually very high,“but not impossible,” Haviland said. The private sector, personal and individual philanthropy, and corporations are all targets in this campaign. Alumni in all of these categories are vital to the success of the campaign.
The Institute also looks at programs that are supported by either government or corporate sectors support. However, “there are things that we want to do but not find support for,” Haviland said.
Junior Sarika Sachdeva, of the RenXchange, a program where students call alumni asking for donations, said that while many of the alumni she talks to give to the Institute, others simply don’t give because they did not have a good experience while they were students. Some of the alumni were “concerned that the money they were donating was not going to the right place,” said Sachdeva.
While many of the alumni give to specific projects or departments, most donations are unrestricted. Sachdeva said that most alumni want to know where their donations go. If the money not designated usually goes to one of three categories; expendables, capital, and the endowment, according to Haviland. Expendables include patron scholarship, financial aid, scholarship, fellowships, or some of the funding for athletic teams. Money that goes to capital is used for buildings, equipment, and research. However the endowment is the most important source “because it stays forever,” according to Haviland, but is the least funded. “Usually we raise more for projects than we raise for the endowment,” he said.
Since September 11 there has been a concern that the level of giving will decrease. The Institute offers programs for students and alumni to ensure their involvement in the future—alumni newsletter, and email for life services are among many such programs. “We want the alumni to be more aware and involved even after they leave,” said David Bohan, director of alumni relations. “It is a relationship that keeps the doors open, where alumni don’t necessarily have to give back,” he added.
While most of the focus might be on money and how to raise it, Haviland said that “It is for students that we raise the money. The more we raise the more we can help. At the end, what this place does is education.”
