Alumni and alumnae

This proposed qualitative study examined the donor behavior of six Black American alumni from a predominantly white institution (PWI) associated with slavery. The site selected for this study was assigned the pseudonym Anonymous University, which enrolls approximately 46,000 students with 9% of total enrolled students identifying as Black or African American. Using critical race theory (CRT) as a theoretical framework and portraiture as a research design, the purpose of this study was to explore how Black American alumni perceive their undergraduate or graduate student experiences, examine what experiences helped form their racial identity during college at a PWI associated with slavery, and how those experiences influence their alumni giving. The findings indicate that while racial identity development had no influence on the donor behavior of Black American alumni from a PWI associated with slavery, student experiences were highly influential in this alumni population participating in alumni giving. This study offers recommendations to higher education administrators, student affairs and development offices to enhance Black student experiences and strategies to increase participation of Black American alumni giving.

Helping through acts of philanthropy is a cultural norm in the United States. People of all generations give to a variety of causes, including their alma maters. Research shows that millennials had positive experiences at their institutions and want to stay engaged. However, they are more likely to donate to their favorite cause than their alma mater. This study investigates what motivates the millennial generation to give to their undergraduate alma mater. Building on existing work targeted at giving, it asks: To what extent does personal experience affect millennials giving to their alma mater before graduation, during the process of graduation, and after graduation?
Based on the review of literature on generational giving, and the theory of planned behavior, a survey was distributed targeting millennials who met the following two criteria: 1) born between 1980–2000, and 2) graduated with an undergraduate degree
between 2005 and 2015. A secondary analysis of data was employed to correlate the findings from the close-ended survey and examine the giving trends among millennials and how those trends vary among the other three giving generations: mature/silents, baby boomers, and Generation X.

This study operationalized Bekkers and Wiepking's (2007, 2011) eight theoretical mechanisms that drive private giving, examining them within the context of alumni donor behavior at a selected public university in the southern region of the United States. The purpose of the study was to determine if the theoretical mechanisms that drive private giving represent distinct psychometric dimensions, and whether they are correlated with one another or essentially independent. A survey with 24 original items was created for this study, and completed by 178 alumni association member donors and non-member donors from the selected university. The study found support for six factors that are relatively independent of one another, contributing meaningfully to the overall multidimensional construct. The found factors were labeled efficacy, solicitation, reputation, values, altruism, and awareness of need as they fit reasonably well according to their original names. No differences were found between the mean response scores for alumni association member donors and non-member donors across the six dimensions. These results are beneficial for university fundraisers, alumni relations professionals, researchers in the field of philanthropy, and methodologists interested in developing instruments that measure the motivations for private giving.